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THE MAROON TIGER
^he Rambler
A. Russell Brooks, (Jan.) ’31
1 shall begin this random journey knowing not just
where I go, nor how long it will take me to get there;
but knowing one thing- that I do set out with a genuine
urge to he moving in that direction. As I begin, 1
feel myself afflicted with an acute case of inadequacy.
This is due to the fact that since having exchanged the
genial fellowship of Three Flights Up and the aca
demic imbibings of Sale Hall for the world out there.
I have lost touch, in a measure, with the vital current
of Morehouse ideas and fellowship. Now that I am here
in body and spirit, I find I am not wholly here in mind,
not because of disinterest but because of the fact that
I do not know from first-hand experience precisely what
are the things uppermost in the minds of the students,
what are their noblest achievements and most regretable
failings. But despite this cause of my present purpose
less rambling, I shall ramble nevertheless, for the spirit
moves me. Kindly bear with an inarticulate vagrant.
As long as Morehouse men are heard pacing the cor
ridors and rooms of the dormitories reciting Shake
speare or bursting forth into plaintive and syncopat
ing song, Morehouse College is secure; but as soon as
such healthy signs are no more in evidence, the Col
lege loses its integrity, and becomes something else.
Indeed, as long as the returning Sophomore or Junior
can be seen sitting in the rear end of the longest taxi
in Atlanta with his ugly, worn-out trunk neatly placed
on the front end before the radiator; as long as “sig-
nifiers” must “signify”; as long as mid-night Bull Ses
sions must be held to ascertain the fate of some love-
forlorn “clock-puncher” who is conspicuously scarce
here of late; as long as unknown quantities of precious
hours needs must be spent getting excess steam off the
chests of well-meaning opponents and proponents of
various measures which are up before the student body
at a heated meeting in Chapel; as long, however, as these
same would-be champions giving place to the sounder
reasoning of leaders who have weighed and balanced
the situation with cooler detachment; as long as the
beloved President continues (in the words of Mr. May
nard Jackson) to ‘“inject the red corpuscles of man
hood” into the men; as long as they still love him and
prize him as a living, breathing precept for all manly
attainment; as long as there are fellows here who, though
they line up with fraternities, have horse-sense enough
to know that Alpha or Omega or what not after their
names does not add one iota to them as men—that
they make the fraternities, not the fraternities them;
as long as Horse Collars must be Horse Collars; as
long as there remains that close relationship between
professor and student, which is half the College; as
long as Morehouse College Chapel continues to be what
it has been for decades—a place of intellectual and
spiritual cultivation where is always stirring a current
of fresh and new ideas that help us see into the life of
things; as long as Chapel is an institution of the stu
dents, by the students and for the students; as long as
the fellows can find a great deal to interest them on
the campus without having to resort wholly to some
more or less superficial and shallow amusements off
campus; as long as Morehouse men can be completely
comfortable and happy in the company and good fel
lowship of Morehouse men; as long as respect for schol
arship is fostered among the students; as long as the
morale is such that brooks no giving in to defeat with
out glorious comebacks such as the girdiron climax to
an uneventful season when the Tigers defeated the Fisk
Bulldogs; as long as students take an interest in stu
dent government; as long as they find enough time from
the hurry and flurry of each busy day to read and think
about the great world—of millions of human beings
with many problems, and of the present crisis in the eco
nomic situation which sometimes seems to be assuming
the dimensions of a universal tragedy: As long, 1 say,
as certain manifestations of Morehouse Spirit are in evi
dence, the College remains.
The physical condition of the campus makes it neces
sary to take many of the programs and games elsewhere.
In view of the fact that this is a temporary situation,
there does not need to be any anxiety on that score.
It is just as well that we go through this period of
adjustment and readjustment as gracefully as possible.
When it is all over, the beauty of the campuses will
be new inspiration.
I set out on this short tramp with wanderlust in my
system, not knowing where I was going, and I have
been consistent with my purpose from the outset—not
to have any purpose at all. I have reviewed rather
casually certain intimations of immortality of Morehouse
College, which, despite a reduction in attendance and
the temporarily difficult ingress and egress to and from
the campus, do, nevertheless, reassure us that solid and
valid things cannot be disturbed by the “changes and
chances of this mortal life.” It is my earnest desire
that these signs always remain and that the fellows do
not allow themselves to be enslaved by the fetters of
their own little world in a time when the world is sick,
but that they, through reading, discussion and contact,
may come to understand, as far as is possible,, the whole
law and meaning of existence.
LANGSTON HUGHES
(Continued from Page 1)
concerned, we can no more accuse him of being an
Atheist than we can accuse him of being a prostitute.
In view of these facts it remains that we should re
serve our judgement until we have information to prove
our contentions, and cease jumping at unwarranted con
clusions.
Because a picture reveals a pitiful scene does not
prove that the photographer was rotten.
—L. R. B.
“All the best colleges are represented at Sing Sing
prison, with an evident preference for the crime of forg
ery, yet men who have worked their way through col
lege are rarely found behind the bars, according to a
recent statement issued by Anthony N. Peterson, Protes
tant chaplain of the prison.”—Middlebury Campus.