OUT IN THE COLD

Talk of doing away with compulsory attendance of classes is a source of current speculation, and a topic likely to be heard more frequently as time goes on. Meanwhile, an interesting sidelight on its possibilities is to be seen in the number of non-course lectures being given in the University in the afternoons and evenings, and the undergraduate attendance at them.

At present, the balance seems to be favorable: the Crimson used to be under a painful duty of drumming up trade at these gatherings, while now it if so customary to find Emerson D overflowing long before the scheduled hour of the lecture, that it sometimes seems a case of the less said, the better. Professor Rand's lecture today on Virgil, the second of the series designed to guide men studying for general examinations, beings in this class. At the first lecture of the series, there was such a large audience that many of those for whom it was particularly intended, coming late, were turned away. Professor Rand, besides being a classical scholar of the highest honor, is known as the best after-dinner speaker in Cambridge. This lecture, to be sure, comes before dinner; but it is not of the most formal sort, and late-comers are again likely to find themselves "out in the cold."