JOURNALISTIC PROPRIETY.

It is a popular belief that college ideals are higher than those of the great world outside, for they are less exposed to contact with its rougher aspects. So college journalism, which may be forgiven many mistakes in style and finish, should never be guilty of any least infringement on the laws of propriety. That any publication, issued at Harvard and circulated in the College, should go beyond the bounds which civilized society erects, is an offence not only to those now connected with the University, but also to all who have labored to build up its high standards.

We had hoped that the series of sensational colored sheets which has been issued this year and last by persons who withhold their names would die a natural death. We realize that to mention is to advertise them, and perhaps to encourage their further appearance. But this most recent issue has gone from the merely offensive to the rank indecent; the matter has now reached a point where suppression is a necessity. Such a sheet as appeared on Wednesday would be a disgrace to any community upon earth; it is doubly disgraceful in this place, where the baseness of the few has usually been restained by the good sense and high ideals of the many.

It is altogether natural that the persons who publish these sheets should wish to hide their identity. But it is by no means an impossibility to find the offenders, nor do we think that any amount of trouble should be spared in the attempt to do so. It is a matter which the Student Council or the administrative officers of the University should at once undertake. We believe that the persons responsible are members of the University; if so, expulsion would be the least severe punishment that could be indicted upon them.