'To Thine Own Self Be True'

In recent years travelers on tourist ships bound for Europe have been hard put to escape reading a small pamphlet put out by our State Department. The booklet tells the tourist that everywhere he goes on the Continent he will be regarded as an emissary of this country, "an unofficial ambassador" as they say. While designed to make the tourist's stay a pleasanter one, the pamphlet tends to creat moody paranoids out of harmless school-teachers and graduates of progressive high schools. Feeling that the results of the Geneva Conference may be undone by a single misunderstanding, they tiptoe through Europe with Doom snapping at their heels.

Have it known, therefore, that you are not unofficial ambassadors to the Harvard Summer School from anywhere. "Harvard indifference" is more than a cliche; there is a certain feeling in Cambridge that what you are or do is your own affair and nobody else's.

Nonetheless, the Old Cambridge Hands are apt to be a bit snippy about what they consider an invasion of their private club. These OCH's, many of whom have no visible connection with Harvard, look askance at short pants on females and knee socks on men. They will sniff if you continue to dress as you did at your Old School, and will snicker if you adopt an Ivy League clothing. Intellectually, too, you will be damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Ignore all this. While a certain formality in dress and behavior is to be preferred, even in the summer time, the true Harvard man will admit to no barriers of custom or geography. Although he does not like to see his University mistaken for a country club, he too enjoys his modest amusements. All that you need for acceptance into his community is an inquiring mind intelligently applied.