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Ancient and Illustrious Chug-Buggy Again Navigates Cambridge Highways and Byways

Secrets of Past Disinterred When Canny Scribe Spots Spot on Door

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED

For the past three or four days, there has been seen, in close proximity of the college, an aged automobile, so ancient in vintage that its counterpart does not survive in the memory of the hoariest of the entering class. Conspicuous among the Packards and Mercedes' of the callow Freshmen, it still retains its brass-bound dignity, and rightly too, for it is a car with a proud past, and needs not defer to any present-day glittering non-entity.

Mad Ravings

He who penetrates the frigid reserve of Silas, the occupant of the horseless carriage, will be told of the motorboat engine that makes it go, of the Zeppelin radiator, of the amazing economy of gasoline, and while the credulous Freshman and the harried upper classman may take him at his word, the sharp-eyed graduate student who is versed in the traditions of Cambridge notes the square area on the doors, whence a plate has been removed, and at once remembers the true story of the car's past life, and discounts Silas' mad ravings for cobwebs and moontalk.

Former Glory

In the boom days of 1909 the class of 1884, returned for its 25th reunion presented this aristocrat among chugg-buggies to President Lowell. For many years it served its illustrious master faithfully, but at last was supplanted by a newer creation when the venerable Prexy surrendered to the modern urge for speed. It was given away, on the recipient's solemn promise never to return it to Cambridge, and for years it has cruised about the further reaches of Massachusetts, never till now returning to the scene of its halcyon days.

Prodigals Return

Now it is back. Bereft it is true of the brass plates which once carried the presentation inscription upon the doors, stripped of its ancient aura of presidential dignity, but secure in its memories, it chuggs haughtily down Quincy Street, and draws up once more before Memorial Hall.

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