The fourth number of the Advocate came out Saturday and seems to us to be slightly inferior to the previous issue. The verse of the number is up to the usual average and the editorials and Topics of Day are well written, but the stories in general lack the originality and artistic finish of certain of the contributions to number three.

It is a peculiarity of old Mother Advocate to indulge in a great deal of "patting on the back" in her editorials, and "Well-done, good and faithful servant!" seems to be the sum and substance of her remarks on the Athletic Association, the foot ball eleven, and College Conferences. In the one remaining editorial, - Mother Advocate suggests the feasibility of open spring handicap meetings as annual fixtures at Harvard. In this way, Harvard could make a return of the hospitality of the athletic clubs in Boston. Harvard's exclusiveness, in not holding open games on Holmes Field "is especially noticeable" says the Advocate, "because the Harvard track is one of the three or four best in the country and by far the best in the vicinity of Boston."

Under "Topics of the Day," the Advocate discusses "The Removal of Athletes from Probation." and "Ungentlemanliness in Memorial." What the Advocate has to say about the former topic is well said and the concluding paragraph strikes such an admirable key-note to the whole that we cannot forbear to quote: "Of course, it is to be expected that the outside world will misinterpret and misrepresent this action (the removal of Corbett, Mackie and Waters from probation). However, our college has grown steadily in the face of such attacks, and every year adds to its triumphs as a leader in the fields of a university life. We doubt not that when they are understood, the rulings of our faculty with regard to probation will, like other of our institutions, acquire general favor. And until then we can afford to suffer detraction."

The bit piece of prose in the number is a short description "By the Banks of the San Sebastian." It is only half a page long, and therefore its wit has a soul. It is a pen picture, carefully but vividly drawn of a tragedy by moonlight in a Spanish city and, to avail ourselves of technical language, we would say that the connotation of every sentence and paragraph is admirable.

One of the best stories of the number is "That City Chap." a tale of country life. The spirit of the New England village life is rather faith fully produced and the action of the story is simple.

"Owing to a Misunderstanding" is a sketch of western mining life of which the author has succeeded in giving a fairly good picture. The dialect of the story is good, although the idea of the tale is threadbare.

"Love will Find the way" is in certain respects one of the most ambitions pieces of prose in this number of the Advocate. The heroine of the tale is a chorus girl in Francis Wilson's Opera Company who is loved wisely and well by a Harvard man, who marries another girl, however, and who herself finally marries his valet. Cupid still continues to stretch "the silver cord of love" between the Harvard man and his operatic loved one, and as the correct working out of the plot demands that they should come together, the wife of the Harvard man and his valet very conveniently fall off a wharf and are drowned! While the story, as a whole, has some good descriptions, the idea of it is highly improbable.

The diction is fairly exact - although there are several marked errors. For instance, a man doesn't "use swear-words", he "swears" or he "cusses." And we wonder, also, when a "girl's deep blue eye twinkles with humor," what she does with the other. Possibly she winks it! The whole thing is a marionette show in which the principal puppets are manipulated in an unskillful manner. The author of the story has shown himself capable of far better work.

"Come Forth, My Love!" is perhaps the better of the two poems, and evidences some love of nature on the part of its author. There is a Swinburnian luxuriousness and verboseness about the whole poem, and in the first five lines especially we are impressed by the manifest prevalence of Nature-osculation. The metre of several lines is decidedly faulty.

"The Moon Mist" is a weird and mystic tale in verse which in incomprehensible fantasy would stand alone in a collected volume of Advocate verse. The influence of Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner" is apparent, but unlike that masterpiece the melody and perfection of form are wanting.

Of the College Kodaks, the first and the last are decidedly the A plus themes of the collection.