The young man who announces that he intends to make writing his lifework is usually warned by his elders that literature is a gamble, with the odds against him. So perhaps it is with an eye to gaining practical experience in their chosen work that Harvard students have invented a gambling game based on a literature course.

Members of the class in comparative literature conducted by Professor Irving Babbitt have organized a lottery, the winning number of which is the total of authors mentioned in his lecture for the day. Tickets are sold at ten cents each, numbered up to 100. Even the higher numbers stand a chance of winning, for on Saturday, The CRIMSON reports, Professor Babbitt cited no less than seventy-three writers.

Since the game began, the professor has no doubt noted increased attention on the part of his class, though it is doubtful whether this means that the students are absorbing the complete drift of his remarks. Three students keep tally, but many holders of tickets probably check up on the counting. It is to be hoped that no Harvard man would be guilty of asking leading questions to bring the total nearer to his own number.

This Cambridge gambling seems to be patterned on the Harlem model which picks its winner by the Stock Exchange figures for the day. Various applications might be made by others who seek to relieve the tedium of daily duties. Commuters might bet on the time, of arrival of their train, stenographers on the number of letters written during the day, and librarians on the total of books issued. --New York Times.