With the first robin comes the first riot, and last night another one of those "almost but not quite" uprisings kicked off the 1961 season.
An hour and 15 minutes after Philip A. Stone '62 had proclaimed the flight of Latin to a "Novo Asylo--that's New Haven," a Cambridge policeman intoned a recessional "All a ya's get out a here."
"It looks like Castro's back in town," reflected one of the officer's colleagues who met the counter-revolutionaries when they invaded the Square. A plea from Leigh B. Trevor '56 in front of President Pusey's home, after the early "Latin al, Pusey no" phase had fizzled, forced the ensuing march down Mass. Ave. "What I said in effect was that this kind of behavior is beneath the dignity of the Harvard student," Trevor reminisced after his triumph. Nine years ago, Trevor participated in the now legendary Pogofor-President-riot. "Then I was on your side; now I am on the other side," he said while soliciting for Bursar's cards.
Meanwhile, Cambridge policemen were grabbing cards from Harvards who were thumping cars. A nearby cab driver said, "They'll be lucky to get diplomas," to which his woman passenger added: "They certainly don't deserve them--in any language. Why, half of them can't even speak English. All they've got is the money to come here."
One proctor who escaped arrest harked back to the Humpty-Dumpty riot of 1956 and the Fight Mental Health protests of 1958: "They were different. This crew will go off on a rampage." A more internationally-minded pedestrian observed, "Algiers was never like this."
Torches guttered, decorous demands were spurned. The only injury (a leg almost squished between two insolent chariots) was as crippling as the single egg yolk splattered on Mass. Ave. One freshman turned to run, but he was nabbed by an Argus-eyed research fellow.
Tomorrow, the senior class committee will send letters of protest to the alumni for additional support. Charles D. Ravenel '61 said that he would mail them to Alsop, Lippmann, and Kennedy, among others.
Commented President Pusey, "I was just sitting down to a quiet evening with Horace."
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A PRIORI'S WHEEZE