A Great Sell

The following from the Ann Arbor correspondent of the Detroit Jouraal tells how some joker worked a great sell on the president of the'ienior lit. class. "Monday afternoon when the main building of the University was all but deserted, President Lyinan, of the senior class, led four carpenters up into room 4. The party went immediately to the platform and worked for more than an hour in tearing it away. Then Lyman locked the door, got down on his hands and knees, and grovelling in the dust, poked around all the dat-k plaees under the part of the floor where the platform had been. After a while he stood up ana handed the poking eane to one of .the carpenters. Each of the workmen, iu turn, groped around on the floor searching for something. Then the party gave up in disgust. The carpenters rebuilt the platform, and Lyman left the room. Today the secret of these mysterious proceedings was divulged. Last week Mr. Lyman, who is president of the Alpha Nu society , as well as of the senior lit class, received a letter from J. A. Van Valkenburg, of Kansas City, stating that in 1858, room 4, then known as Alpha Nu hall, had just been completed. When the platform was constructed numerous books and papers, now of g reat valué, were placed under it. Among these, Mr. Van Valkenburg wrote, was the original constitution of the Alpha Nu, adopted in 1844, and the manuscript prepared by Dr. Tappan,for his speech, made on acceptinsr the presidency of the University in 1852. The writer, in closing, took occasion to express his resentment against Prof. Scott, whose classes now recite in room 4, for the Alpha Nu of its hall. And so it was with high expectations that Mr. Lynfan obtained the permission of Prof. Scott and the services of the carpenters, to tear away the platform. Aad the disappointment was correspondingly great. It is generally thought that the letter is a boax."