The college yell is the almost perfect adaptation of sound to lack of

sense.

Authorities hold that the perfect yell is based on the bray of the Missouri mule, alternating with the notes of the game rooster, modified by the trumpet motive of the automobile horn. War whoops and the sound of a keg of nails falling down the cellar stairs furnish an impressive crescendo, while the most effective farewell is a cross between the song of a dying calf and the wail of a lost soul. These finer shadings are lost on the fat man who has no ear for music. But they do express the deeper emotions of a freshman turned loose on a civilized community.

"The college yell is the sweetest music in the world to me!" ex claimed a New England college president in his inaugural address a few weeks ago. Thus speaks a soul attuned to the higher melody, one who can enjoy and understand the music of the megaphone.

Baltimore Sun

5. Gambling is a vice which is productive of every possible evil, equally injurious to the morals and health of its votaries. It is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief. It has been the ruin of many worthy families, the loss of many a man's honor, and the cause of suicide. To all those who enter the lists, it is equally fascinating. The successful gamester pushes his good fortune, till it is overtaken by a reverse. The losing gamester, in hopes of retrieving past misfortunes, goes on from bad to worse, till, grown desperate, he pushes at everything and loses his all. In a word, few gain by this abominable practice, while thousands are injured. George Washington

6. Mr. Benjamin Allen was a coarse, stout, thick-set young man, with black hair cut rather short, and a white face cut rather long. He was embellished with spectacles, and wore a white neckerchief. Below his single-breasted black surtout, which was buttoned up to his chin, appeared the usual number of pepper-and-salt colored legs, terminating in a pair of imperfectly polished boots. Although his coat was short in the sleeves, it disclosed no vestige of a linen wristband; and although there was quite enough of his face to admit of the encroachment of a shirt collar, it was not graced by the smallest approach to that appendage. He presented, altogether, rather a mildewy appearance, and emitted a fragrant odour of full-flavored Cubas. Dickens, "Pickwick Papers"

7. It is not good to speak evil of all whom we know bad; it is worse to judge evil of any who may prove good. To speak ill upon knowledge shows a want of charity; to speak ill upon suspicion shows a want of honesty. I will not speak so bad as I know of many; I will not speak worse than I know of any. To know evil of others and not speak it, is sometimes discretion; to speak evil of others and not know it, is always dishonesty. He may be evil himself who speaks good of others upon knowledge, but he can never be good himself who speaks evil of others upon suspicion.

8.

VITÆ LAMPADA

Arthur Warwick

There's a breathless hush in the close to-night,
Ten to make and the match to win.

A bumping pitch and a blinding light,

An hour to play and the last man in.

And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame.
But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote,
Play up! Play up! and play the game!

The sand of the desert is sodden red,
Red with the wreck of a square that broke.
The gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed its banks,
And England's far and honor a name.
But the voice of a school-boy rallies the ranks.
Play up! Play up! and play the game!

This is the word that year by year,
While in her place the school is set,
Every one of her sons shall hear,
And none that hear it dare forget.
This they all with a joyful mind,
Bear through life like a torch in flame,
And falling, fling to the host behind,
Play up! Play up! and play the game!

Henry Newbolt

9. It was while I lay helpless in a lonely tavern by the riverside that the crushing blow fell. Letters from home, sent on from Pittsburg, told me that Elizabeth was to be married. A cavalry officer who was in charge of the border police, a dashing fellow and a good soldier, had won her heart. The wedding was to be in the summer. It was then the last week in April. At the thought I turned my face to the wall, and hoped that I might die.

But one does not die of love at twenty-four. The days that passed slowly saw me leave my sick-bed and limp down to the river on sunny days, to sit and watch the stream listlessly for hours, hoping nothing, grasping nothing, except that it was all over. In all my misadventures

If I did, I as quickly

I

that was the one thing I had never dreamed of. banished the thought as preposterous. That she should be another's bride seemed so utterly impossible that, sick and feeble as I was, laughed it to scorn even then; whereat I fell to reading the fatal letter again, and trying to grasp its meaning. It made it all only the more perplexing that I should not know who he was, or what he was. I had never heard of him before, in that town where I thought I knew every living soul. That he must be a noble fellow I knew, or he could not have won her; but who why- what what had come over everything in such a short time, and what was this ugly dream that was setting my brain awhirl and shutting out the sunlight and the day? Presently I was in a relapse, and it was all darkness to me, and oblivion.

Jacob A. Riis, "The Making of an American"

10. Gentlemen of the jury - The best friend a man has in this world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter, that he has reared with loving care, may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to him, those whom he trusts with his happiness and his good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may lose; it flies away from him perhaps when he needs it most. A man's reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do him honor when success is with him, may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon his head. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.

Gentlemen of the jury, a man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he can be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputations fall to pieces, he is constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes his master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.

Senator G. G. Vest

LESSON III

Choose from the list of general subjects for compositions, given in the appendix, one narrative, one descriptive, one expository, and one argumentative subject, and come to class prepared to make short speeches each about a minute long on all of them.

LESSON IV

Choose from this same list four more subjects each representing one of the four forms of discourse, and write short themes, each of about one hundred words, on all of them. If you wish, write a letter containing four paragraphs, each about one hundred words long, and each representing one of the four forms of discourse.