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would have been difficult to move all the plants across the house. They fill in beautifully here, and make a charming background for that little table." She held up her fan between her teeth to catch her sister's reply.

"Yes, Carrie, I did intend to use the dining room," responded Mrs. Thorndike slowly, "but at the last moment I thought it would be better to have the breakfast in here. I'm so glad that you like the flowers." Charles Cheney Hyde.

NOTABILIA.

A LEADING American magazine devotes many pages of its September number to a graphic account of the superb new building which it has recently consecrated to editorial purposes. Here are described the charming location in the suburbs of New York, the ample accommodation for paper and presses, the improved facilities for financial and literary work. The journal seems to gloat over its new quarters and to congratulate itself on the triumph it has achieved. The LIT. sympathizes heartily with its big rival of the metropolis, since, as another college year begins, St. Elihu also finds himself comfortably settled in a new office. Yet he can scarcely do justice to his appreciation of his new surroundings, much as he enjoys them. It is only in apparent disregard of the modesty of a certain member of the editorial board, that the LIT. not as a duty merely, but as a privilege, extends its thanks to Dr. Andrew J. White, the donor of its commodious office. After the inconveniences of the dingy and forlorn sanctum in South Middle, the comfortable and well lighted room in the modern dormitory is a luxury which no editor can fail to enjoy. The LIT. would have felt itself under great obligation to Dr. White for the office space alone, but when returning from vacation the editors enter a sanctum handsomely furnished and in every particular fitted to their needs, they find it the more difficult to properly express their gratitude.

The LIT. would not be too optimistic, but it cannot refrain from anticipating some of the benefits resulting from its present surroundings. Yale journalism is as yet far from a state of decrepitude, and the LIT. does not believe itself to be an illustrative exception. The management of a paper provided with a well adapted office works at a great advantage. Its editors take a new pride in their journal, and contributors have a greater yearning

to share the same sensation. The LIT. has always been proud of the eminent men of letters who in years gone by have worked for the glory of St. Elihu. Its truest stimulus is the earnestness of its contributors. At the same time it increases its influence as well as its advantages by the possession of a permanent and attractive office. There is now a suitable place in which the editors may write, examine exchanges, and, most important of all, undertake the critical examination of submitted manuscripts. The office is not for the exclusive use of the board. The LIT. would again remind all contributors that the sanctum is open to them on Monday afternoons from three until half past four o'clock, when the editors will be glad to meet the men and discuss their articles.

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Turning to the Campus, there have been many changes during vacation. None is more noticeable than the disappearance of North Middle. The destruction of South College aroused much discussion, but the ground which it occupied was soon covered by an edifice so beautiful that the old building was little missed. But nothing has taken the place of North Middle except patches of very green September grass. So neatly and exactly has the wide levelling been made, that one might think that the old brick structure had been buried as a whole beneath. It is shocking to alumni and distasteful to others to rejoice over the destruction of this ancient landmark. There were treasured memories connected with each room. To look at things as they are and to be just, everyone familiar with the former aspect of the Campus must admire the wide swath cut between Lawrance and the Old Library. And this points to the time not many years hence, when the entire square shall be unbroken. There is even now a suggestion of the quadrangle as it shall be, with the broad expanse of unimpeded elms symmetrically enclosed by splendid speci

mens of various types of architecture,—a true symbol of the Yale spirit.

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Contributions in competition for the LIT. Prize Medal

are due at the LIT. office before six P. M. December the first.

PORTFOLIO.

THE END OF THE STORM.

'Tis quiet now,—yet barely an hour ago

Those towering rocks were wrapped in sheets of spray,
And lashed by waves, that rose in thick array
Their foaming crests with sunlight all aglow,
As gleamed the helmets on some knightly foe
Who, years agone, advanced to join the fray.
'Tis quiet now, and through the tranquil bay
The sunset-tinted waters softly flow.

The distant mountains raise their summits blue,
And grow more distant, as the changing sky
Backs them with colors of a softer hue.

The floods of inward passion quiet lie,
Soothed by the rapture of the thought that I,
Dross though I am, may God's great pictures view.

N. A. S.

-The history of early German literature contains, perhaps, no more interesting period than that of the Minnesingers—the picturesque "love poets" of the thirteenth century. Strange, romantic troubadours they were, wandering here and there singing their sensuous songs of love and beauty, taking part in musical contests, even at the Wartburg, where the legend runs-death was the reward of the vanquished. Manly and bold they often were, spite of all their romance, and none braver or truer than their chief, Walther von der Vogelweide. Yet even the story of his grave is picturesque, for the chroniclers tell us that, in the flat stone which covered his grave, four holes were made, into which, for years afterward, corn was poured for the birds, so dearly loved by the dead minstrel, to feed on. The songs the Minnesingers sang, the legends that they rehearsed, were those that modern poets love to retell -the stories of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, of Charlemagne and his stout Paladins, and of their Teuton forefathers. It was not the courage, however, but the romance of those doughty knights that the Minnesingers loved, and a conquest in love was to them a more pleasing subject for song than the winning of a three days' joust.

Often the Minnesingers carried their romantic ideas to such absurd extents that they became fantastic, and the mad follies

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