NEGLECTED AMERICAN TRADITIONS

Cambridge is singularly rich in places of historical traditions, and it is a great pity that the imagination of the undergraduate is so apathetic in regard to them. Day after day he passes scenes famous throughout America, but his careless glance shows none of that keen interest which merely a slight acquaintance with their great historical associations would arouse.

How many know even the location of the Washington Elm, of Oliver Wendell Holmes birthplace, of Wadsworth House, of Longfellow's old home? How many realize that there is a sacred significance in the name that has been degraded to "Mem" or that the title "Soldiers Field" was intended to be more than a mere designation of Harvard's athletic grounds?

Nearby are some of the great shrines of American liberty, Faneuil Hall, Bunker Hill, the green at Lexington and the site of the bridge at Concord where the Minutemen fired "the shot heard round the world." Massachusetts avenue, between Medford and Lexington, was the route which Paul Revere took on his famous ride of April 19, 1776. It was over the wooden structure which the Anderson bridge has replaced that the British redcoats marched on that same night, and it was in Harvard square that they lost their way and received new directions from a Loyalist tutor of the College.

The names of such places might be multiplied indefinitely A few hours devoted to visiting some of the more famous will amply repay anyone by a heightened interest in his surroundings and a sharpened sense of observation. It might be mentioned that the empty and profitless Sunday afternoons of winter will soon be here.