Wisely supposing that Moseby,

Chief of all the guerillas,

Careless of horse flesh or men,

Would choose, in his ardor for plunder,
The nearer path, though the rougher.
Scarce had the valorous German
Secured with his sturdy companions,
A high rocky table of sandstone,
O'erlooking the road way beneath it,
When up from the valley below them
Came sounds of the raiders approaching,
Came the clatter of hoofs and of sabres,
And the shouting and cursing of soldiers.
Half drunken, cruel and fierce,

Were these partisan rangers of Moseby,
As through the pass they were marching,
One officer riding before them,

Dark plumed, distinguished from others,
By braiding of gold on his jacket,

And richly caparisoned charger.

Rang out through the storm and the darkness,
The long German rifle of Harman,
Down from his steed fell the leader,
Sank down with a deep imprecation,
The dark crested head of the ranger,
While swift from his bullet-pierced bosom
His soul fled away in the darkness.
Then rose from the soldiers a clamor-
Astonishment, hate and defiance,
The angry grating of sabres,

The ominous click of their carbines,
And quick on their mission of death
Sped the minnie balls of the rebels.
Then from the steep mountain above them
Spake the answering ring of three rifles,
Where Van Harman, the gallant old German,
With his stalwart and steady companions,

Like Horatius, the hero of Tiber,

Was braving the desperate encounter,

A handfull of men 'gainst an army.
In the noise and confusion of battle,
In the clamor and carnage of fighting,
So passed the hours of darkness.

And while old Van Harman was ramming
The last cartridge into his rifle,

The first gray streaks of the morning
Disclosed the extent of the slaughter.
Twice a score of the raiders were stricken,
And dying, or wounded and bleeding,
Lay mangled, obstructing the passage.
Van Harman's companions had fallen,
And he, too, was fainting, disabled
By a carbine shot grazing his temple,
And a minnie ball piercing his shoulder.
But the fearless old hero, undaunted,
Drew himself to the edge of his fortress,
The table rocks-nature-built fortress,
Which so long had withstood its assailants.
He carefully aimed the long rifle,
And sent from its muzzle the summons

To the soul of another guerilla.

Then he sank on the blood-stained sand-stone,

And murmured the prayer of his childhood"Vater unsir wer bist Himmel."

Then passed from the aged man's features

Every trace of the terrible combat,

And calm as the slumber of childhood

Was the death of old Luther Van Harman.
And still in that part of the country
They show you a cliff of red sand-stone,
Which is called by the common tradition,
"The Fort of Van Harman, the Blacksmith."

Editorial Department.

EDITORIAL NOTES.

WE are sorry that, on account of the carelessness of the printer, part of the matter intended for publication in the last number was omitted, which will account for the meagre appearance of the Magazine. A part of the Editorial Department also was misplaced, and found its way, in some unaccountable manner, into the midst of the literary articles. Having done our best to arrange the Monthly in a tasteful and methodical manner, we trust to the good sense of our readers to excuse all incidental defects.

We

WE wish to say a word to our friends, that is, to all who feel an interest in the success of the MONTHLY. We desire, and shall strive, to make it an honor to Lafayette and as interesting as possible to our readers. To do this it is necessary to have your cooperation in the way of subscriptions and contributions to its columns. They are open to Alumni, Faculty and Student. will be especially obliged to any of the students who will inform us of interesting occurrences about College. The College has increased to such dimensions that it is impossible for the Editors to know all that takes place in our community. Those who have been accustomed to write for the MONTHLY in former years are invited to continue, and we hope the number will be increased by others. We would also say that many members of the Senior Class seem not to realize their connection with it. It is hoped that they will soon awaken and go to work in earnest.

ONE of our exchanges announces that their catalogues will be out in about two weeks. We wish we could make the same an

nouncement in regard to those of Lafayette.

There is much dissatisfaction among the students because they usually appear so late Can't we have a reform here?

in the year.

WE notice that the Nation, of Sept. 26th, has given more than a column to Mr. Grier's book on the English of Bunyan. It speaks highly of his method of taking. a paragraph from the Pilgrim's Progress and then going over it clause by clause; first looking out the different grammatical combinations, then the etymology of each word, and finally their rhetorical force. The plan is very simple, and at first sight seems too small for College Students; and yet the Nation goes on to quote a letter from a Professor in a Western University, which gives a large number of misspelt words that he had collected from students' essays, and says that this is a study too much neglected, and that the book strikes at an evil that is a blight on our American education, viz: that men go through a college and study years on a foreign language without " being up" in the rudiments of their native tongue. Mr. Grier was for years a tutor among us, and knows well whether there is a call for such a work. For ourselves, we say, little book, go forward, your mission is a good one.

"THE Course" in Christian classics established by Mr. Douglass is meeting with favor among the Freshmen. A large number of them have chosen the Vulgate version of the Scriptures in the place of Livy. The Annalist, in noticing the institution of this course, considers it harmless, but can not see much good in it. We do not object to its thinking so, but when it says, "When we want theology we can take it in pure English," we think it mistaken. We know of no theologian of note who is satisfied with the English version of the Scriptures and does not refer to them in the original. A translation cannot give the full force of many passages. The old classical course, however, is still, and will continue to be, pursued as thoroughly as in any of our colleges. The new course is designed to give students who wish it, especially those who have the Ministry in view, an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the treasures hidden in the writings of the early Christian fathers. The Greek and Latin of some of these will compare favorably with that of "Heathen" writers.

A QUESTION FOR OUR ENQUIKERS AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.-Gentlemen, why don't you write something for our MONTHLY? Now

there are eleven of you in '73, fourteen in '74, and we don't know how many in the other classes. You are studying subjects of which most people have only the most general ideas. Your courses are full of facts and information that all persons like to know something of. You who are civil engineers can tell a thousand interesting things of roads, grades, curves, bridges, tunnels, canals, &c., that we all are thirsting for. You who are miners can tell of numberless pretty things in Chemistry and the Mineral world. Indeed, this field seems almost unlimited. Our reading-room is filled with scientific journals that abound in accounts and discussions of the greatest interest. But we need not stop with these courses, for with the general scientifics you have full courses in Botany and Zoology, and here, too, there is a large field. There is no sense in this holding back. Our Magazine is not to be the representative of one course in Lafayette, but of the whole College. You are not up to your duty. You are not as enthusiastic and whole-souled in your branches as you should be, or, at least, you don't show it. Come, give us the result of your researches.

BOOK NOTICES.-A college is the place where all minds find food and training. Here no new faculties are given to them, but those which lie dormant there, or are hungering for culture, find their special needs supplied, so that we see some excelling in one branch while they only get along in others. And it seems, too, that persons here pick out the things which are just what their minds need, and find out afterward that they have been unconsciously fitting themselves very thoroughly for a life's work. But in all this diversity of talent there is a large per centage which inclines toward literature in its many forms. Some have a knack for verses, some for stories, some for biography, and others for essays or argumentative discourse. Their talents find a field for their exercise in the College Magazine. Here they can put in print their maiden productions and here learn the lesson that great authors are very often unsuccessful in getting their first lines in print. With the new year the class of '73 propose to make our College Magazine far better than it has ever been before, and, still more, the echo of the students; to give a chance to all and not bring talents within any narrow specifications: In this spirit we invite attention to the field of criticism-book criticism. Not the finding of flaws in recent publications, but the giving of honest opinions. Or, in the words.