New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-07-04

When that cultivated and intellectual middle
aged person, Miss Mary Ann MOx0n, OF Cam
bridge. Mass had the collar of her offensive
little poodle inscribed "l'm Mary Ann Moxon's
dog; whose dog are you?" she thought 1t
was rather a clever joke on the casual citizen
who might encounter the pup and investigate
his reason for being. She was of that mind
for several diys. But one morning the poodle
bowling as though he was carrying all the
parts for Sirius in the chorus of the morning
stars, and sudden, as if fred ont of gun,
shot into the Moxon presence, with his tail
tucked very close, and a business card tied on
to his collar. Divining that some one had
set the poodle up in the caTier-dOve busl-
ness, Miss MOXOn seized the mlssiye ana
read: "TuIpcntne is what ails me; what ;
"the matter with you?" Miss MoXOn may
not have changed her mind as to the
cleverness of the original inscription, but
she did make some remarks, while apply
ing lotions to the pup, concerning the utter
incapacitv of the average man to take JOKE
which showed that the tmpentine had lllumi-
mated her understanding to an unusual degree.
Now, 40 one doubts that the very able but
obviously very young persons who had the Har-
ward boat crews headquarters at Springfield
inscribed REPORTERS and LOafers not Wanted
Here were quite honest i'll putting reporters
and loafers on a level, and expressing in this
manner their contempt for both. 1t is, also,
a clever Joke: fully as good as Mary Ann Mox
on's. Mary Ann inscribed her rebuke to public
curiosity on the collar of her puppy. Had she
been an institution of learning, with more poo
dies than one, doubtless she would have had IT
put over the Kennel and then, possibly, the
press of the cOuntry-whch is so obtuse as not
TO appreciate the cleverneSs of joke which
classes with "loafcrs" the undiscovered and
most faithful members of profession which not
more than one i'll fifty university graduates can
get into at all, and not one in thou
sand succeeds in-migEt have touched them off
with tuIpentine and sent them home bowling.
The Harvard young gentlemen, II they have
read the newspapers since they won Their great
victory last Saturday, have probably made up
their minds that the newspaper press cant
"take a Joke" For the press has been pro-
nouncing opinions regarding the conduct and
manners of the Harvard young men which
cannot by any stretch of fancy or reason
able construction of The mother tongue,
be called complimentary. 1t was local
porters had experienced the civiitics of these
young persons-which said i'll la guage that no
right minded person Will approve, that they
acted like a set of" 1--WE think there was an
emphatic blank inserted herc) hogs" Other
newspapers have characterized them variOusly :;
but none so far as we have seen, have set
them up as models of department or the
pattern of good manners The general
sense of the press, so far as we can dis
cover, is that the Harvard sign-bOard, like
Mary Ann Moxon's dog-cOllar although in
tended as hgh-tOned and dignifed
rebuke to that indecent public curiosity
which interests itself i'll the antecedents and
circumstances and name of every puppy that
wears IA collar was really a gratuitOus imperti-
nence. If, accordingly, the stern of the Ilar-
ward boat has been literally painted with tur-
pentine, it is due to the same lack of capacity
70 take Joke which sent Mary Ann Moxon's
dog home in pain with his tail tucked very,
very close.
For our own part we are free 10 say we
sympathize with the young athletes They may
have made a mistake in supposing that the
public, and especially the press was educated
up to a proper appreciation of the fine humor
of the sign-board. But we submit chat for so
slight a mistake there has been altogether too
much turpentne. They should not have been
taken so literally and pursued so bitterly.
Every undergraduate feels, very properly, that
the hope of humanity is centered in him. He
bears about with him the consciousness of hay
Ing all the possibilities before him the poten-
TALLY of tremendous successes. If he has as
yet achieved no splendid triumphs, he has, on