To the Editors of the Crimson:

In the discussion caused by the interruption of the last lecture in English 8 1, a point which has struck me as but little short of ludicrous is the seriousness with which the whole affair has been taken. I can imagine nothing more gratifying to those who played the trick than to see students and instructors gravely discussing the moral aspects of an affair, which, when the worst has been granted, is nothing but a "Freshman trick." When a newspaper in all solemnity declares that "the cheek of every true Harvard man should blush for shame" for such an occurrence, and that such conduct threatens the very existence of the lecture system of instruction, the affair becomes more comic than its perpetrators could possibly have hoped. When we are grave they call us stiff-necked and blase; when we come down to a perfectly harmless piece of folly they magnify it to an outrage and still call us children. Considering the character of the trick, I cannot imagine that it should have been conceived in any spirit but that of harmless fun-a spirit which seldom enough gets the better of our dignity. If an insult were intended to Professor Wendell surely something would have been done which would have left us in no doubt as to the intention. As to the insult to the class suggested by the writer in Wednesday's CRIMSON, I think the laughter at the time of the interruption to the lecture puts that well out of question. Granting that the trick was foolish, granting that it was, meaningless (which would remove the insult), granting that it was too bad to lose the lecture, it is still making a mountain of a mole hill to talk of "insults."

R. P. UTTER '98.