Variety Marks Current Advocate

The current Advocate provides a bill of fare for all tastes. It aims, one imagines, to afford the greatest happiness to the greatest number of contributors; for it contains no less than sixteen items, most of them being very brief. Naturally the total effect is interesting, though rather hard to digest.

The editorial raises an important point about the responsibility of college graduates for the encouragement of a certain type of semi-professionalism in college athletics. Fortunately, the reports of the Chairman of the Athletic Committee lead us to believe that in recent years public opinion has improved in this respect.

Mr. Benjamin's slightly cynical little allegory, "A Vocational Trilogy," suggests that man has too much pride, or perhaps is too foolish, to admit failure, and will cheerfully repeat his mistakes. "The Crimson Stain," by Mr. Burman, is a grim and hardly a convincing story of a penitent grave-snatcher. The same writer returns to the charge with "The Doctor from Spain." This time he develops an entertaining tale of the adventure of a pretended doctor; after the denouement he seems rather uncertain how to end his story. Mr. Parson has allowed himself hardly enough room, in "Captain Kidd and Crew," in which to manipulate his theme; and within his single page he wastes several sentences in making comments that disclose, for the writer of a story that deals with boys, an elderly type of mind. A delicate problem of conflicting views of honor and duty is set forth in Mr. Carpenter's "The Greater Fear." The hero is forced by his fiancee to decide between apparent cowardice and, the author implies, certain brutality. Might there not have been a third way out, the reader is tempted to ask? Mr. Moyse discusses "the Episode Play" with greater sympathy than it usually finds at the hands of the critics; he insists that it is a genre distinct both from the ordinary drama and from the motion picture.

Mr. Allinson's "Life" is a whimsical bit of verse; how much more crisply a similar idea has been treated, he can easily discover by reading Rupert Brooke's "Heaven." "When the Dead Awaken," by Mr. Willcox, is commonplace. Mr. Leffingwell attempts a feat of compression in a "A Song of Resurrection," and leaves his reader in a somewhat confused state of mind. Mr. Sanger collects his impressions of "Iron Ore Mines," and expresses his views about "America's Mission" in something that appears to be akin to free verse. Both his impressions and his views are worth while; but they seem rather scattering in their present form. Mr. Clark has difficulty, apparently, in deciding whether to rhyme or not to rhyme. In "Lullaby" he effects a compromise; the result is not so successful as some of his work in freer form. "Loneliness," by Mr. Putnam, purposely lacks definiteness of outline; the setting and the mood are, however, well suggested. "Minstrel," an unsigned sonnet of considerable charm, is simple and, within its limits is satisfying. The number is brought to a conclusion by a sonnet sequence, "In a Time of National Doubt," by Mr. Norris. In spite of several prosy phrases, this work, ranging from the meditative to the stirring, is real poetry, and promises well for its writer.

One does not like to be hypercritical; but perhaps one may suggest that a little more care in editing this number might have removed several flaws in English,--a split infinitive, and awkwardly constructed sentences.