The result of the dual games with Yale last Saturday must be especially discouraging to the University because it was so unexpected. After defeating Pennsylvania the week before in a remarkably well-contested series of events, the track team went down to New Haven, as was generally thought, with an even chance of winning. As it turned out, about eight or ten men of the thirty or more who went down did what was expected of them in the games, while the rest, to say the least, fell below expectations. Now, without trying to apologize for the poor showing or make excuses of any kind, it behooves those who are interested in Harvard's athletic welfare to look into the causes of this poor showing.

The change from the excellent track on Holmes Field to the heavy, soft track at New Haven probably had something to do with it. Possibly, too, the trip down unsettled some of the men. But, after all, one who thinks the matter over is forced to conclude that the team as a whole was palpably overtrained. Not a single man equalled his performance of a week before against Pennsylvania, and all the men seemed spiritless and dead. Indeed, after the amount of work they have had, little more could be expected of them. After a long season of winter training with frequent indoor meetings, the class games and the 'Varsity games were run in April; then after a rest of less than a week during the vacation the men were made ready for the Pennsylvania games and, with their rest of two weeks before, were in good condition for that meeting. The condition in which the team was left to compete against Yale a week later is apparent; and unless some decided measures can be taken to better their condition in the next two weeks, the showing made in the Mott Haven games promises to be just as unworthy. We do not wish to take away from the credit of Yale's victory: the Yale team was far stronger than was expected and won the meeting on its merits. But the Harvard men, with two or three notable exceptions, could not have been anywhere near at their best, and this fact must be due to mismanagement in the training.

One of the plainest lessons to be learned from this affair is that one week is too short a time to come between such important meetings. Another is that some effective organization of the University is needed through which the students can express their opinion of such performances as the one under discussion, and through which they can ask for an explanation of some kind from the responsible persons. As it is, the Athletic Committee regulates the conduct of athletics merely in a kind of a general way: the actual management of the teams is in the hands of the captains and their coaches, who are not directly responsible to the students whom they represent. We believe that some such general organization would act as a kind of a safeguard against the mismanagement of athletics in the future.

Henry M. Howe '69 has been appointed professor of Metallurgy at Columbia College.

H. Ward 1900 won the finals in the Old Dorchester Club tennis tournament on Saturday, defeating E. R. Marvin '99, three sets to one.