Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Olde Cambridge

These and many other traditions were a part of the education of Cambridge boys threequarters of a century ago; on such traditions Holmes and Lowell were nurtured, and it was into an atmosphere full of such that Longfellow entered when he removed to Cambridge. It may be called provincial, certainly, but it was such a provincialism as that of the heronry of which we were proud, in the deep swamps called the Fresh Pond marshes, where successive broods of birds were hatched, varying in length of wing or power of flight, but agreeing in this, that all flew from it at morning and winged their way back to it as evening drew on.

Add to all this that Cambridge, like other college towns in America, was a place of simple habits, where wealth counted for little and intellect for a great deal; indeed, wealth counts for comparatively little in Cambridge to this day. When a boy, hearing complaint made of the low salaries paid to all professors,--then about $1,000,--I asked why they remained in