tive importance would you now place on study and on activities outside the curriculum (e. g., athletics, societies)," the almost universal answer is studies first of all, social associations second in importance, athletic third and societies last. Objection raised to athletics is that comparatively few are encouraged to participate, and "there was a pretty general feeling that general athletics should be developed more and less time given to university teams." If this is the sentiment of Yale graduates, in the face of the great success of Yale teams in every branch of athletic rivalry, it should be even more the sentiment of graduates of other colleges. On the question whether the discipline of the college now seems to have been too severe, there is an overwhelming opinion that if anything it was too lax.

These replies are especially interesting because of their uniform conservatism on all the questions submitted. The undergraduate is apt to chafe under discipline, to disparage Greek, to rail at enforced attendance at chapel, and to prefer optional and elective against prescribed studies. The mature view of "old grads," from the Yale replies, is in effect a vote of confidence in the superior judgment of the faculty and overseers, and general approval of conservative methods both of government and of instruction.

given one at a time, the student finishing up one study before beginning on another. Each student will be given individual instruction, and will spend as much time on one study as he may require. This will give him a chance to show his individuality, and is one of the greatest benefits to be derived from the system.

When the student completes the required work he will receive all the privileges of the degree at once, although he will have to wait until the regular commencement to receive it formally. When this system is applied to the whole college, it would be possible for a student to enter at any time. Old students may stop if necessary and re-enter at some future time.

It is thought that no more instructors. will be required under the new system than under the old. Though the idea is yet in the experimental stage, it has been so carefully studied out and planned that there is little doubt but that it will

prove a success. The scheme originated with Dean Raymond. If it proves this year that it is the best system to use, it will be extended to all of the Applied Science classes as fast as possible. If, however, there is any doubt, as to its practicability, the division started this year will be carried through the entire course and the decision made then. The new students seem to take quite readily to the idea; already the number of applications for the course exceeds the number decided upon for the experiment. Those who will take it will be chosen by lot. by lot. Educators and students, alike, are looking forward to the trial of this method with a good deal of interest, as its success may mean a great change in the system of instruction.

THE YOUNGEST COLLEGE MAN.

The freshman class of Tufts College has the distinction of having for a member the youngest collegian in the country, Norbert Wiener, aged 11 years. At the age of 18 months he learned his alphabet, and he began to read when he was but three years old. His precocious mind has so developed that when he reached his eighth year he was reading philosophy, and was acquainted with Hadley, Darwin, Ribot and Haeckel. The lad's father is Leo Wiener, a Russian, assistant professor of Slavonic languages at Harvard University, and who has been connected with that institution for almost 11 years. Norbert was born in Columbia, Me., Nov. 26, 1894.

Precocity has been marked in the childhood of many eminent men. Alexander Hamilton at twelve was left in charge of a colonial counting-house and at nineteen was a Revolutionary leader. John Stuart Mill read Greek at four. A remarkable case of early development was that of the son of John Evelyn, the diarist, who did not live to fulfil his promise. At two years and a half this child "pronounced English, Latin and French exactly and could perfectly read in those three languages." Before he died at five he "got by heart almost the entire vocabulary of Latin and French. primitives and words and had a strong passion for Greek." The early development of musical talent is a common phenomena among eminent composers.

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It is not difficult to "prepare" for college at eleven a precocious child. There are thousands of children who with private teaching could accomplish the feat. As children are commonly trained the forward ones are retarded by the average intelligence of large classes. They lose little by the experience if the leisure. from their light tasks is devoted to exercise and good reading.

Many educators agree that boys generally graduate from our colleges at too advanced an age. The great need now is to save two years by better high-school instruction or by permitting students to shorten the college course. Between young Weiner graduating at fifteen and the average bachelor of arts still facing his professional training at twenty-three there is a golden mean.

THE GIRL ATHLETE.

Year by year the girls of the country who attend college are paying more and more attention to athletic development. To be sure they are not progressing as fast in that line as the young men, and that is quite natural, but nevertheless they make very good records.

Possibly after eleven years of training the girl athlete has pretty nearly "struck her gait." If this is the fact it makes especially interesting a comparison of the scores of a leading woman's college with some of those set by young amateurs of the ruder sex:

50 yard run: men 54 seconds, women 7 1-10 seconds.

100 yard run: men 9 3-5 seconds, women 13 2-5 seconds.

Standing jump: men 11 ft. 4% inches, women 7 ft. 6 inches.

Running high jump: men 6 ft. 55% inches, women 4 ft. 3/4 inches.

Running broad jump: men 24 ft. 1134 inches, women 13 ft. 1 inch.

Throw baseball: men 381 ft., women 185 ft. 71⁄2 inches.

The difference is least in running, greatest in jumping and throwing. The woman champion put an 8-pound shot 22 feet 4 inches; the men's amateur record for putting the 16-pound shot is 48 feet 7 inches. The women's achievements about equal those of their halfgrown brothers.

But these figures are wholly mislead

ing as an indication of the real comparative strength of the sexes. Endurance is an important phase of strength, and in this women probably surpass men. Whymper tells of Alpine women porters who carry heavier burdens than men. Women succumb less easily than men to asphyxiation, to disease or wounds. Even in the athletic specialty of the stronger sex women do best in the sport which best combines vital endurance with muscular strength-long distance swimming.

The sex which is longer lived and more resistant to disease, wounds and infirmity need hardly envy the sex which makes showy "records."

PROSPERITY AND COLLEGES.

If there is any particular class or institution that can be especially for the blessings of general prosperity, it is the institution of learning, more notably the college. There are several ways in which such reap the benefits. One of them is the way in which the number of students is increased in each institution and another is the way in which these institutions are made the recipients of the bounties of prosperous times.

When the people of the country are doing well, it is the most natural thing in the world that they should apply at least a portion of their increased resources to the giving to their children a good education. Especially does this apply to the starting of the young folks along the lines of more liberal education, and the colleges, of course, find that there is an especially bright opening for them to increase the size of the student body. Those who closely watch the statistics of the higher institution have been ready to note the larger numbers beginning their college courses and the tide of prosperity has been in evidence for a sufficient length of time to make the effect felt even as far as the graduating classes of the present year.

While this condition is without a doubt a matter of much gratification to the colleges, there is another that gives encour

agement to those engaged in the work of education and makes them truly grateful for a season of prosperity. That is in the donation of handsome sums for endowment purposes, not to say anything of the smaller contributions that in aggregate mean a great deal to such institutions. The present commencement season has been especially prolific in announcements of splendid donations, wellto-do donors frequently signing their names to checks that extend well up into the tens of thousands and give a substantial lift. Some have conditioned their benefactions of large amount and upon the college bestirring itself and getting its friends to make up a similar amount in order to acquire the first offered amount. These have met with a ready response.

Another pleasing feature is the increased attention that the smaller colleges are receiving in the way of such assistance. For them it has been for the most part a very severe struggle, the larger and more expensive institutions naturally attracting the attention of the men of wealth who freely give to that form of education. It is well that the work being done by these smaller institutions, which might be supposed to have a difficult time holding their own among some of the more pretentious institutions, has been courting attention and marks of appreciation that the donations of large sums shows.

COLLEGE GIRLS AND MATRIMONY.

After considerable observation the East Window has come to the conclusion that the college woman marries as quickly as the woman who has not the advantage of a college training. When the right man comes along the woman will say yes whether she is a bachelor of arts or a housemaid. And she will make the better housemaid because she is a bachelor of arts. There are some educated women who are wedded to their profession-until the right man comes along. Then he is their profession. Marriages of convenience are made less frequently by college women because they do not

feel obliged to marry and escape poverty or dependence. But love marriages are made as often and it is only the love marriage that is worth the making.

Somebody gathered statistics relative to the graduates of a certain college in Columbia for young women. They were asked at graduation what they planned to be. Seven said teachers, three artists, one a lawyer and one a missionary. Ten of the twelve are married and have nineteen babies and there is hope for the other two. The girl who was going to be a missionary married first of all. May be that's what she meant.

If there is any girl who isn't going to college this year because she thinks college will interfere with her matrimonial chances she might as well change her plans and go to college. She will have a better chance to become a wife after she has been through college and will be a better wife.

HAZING WIPED OUT AT WEST POINT.

It will probably be as surprising as it will be gratifying to the people of this country to read the recent report of the visitors of the West Point Military Academy and the announcement it makes of the final disappearance from that institution of the practice of hazing. Its language is as follows:

The practice of hazing new cadets, at one time prevalent among the older students of the academy, has been effectually stamped out and we have been informed. that no instance of real hazing has come to the attention of the academy authorities during the last three years, or since effective measures were employed for its、 abolition..

The report goes on to say that this great change was largely due to the cadets themselves, who discovered that hazing was injuring the academy. This is another way of saying that it was due to public sentiment.

The way in which hazing was injuring the academy was by giving the country at large a contempt for it that bordered on hatred and indignation. There

had come to be thousands of good people who would gladly see this institution and the naval academy shut up altogether if no way could be found to

THE FIRST YEAR OF A COLLEGE GIRL. To be a successful freshman is the most difficult thing in college life, and a few suggestions as to conduct may be useful to young women who begin their college career this fall. For most graduates admit that of the entire course the freshman year is the most trying, and new students cannot be too careful of the friends they make or of their attitude toward the work, for every freshman is being critically watched by both upperclass women and instructors, and the impressions they make the first few weeks. usually determine their standing during the four years of study.

If there are secret fraternities in the institutions, then new girls are even more closely scrutinized by older students, and the necessity of carefully choosing acquaintances is more paramount than before.

It is often better to endure a little patronizing from upper-class women than to go about with a high and mighty air. The first will not hurt and the second would certainly make one disliked.

Many freshmen are in great danger of being permanently spoiled by the attention which they get from college organizations. The dean of one of our large Eastern colleges once remarked: "We expect all freshmen to have this period of conceit. I have seen very few who had sense enough to avoid it." This statement is perfectly true and at the same time gives the only safeguard against this danger-common sense. Girls should realize that anyone else in their position would be as eagerly sought, and that all who have gone before have been entertained, or, as it is technically called, "rushed" just as much as they. Many have spoiled their social life in college by a bad beginning. So, too much emphasis cannot be put on the necessity

for decorous conduct for the first few weeks.

It's not alone conduct and work that are watched, for a girl's room and her personal appearance enter largely into the opinion formed of her by the students, especially those in fraternities.

All freshmen should take especial care in arranging their rooms, as most of the expensive fittings are kept through the four years. In many of the larger institutions the girls bring their own bedding, and in such cases one large double blanket, which may be used singly or doubly, six sheets and six pillow cases, all carefully marked with the owner's name, will be essential to comfort.

LESS COLLEGE TUTORING.

Private tutoring no longer yields the rich harvest of former times to clever students in the universities and colleges. The palmy days of the business vanished ten or fifteen years ago, when a student working his way through college could still earn from $1,000 to $2,500 a year, and when some men earned nearly twice the latter sum.

Even then, however, the business was not such a science as the "Widow" makes of it at Harvard. You may learn almost anything of the Widow that is taught in the university, and there are undergraduates who fervently believe that he (for the Widow is not a woman) knows more of most subjects than the real professors.

The Widow's neatly typewritten lecture notes, the Widow's careful summaries of the matter assigned for collateral reading, are regularly served out. day after day to those students that can afford to pay the Widow's prices. It costs a good deal more to get the Widow's lecture notes and other aids to scholarship than the fees of the university.

Columbia and the University of the City of New York have no Widow. There are hard working students who still tutor undergraduates for pay, and

there are seasons when such students neglect their own work in order that they may put in twelve or fifteen hours a day with the lads whom they are tutoring, but a good many things have combined to spoil the market in New York.

The preparatory schools, if they are not doing their work better than they did it twenty years ago, are at least directing it more strictly to the end in view, that of putting youths into college. Conditions are fewer than they used to be, and electives give a student a chance to discover soft things in the way of studies.

Even the summer tutoring of lads who have failed in the June entrance examinations is not the profitable business it once was. There was a time not so long ago when husky young football players from the preparatory schools gave up twothirds of their summer holidays to studying against the autumn entrance examinations, and anxious friends of college athletics urged them on to their distasteful tasks. Parents gladly paid from $3 to $5 an hour to the men who thus carried dull or idle boys through their vacation studies.

Tutoring is not specially frowned upon at the universities and colleges. Some of the professors themselves earned almost as much as tutors in their college days as they now earn as heads of departments, and then the business does not assume its worst form here.

In those universities where tutoring has been brought to such perfection that the idle undergraduate with money to spend can be reasonably sure of passing his examinations without attending lectures regularly or reading the books assigned professors flunk the fellows who are known to be regular customers of the tutoring mills. It is said that a lecturer at one university once confessed that when he examined the typewritten notes of one of his own lectures furnished to a student by a tutoring mill he found them fuller than the notes that he was himself using, for the tutor had put in side remarks and illustrations that did not appear in the lecturer's notes.