A USE FOR VACATION

Our local encyclopedia, the University Catalogue, devotes fourteen pages to the subject of Prizes. Aside from the thousands of dollars awarded annually in the form of scholarships or financial Aids, this large number of prizes is given solely as reward for specific achievements in a scholarly or literary field. These honors may be won by every imaginable form of intellectual activity: there are two for music, two for poetry, several for debating and oratory, several for scholarship in specified subjects, and many for essays, theses, or dissertations on any topic from political science to literature. The most famous and most valued of these, the Bowdoin Prizes, are awarded for dissertations on any serious subject. The Advocate and the Union, also, are both offering money rewards this year for literary efforts.

All of which is true enough, says the hard-worked student. But when is one to find time for the work which these competitions require? The man who is likely to be interested in them is more often than not truly "hard worked." "The world," i. e., the interruptions of lectures, tests, reports, etcetera, "is too much with us" to permit any considerable amount of outside work of this nature.

Yet the routine of the college does not continually interfere. Vacation, short as it is, affords a relief which may be utilized by the not-too-exhausted student. Particularly does it afford an opportunity for men who must stay in Cambridge over the holidays. During vacation the library is open as a comfortable haven for those who choose to forget themselves in work; the bell in Harvard Hall ceases its hourly interruption; and the work itself, carried on voluntarily for a welcome reward, may be a pleasant relaxation.