16 THE ACORN Lawrence "Is Lelia just a boarder at Eccles or a member of the family ?" Joe "She wasn't a member of the family the last time I heard. So I guess she's still a boarder." Prof. Kerr (to class) "What would you do if you were standing on a cold mountain top, and could look down into green valleys and corn fields?" McKay "I would go farther back into the mountains. Green fields look like work." Friday, March 18th, the Academy won the debate with the Collegiate Institute. April 20 Dr. Thomas E. Green. "Things are coming our way" in respect to the gym; 1911 wiH most certainly see its completion. (This is not an April Fool's joke.) Teacher "Is that your father's signature?" Student "As near as I could get it." Teacher "How was iron first discovered?". Johnny "I dunno, but I heard Pa say they smelt it." Hey! Drop that THE ACORN 17 MUSIC IN JAPAN While some Western customs are being rapidly assimilated in Japan, it is not at all likely that our musical art will ever find anything more than the most superficial and perfunctory acceptance. Japanese music is so different from ours that European music is as distasteful and unendurable to Japanese ears as their performances are discordant to us. Musical art has had no standing in Japan, having been left largely to women, whose status, as everybody is aware, is inferior to that of man in the Mikado's empire; in fact, the art was largely left to blind women, and those of questionable moral standing. Until recently no Japanese gentlemen could reconcile the practice of music with his dignity. Travelers who have been privileged to listen to the very best performers of Japanese music have only one opinion of it; that to Europeans it is harsh, unmeaning, and painfully discordant. Like most of the Japanese arts, Japanese music has a Chinese and Korean origin, and, like all Chinese sciences and arts, is most fantastic in its theories and rules. Since all sounds are classed with natural forces and phenomena, which are considered to be based upon the number five, there must be only five tones. These tones or keynotes stand in a definite relation to the months of the year, and in each month a separate key rules. It will easily be recognized that what we understand as "harmony" is vastly different from the Japanese conception. What the Japanese think of our music may be