Collegiate

Higher education in the U. S. was once more put in motion at many institutions.* Returning students registered, shook familiar hands, laid in various supplies, strolled off to investigate their new courses. Excited matriculants, reported everywhere to be in record multitudes, explored their surroundings, asked questions, herded into chapels and auditoria to be welcomed by deans and presidents. Deans and presidents brought forth sheaves of notes and speeches, expounded aims and ideals in terms occasionally selected with an eye to arresting the world's attention as well as shedding light and inspiration upon undergraduate audiences. At Hanover, N. H., Dartmouth College, now 154 years of age, opened with the announcement that compulsory chapel attendance was a thing of the past; with the annual sophomore-freshman football rush; with words from President Ernest M. Hopkins: "I would seriously submit for undergraduate consideration the question whether, from the point of view of their own ultimate good, there has not been a too complete disappearance, from the college curriculum and from college life, of compulsion and of requirements, rigorous and even irksome, if you will, which temper the mind and test the souls of men!" At Amherst, Mass., Amherst College entered upon its 104th year with John Coolidge, son of President Calvin Coolidge, one of 210 freshmen with a few words from Acting President and President-elect George D. Olds, concerning changes in Amherst's faculty, curriculum, landscape. At Williamstown, Mass., the 131st year of Williams College began when President Harry A. Garfield opened a service in Thompson Memorial Chapel, reminded his hearers that each of them was a responsible part of the collegiate whole. At South Hadley, Mass., President Mary E. Woolley launched Mount Holyoke College upon its 87th year by ruminating upon womankind's increasing importance in the world. At Wellesley, Mass., some 400 girls became Wellesley College freshmen, were made welcome by the Christian Association at a tea; by President Ellen F. Pendleton; by guides who spirited them off in groups of twelve to tour the Library. At Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Vassar College, in its 63rd year, abandoned a precedent, allowed the freshmen to report the same day as other classes, instead of a week earlier. The enrollment was kept down, as of late years, to 1,150. President Henry Noble MacCracken was heard in the college chapel, likewise Dean C. Mildred Thompson. The dominant innovation of the year was a "court of appeals" for student government-- teachers and taught holding the bench jointly. At Washington, D. C., the Navy Department announced the establishment, at George Washington University and at St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.), of naval reserve officers' classes, the first of their kind in the U. S. in peace time. At Clinton, N. Y.--Elihu Root, Hamilton '64, patriarch of U. S. law, delivered his annual oration to the students of Hamilton College (111 years old). Mr. Root holds the Chair of Hamilton's Board of Trustees. Said he: "Cultivate your taste to receive joy from a thing of beauty; cultivate your powers for the joy you may obtain from their employment; cultivate friendship and those other simple virtues which are so commonly admired. No man is truly happy who must depend on outside things for his happiness. Success that is blazoned in the press and praised by all does not come from direct approach . . . only from and by the development of stalwart manhood."

Purists Alarmed

Professors and purists were perplexed, dismayed for the future of the King's English in the U. S., when informed of a prize contest opened by the Daily News, Manhattan gumchewers' sheetlet, for contribution of "Slanguage." Said the News: "Sling us some slanguage. The old slang is falling like boulders on weary ears." The News published examples of the "conversational sour notes" it wished to ban: "It's the cat's meow !" "Tell it to mother!" "I'll tell the world!" The News published some of the prize-winning "new and snappy" ex- pressions : "You smart little son-of-a-Gump!" "You tell 'em concrete, I'm too mortarfied!" "She's a panic!" Other new-coined ejaculations the News might have lifted from their currency on lower Broadway: "It's the ant's pants !" "He's such a wet smack he ripples when the wind blows!" (For bald men)--"Put on your hat, you're all undressed!"

Purists Glad

Professors and purists were gratified, encouraged for the future of the King's English in the U. S., when informed of an All-Comers' Cross Word Puzzle Tournament to be held in John Wanamaker's store under the direction of Ruth Hale, Robert C. Benchley, Heywood Broun, Gelett Burgess, John Farrar, Baird Leonard, Katharine Lane--all members of the "intelligenzia." Qualifying rounds were to be puzzled through; a challenger was to be selected to engage William A. Stern II of Manhattan, "World Champion Cross Word Puzzler." A novel note was to be introduced into the festival by a special mixed doubles match, open to all amateur puzzlers. Final matches were to be staged on the platform of the store's auditorium with the use of mammoth blackboards, so arranged that the contestants would not see one another yet would remain in full view of the audience. Prizes were offered by the New York Herald-Tribune. Puzzler Stern won his title by winning a contest held in Manhattan, May 18, 1924. There were 200 contestants; and Puzzler Stern was the first to march to the Judges with his pattern of black and white squares completely and correctly filled. Soon afterward, in a testimonial letter to the publishers of the Cross Word Puzzle Books, he said: "The title . . . did not fall upon me from the clouds; nor was it owing to the use of any nostrum or patent remedy that I was able to carry home the coveted prize. I won because I kept myself fit with rigorous training. Your Cross Word Puzzle Book was the greatest individual factor in my victory. Constant use of it kept up my mental and moral fibre. . . ."

*Practically each and every institution that opened last week is situate in the East. The majority of southern, Middle Western and Pacific coast colleges and universities were scheduled to open one week later.