MR. SMITH'S SMOKE TALK

Mr. Joseph Smith, the well - known writer and contributor to Life, gave the first smoke-talk of the present term in College Hall February 2. Mr. Smith treated his subject, "Humbugs and their Kin" with great skill. "Humbuggery," said he, "has always been a practice of great popularity, by which many men have become notorious, but few famous. It is a profession which demands the polite manner, the pleasant smile, the glad hand, and the bold bluff. When we see its sails over the protecting bushes of deceit we see a full-rigged ship, but the bushes hide only the hull of a frail canoe. Humbuggery may stand the gentle breezes and calm waters of ignorance, but is sure to perish in the storms of publicity. It may be fruitful for the present, but no monument will ever proclaim its fame."

Beneath Mr. Smith's witty characterization of humbugs in their different phases lay a sharp criticism of the many sugar-coated evils of present day corruptions, in politics and business. The moral of the talk was, of course, "Don't be a humbug!" and at the end Mr. Smith was loudly cheered when he said that humbugs were never found among Dartmouth men.