CONCERNING YARD CONCERTS

Are there to be no Yard Concerts this year? There was a time when these informal performances by the musical clubs in the early summer evenings were each year expected as a matter of course, but last year it was only at President Eliot's suggestion that the clubs realized their incumbency to continue this excellent custom and then only one concert was given.

Nothing could do more to make pleasant the evening hours of the oppressive examination period than a little music in some partly secluded corner of the Yard. The clubs would enjoy it and as many listeners as cared to would have the opportunity of hearing their fellow musicians perform in an impromptu way which is very delightful. There was a time when these concerts were spoiled by too many visitors and even now the fence is broken by so many gaps that it would be almost impossible to exclude all callers. There are, however, two fairly secluded quadrangles--back of Sever and back of Hollis and Stoughton--where it would be possible to shut the doors to outsiders.

It is a shame to let such an excellent custom disappear, especially one in which there is so much to be gained and enjoyed by Harvard men. After all is said and done, there are times when most of us yearn just a little for a touch of that more compactly organized life of the small college--not by any means all of it--but the freer and a little more universal fellowship of those communities which have a different constitution from ours. And the Yard concerts would help to foster this.