Never before have the educational institutions of the country been such a fertile source of comment for the daily press. What used to be the height of excitement--hazing, "paddling" and such things as student strikes--is now hardly worth mentioning. Something worse has happened, the entrance of corrupting woman. Cornell is in the midst of a struggle against its Amazons, while Amherst is worried over its quarrel with Smith. But worse still is the latest news from Cambridge: Harvard has been caught in the snares set by Radcliffe.
What have we done? Like Cornell we have succeeded in "estranging the Metropolitan press," for the "New York Tribune," shuddering (in its 100 percent virility) at the thought of afternoon teas at Harvard, indulges in an editorial entitled "Cherchez les Femmes." For it is logical to assume that woman is at the bottom of the push buttons, the jam and toast and all the luxuries provided by the Union. As good as its word the "Tribune" traces the source of the evil from the tinkling tea-cups to 10 Garden street, which, as we all know is only "two blocks from the heart of the campus"; and there the trail ends. Voila les Femmes!
What makes the "Tribune's" rude disclosure so embarrassing is that only a few weeks past word came from Cambridge in old England that in its opinion our Harvard-Radcliffe arrangement was perfect. How the firmest foundations crumble and totter in these cruel days! If we uttered a prayer not long ago that Cornell be saved for mankind from the inroads of ambitious women, we utter the same prayer for ourselves more fervently than over, now that our danger has been demonstrated to be so close and so real. To the pessimist there can be little hope; to the optimists, however, will occur the thought that the Union will become still more popular hereafter, if only with curious guests. And pessimist or optimist, each one of us remains in fear and trembling lest tomorrow's "Tribune" report that some evil has overtaken Princeton, or perhaps Yale.
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ELI AND PRINCETON CREWS WELL ADVANCED