whether it be the etiquette of the Nibelungenlied or the authenticity of some new archæological specimen.
Two Recesses are allowed during the year,—one in the fall, another in the spring. Each consists of about a week or ten days. On these occasions those who are not far from home like to take advantage of the opportunity and renew sweet memories by the family hearth. Others may accept the invitations of friends to spend the holidays with them, or else visit the Capitol, Mt. Vernon, or some of the many places and objects of national or special interest which are close at hand. Whatever he may do, the student need not feel at all lonely or abandoned, even if he cannot join the happy exodus. Christmas never comes to find his good-fellowship unchallenged. In spite of his local reputation, he is no hermit. He has usually gone abroad to come here; and he explores while here. Various are his discoveries. He is not hampered by prescribed hours. No beadle or proctor waits for him. He is not passported to his privileges, but is considerately permitted to be his own friend. Not as a stranger do the museums and libraries of the city know him. He shows the homelikeness of thorough and sympathetic use of gifts. However exorbitant his wants, be he epicurean and gourmand, he shall not go heartlessly through a Christmas or an Easter in Baltimore. The home of the soft-shell crab, the diamond-back terrapin, and the canvas-back duck scorns to harbor a connoisseur as a starveling; and the large parks, with their lakes, fountains, trees, and flowers, the grand churches, with their wonderful music, and the busy streets, with the numberless beautiful faces, would defy even a listless aesthete to remain dreary under their influence.
Two prominent days in the calendar are worthy of mention. The first is Commemoration Day. This falls on the 22d of February, and celebrates the inauguration of the President of the university. On this day the names of the successful candidates for degrees and honors are published and diplomas bestowed. A large audience is assembled, and listens to a formal address by the President, followed by one of the professors or a distinguished visitor. Often a grand reception in the evening prolongs the celebration and the day is rounded with great rejoicing. Commencement Day repeats this variously happy programme, and closes the work of the year.
There are no groups, sets, or cliques, into which the students might be classified. No matter whether certain signs might suggest such cues as "sport," " dude," "masher," or what not, still we are forced to acknowledge that those under criticism for the most part prove their right to the title student. Probably that is the reason why there is no luxurious indulgence of nicknames among us. A collegian represents his father's whole family. "Hic jacet Joe, hie jacet Bill," under these skies seems a barbaric "In Memoriam."
The haunts of the student are not very shadowy or mysterious. The undergraduates have a room for themselves, where they congregate and compare opinions at unoccupied hours. The graduate student, if not in the laboratory or lecture-room, may be found in the seminary-room of his department. The seminary is quite an institution among us. At stated times, usually every two weeks, the students of a de-
