Having been brought up with certain definite ideas of good and bad taste, I was perhaps somewhat unduly biased against this book from the start, a condition which tended to increase as I went on. It is another one of those stories, this time dealing with college life, in which the author sets out with virgin sword to slay the ogre of iniquity who has so long beset the world. Here he starts out by laying bare the sin and wickedness of our generation. I, being a more or less normal child of the said generation, have become to some degree weary of continually being sacrificed by youthful authors on their altars to Moloch--a state which turns to resentment when we poor boys are attacked instead of our sister "flappers." None of us are perfect, and I always have my doubts as to the efficaciousness of turning the searchlight of the sensation mongers upon our seamy sides.

Deals With Small College Life

The story itself deals with every phase of life in a small college. Unlike most of its predecessors, the veils of idealism with which college is customarily enshrouded, are torn aside. A voice from the distance seems to thunder, "Look, Here you see it as it really is." Conversations are reproduced, in so far as possible, as they actually occur. Slang, slip-shod phrases and smut--all are prevalent. The evils of fraternities and hazing are vividly depicted. Our low state of morals is exposed. Our drunken habits are paraded. I hesitate to contemplate our dances.

Certainly there is a good deal of truth back of all that is said, although in a large college, particularly when in a city, it applies to but a small extent. However I am not sophisticated enough to believe that life in any college is as bad as the author describes. A piece of writing--I almost said work of literature--is necessarily a criticism of life and as such must stress good and evil in the proportion in which they appear. In this book we are shown only the bad side, creating an impression which appears to be false.

Hero Succumbs to Many Temptations

The hero is a stalwart youth of the small college type and arrives as a Freshman with hopes and aspiration high. Through the succeeding years he is subjected to the many temptations around him, succumbing to each in turn, only to be resuced at the last moment by Dame Fortune wearing even more stalwart youth's trousers. His ideals vanish. His "false Gods" topple over. He comes to the conclusion that college has been a failure. A Pollyanna is needed and Professor Henley rises to the occasion. In a long and immature discourse he attempts to justify college, cynically declaring that although its graduates are pretty poor specimens of humanity, they are the best there are, and as such he has faith in them.

The attempt of the author to show the evil side of college life so that someone else may come along and remedy it, is, I think, laudable. However in the zeal for reality one must remember that even Truth has its place. One has only to read Swift's poem on a lady's dressing room to appreciate the extreme to which realism may be carried. Desirability will always remain a paramount condition. Our bad side is incidental and our faith in college should be great.

However the story makes excellent reading matter and can do no harm for any one to look through. It never hurts to be caricatured and incidentally may do a lot of good.