The third number of the Advocate is the best. number of the year, al though this statement should not lead anyone to infer that all the articles are unusually good, for they are not. But, taken as a whole. this issue shows a decided improvement over the first two of this year.

The principal editorials deal with such topics of the hour as the tennis tournament, the foot ball eleven. an international boat race, the Boston Free University scheme, the relation of the preparatory school to the college and in addition discusses a comparatively fresh subject, - the establishment of a course in American literature in the English department. The Advocate thinks that if is not feasible to have a special course in American literature, it would be practicable to change English 8 and English 9 (now overcrowded with purely British authors) to full courses, and thus the English writers could not only be treated more thoroughly but the more important American authors could be included.

All the prose of the number could be classified under the general head of sketches, for there is scarcely a suggestion of a plot in the two articles which are avowedly fiction. "The Princess Barietinsky" approaches nearest of any of them to a story and is the most finished piece o prose of the number. The delineation of the character of the princess, a hypocritical Russian woman is the another's chief object and it is certainly well done. Her charming personality, the rapt admiration of Protopop off for her, and her detestable double dealing are vividly portrayed.

The background of the picture is laid on the Volga River the slight and bits of Eastem description which are thrown in here and there afford an excellent frame for the whole.

"A Little Old French Woman," is an admirable sketch of a bizarre old creature who on being raised to comparative affluence by a legacy of fifty thousand francs, founds an asylum for straw cats. The touches of character sketching are well laid on, although the idea of the thing as a whole is suggestive of T. B. Aldrich's translation from the French of "The Story of a Cat."

Considered as a story, "A Benevolent Murder" lacks climax; as a sketch, it is fairly excellent and shows some originality of treatment, although the concluding remark of the doctor is trite and out of place.

The another of "The Victim to Ball" is evidently a shrewd observer of student life at Cambridge and his short tale of the fate of a garish suit of clothes has a spontaneity of effort and an agreeable originality which might profitably be imparted to more of the Advocate stories. There are a number of Harvard men we have in our mind's eye who might profit by the moral of the tale.

"In the Kitchin" is a simple sketch of country life, although the pathos is rather forced.

The only verse of the number is a sonnet entitled "Twilight." Although it is has been the theme of a few poems during the past ten centuries, yet it is always pleasant to see new political light shed upon the darkness of the subject. There is a touch of originality here and there, the principal simile is felicitious and the diction is the whole, good - although we doubt whether birds sing "songs of jest."

The "College Kodaks" are only fair in this number, the first and the fourth being the best.