In the Harvard Alumni Bulletin is an appreciation which the Boston Transcript reprints, of the work done by the ubiquitous and nebulous Student Vagabond. Rightly or wrongly, he is given credit for the spread of a new word in the local vocabulary, the verb to vagabond-meaning to attend lectures at which one's presence will not be noticed by the Dean's office, for the sole purpose of hearing what is said.
Before the scholastic wanderer first saw the light, few in Cambridge aside from those in University Hall had any idea of the scope and compass of the University; which, as has been said before of the extra-curricular activities, has a whip for every man's hobby. There are few who have not at least one such hobby-even if it be nothing more than a small spark struck by some chance reading; there are fewer still who cannot find among the courses given here some encouragement in the pursuit. To aid in the pursuit has been one of the tasks of the Vagabond; from the observation on the Alumni Bulletin it has not been an altogether thankless one.
If such be the case, the Vagabond has time to pause in his daily journeys through the Yard and the elusive corners of the graduate schools to give himself congratulations. If, in some far distant day the student body shall have reached such a stage of discretion that it will be at liberty to choose all its lectures day by day-a most remote contingency-a statue of the Vagabond, mounted on roller skates or whatever means he uses to attend consecutive lectures in different parts of Cambridge, should be erected in the Square. That his efforts do more than fill a vacant corner on the editorial page is a sign that he is approaching his goal--which by no means implies a cessation of travel.
Read more in News
TONGUE-TIED