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To the Editors of the Crimson:

I wish to protest against a practice which, during these base few days before the vacation seems to have a good many supporters, - I refer to the dodge of an absentee's getting some other man to represent him at lectures. The usual way seems to be that a man who wishes to go home before the vacation begins, asks some friend to sit in his seat at his lectures for him, so that he may not be marked absent. He then goes off, sometimes a week early, secure in the knowledge that his cuts cannot be detected. It is a neat and simple scheme, and seems to work very nicely, though it is rather hard on the poor fellow who has to go to double his usual number of lectures.

Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the scheme that blinds men to the fact that it is perfectly indefensible; yet the fact remains that the man who goes off and leaves his friend to represent him at lectures is cheating just as much as the man who cribs at the exams, and deserves as much censure. - Both get credit for doing what they do not do.

But setting aside the question of the right and wrong of it, I do not see how any man can ask a friend to substitute for him. It is well known that in such cases the Faculty considers that both men are cheating, and deals with both almost equally severely. It seems to me then, that a man who can ask a friend to run the risk of a severe censure from the authorities, simply that he himself may enjoy a few additional days of vacation, shows an almost inconceivable amount of selfishness.

Neither the absentee nor his substitute has any excuse for his action, and it is the duty of every man in college to see that this disgraceful practice is stamped out.