Stamping at Memorial Hall.

To the Editors of the Crimson:

Will you permit me through your columns to call attention to a Harvard custom which seems to me more honored in the breach than in the observance. I allude to the stamping by the students in Memorial Hall upon the slightest provocation. This evening a lady and gentleman entered the gallery, and the latter, happening to have his hat on, was greeted by a loud burst of stamping almost before he had reached the top of the staircase. He at once left the gallery. A similar incident took place a day or two ago in the case of two elderly men. These people undoubtedly offended, not from design but from ignorance of our customs. To loudly stamp under such circumstances seems to me extremely discourteous and totally unworthy of Harvard men. The custom is, at best, a rather childish one and I fail to see any valid reason for its continuance.

GRADUATE.CAMBRIDGE, May 25, 1896.