Saturdays and a number of Wednesdays during the coming term. The material is excellent. The best men in last year's team are still here while there are some stars among the new candidates. They can be moulded into a fine team and one that would take its place by the side of last Au tumn's football team. The two best. moves made for a long while in athletics were the securing of the services of Mr. Hodson as a coach and the early starting of practice. The fruits are begin ning to make themselves manifest already. Light practice in fielding and battery work is all that has thus far been attempted, but the candidates have been limbered up and show a marked im provement. Weak points are gradually being picked out and corrected, and thanks to Mr. Hodson, the team is being brought to such a condition that they can start daily practice as soon as the weather permits. The material is suf ficient to pick two good teams, and, for a while at least, they will be made of about equal strenth so as to give the best results and let everybody have a fair show. After that the regular players can be more readily picked out. Taking it as a whole, we can find plenty in the prospects of this branch of athletics upon which to congratulate ourselves. * * THE students certainly deserve great praise for their work in putting out the recent fire in the main building. They worked hard and courageously and to them we should give the credit of preventing a disastrous conflagration.. In connection with this' affair one pertinent thought is brought up which we wish to suggest to the student body. A great deal of unnecessary effort and'time were wasted that evening through confusion and ignor ance of just what to do. Almost every body was excited, and •it was all the cooler heads could do .to direct these well meant but somewhat chaotic efforts. All wanted to be right at the seat of the disturbance and consequently every one was in the road of every body else. It proved to be a very THE FREE LANCE. good case of more haste, les:: speed. This seems more serious when we consider the fact that the building is old and dry and that it might easily have taken but a few minutes delay to give the fire such headway that the structure would have been doomed. As it was, a great deal of un necessary damage was done by water, which could have been prevented had the students used their judgment. A certain amount of confusion of course cannot be helped, and it is almost an im possibility for some natures to remain calm and collected at such times. Yet we think these drawbacks can be reduced to a minimum. We have, it is true, excellent equipment for use in case of fire, but what does it amount to if the students are unable to co-operate with it and put it into practical and immediate use when needed ? The fact is, the student body should be made to understand just what to do in such emergen cies, and the best way to teach them is to have a fire drill. In the absence of a regular fire depart ment in the town such a drill as this is a precau tion we should not fail to take. It is wrong that all this valuable property of the College should remain without a trained body of men who under stand how to fight fire. When, somewhat over two years ago, the large barns to the west of the College burned down, the authorities thought it wise to give us one or two drills of this nature. They amounted to very little and further than as signing certain duties to certain sets of men . , little was accomplished. Last year, all that was done was to detail each company of the batallion to act on a certain floor in the main building in case of such an emergency. This was all very well but it was not enough, and it is only because we have had the good fortune to discover all fires before they reached a considerable size that we have not been made to suffer by this lack of organization. Would it not be well to commence these drills and get the boys to understand just what to do and how to do it, without waiting for any more warnings like the last? We think so, and we humbly advance these ideas for the consideration