SONG PRIZE UNCLAIMED

Two years ago Weld A. Rollins '97 offered a prize of $100 for the best Dartmouth song written by an undergraduate. Two claimants only appeared and neither offered a composition which the committee of judges considered worthy of recognition. Lastyear no songs were offered. Mr. Rollins, however, still patiently persists in offering his prize, modifying his requirement so that only the music may be original, the words perhaps being chosen from some still undiscovered verses of Hovey.

A prize of such amount, however, should be sufficient to' bring out some new words as well as new music. Dartmouth songs, of late, have been pretty feeble productions, football yawps for the most part, with "green" and "team" forced into unwilling matrimony of rhyme, obliged eternally to consort' with "might," "fight," "cheer," "dear," bumpily bounding to the clash of cymbals and the booming of an ardent drum. One might think that Dartmouth life consisted of a perennial football contest; for our songsters of late years have struck no other note What is needed is a good campus song, or a fireside song, something that will express the finer sentiment of the undergraduate toward the old College, and will serve to touch the alumnus with the recollection of his own far, fair days among the hills. Hovey did not exhaust the subject by any means; some of the deeper experiences of college life he never reached for in his poetry.

The conditions of the present contest are given below. While the fact is not stated, it may be taken for granted that no award will be made unless a song of real merit is presented.

1. All compositions must be in ink on regular music paper.

2. All compositions must be in the hands of 'Harry R. Wellman, Care Wm. Filene Sons Company, Boston, on or before November 30, 1912.

3. The music must be original. It is optional with the contestant whether the words shall be original or not.

4. The committee is assured that the winning song will, if the contestant desires it, be published without expense to him and with the usual royalty for copies sold.

5. The committee reserves the right to modify these rules.

The committee to pass on the relative merits of compositions consists of: E. K. Wood worth '97, Homer E. Keyes '00, and Harry R. Wellman '07.