The San Francisco call., 1910-08-07

7 there such thing as a special brand of
wit which can be singled out, oorraled
and branded as college humor"p
In dozen or fifteen colleges and universi-
ties up and down the land there are pub
lished. weekly or monthly. comic periodicals
written and edited by college men, Much of
the witty appeal of these publications is, of
course. local But very frequently college
humorist breaks beyond the confines of his
own campus and delivers himself of joke,
pun, or witty poem that travels the whole
breadth of the land.
There was Wallace Irwin, for instance. of
Stanford On the eve of his expulsion for too
much escapading. he sat down and indted
Bit Of verse for the Stanford Chdpdnol that
has since become famous. Graduates by
Request" he called it. And when the Of
fetal communication from the faculty did
make him a graduate-by request-he merely
SET himself TO continuing in the line in which
he was already an adept
FoND FATHER Ito landlady of bis
sons boarding place in Cambndge):
Does Charles Sawyer live herea
LANDLADY: Yes. sir bring him
right in
This from that Nestor of college comics,
the sage and venerable Harvard Lompoonl
When Harvard established the Lompoon
back in 1867 journalistic movement began
which has become a characteristic feature of
student activity The old Lompoon was
its name indicates. more or less comic pub
lcation which hid under good-natured chat
more than one biting fling at things as they
were-a sort of highly-focused motion pic
ture of the passing show in Harvard Yard
The Ldmpoon was the father of Life. which
appeared some years later under the guidance
of former Lompoon editors.
The Lompoon is now in its forty third year,
and enjoys venerable and honored position
at the college-comic round table.
Five years later appeared another comic,
the Yale Record. The Record has never at
tanned the influence of the Harvard sheet
but has enjoyed wide popularity for nearly
forty years There is distinct difference
between Yale humor and the Harvard brand
If their rival comic sheets are standard
Perhaps the following is typical Eli Joke:
Don't keep me out IN the night air
walled the, fair holdup victim. I'll
catch my death of cold" Whereupon
the senilemsnly robber covered her with
his gun.
There are now fourteen college comics,
published IN as many leading universities and
colleges. They are the venerable Ldmpoon and
its cousin. the Record. the maiden-aunt comic
sheet from Cornell known as the WidoD, es-
isblished in 1892; the Princeton Tiger. the
University Of Pennsylvania Punchbopl, of
the much-envied motto; the Minnesota Mime
Hal Ho! Dartmouth College Jack o Ian
tern. Amherst -Four Leaf Clover, California
Pelican. Columbia Jester. Wisconsin Sphinx,
Texas Coyote. the Purple Com from Will
Jams College. known afectionately as the
Cow" and the Chdporrdl of Stanford, self
styled "ChaPpy for short. They form a
remarkable group of college publications.
College humor. needless to say, exercises
itself whole-hesriedly in the three popular
fields of wine. women and song The wine in
one case may be merely a bottle of beer,
and the song chant of athletic victory; but
the woman-she. at least is ever-chaneina,
ever constant Blonde, brunette or titan; tall
or slender. athletic or dainty. she is always
the dreamy ideal evolved from haze of
tobacco smoke and summoned just to try
mems souls. An example:
The autumn air was cool and tinqed
with wood smoke; the Quad was dark
enins into stately silhouette against the
rioting gold and purple of the west as
went forth all srrayed in my Other
Clothes to call on Sylvia. Sylvia is
worth ones Other Clothes. To queen
her is the most liberal kind of an educa-
ton.
The Freshman who opened the door