THE BONFIRE RIDICULED.

With ruthless sarcasm the writer of the communication printed this morning ridicules the idea of a bonfire as a part of the John Harvard anniversary celebration. With clear and concise logic he shows the folly of adapting a method of rejoicing over athletic victories to an occasion so sacred as the birth of our founder. We understand that some men may feel above such a childish display of animal spirits, but we scan the communication in vain to find an adequate alternative. True, the writer suggests that the Faculty should have planned academic ceremonies which would conform to the dignity of the anniversary, but this the Faculty refused to undertake. If they had, it would, indeed, have required a fertile imagination to devise a program which would have enlisted the support of the undergraduates. We can picture the entire University marching sedately to listen to serious orations and to solemn reflections upon the life of John Harvard. The atmosphere of reverent awe would be everywhere in evidence, but not the undergraduates.

We should remember that this is the anniversary of the birth, not the death, of the man who so generously endowed Harvard. Although our knowledge of the man is limited, we cannot but feel that he would prefer the presence of the young men who benefit by his endowment, rather than an atmosphere of sanctity from which heartiness is lacking. The bonfire may offend some, but we see nothing radically objectionable in it, and in the absence of a substitute which could secure equal participation we do not consider it entirely unfitting.