Lieutenant Robinson is not receiving anything like the support from the students that he had reason to expect. In 1874 when the University was comparatively small, the original Harvard Rifles had a membership at one time of 205. So far only about fifty men have joined the present company.

One of the conditions under which the United States government details an officer to give a course in military science here is that he also conduct drill. Obviously then if he can not make a success of the drill, the other course must be given up. It is hard to assign the exact reason for the lack of interest. There is, we know, a feeling with many men that the military company is a schoolboy institution and is more a thing to poke fun at than anything else. But it is not a "sign of freshness" for a man to join the Rifles. The training is most valuable and on the whole is as good a rest for a man who is hard at work on his courses as about any of the athletic sports.