Vol 



Published monthly by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Connecticut. 



Subscnption. $ 1 .00 a year Single copy. 10 cents 



Entered as Second-Class Matter June 12. 1909. at Sound Beach Post Office, under Act of March 3, 1897. 



Number 2 



Vlll 



JULY. 



A Thoroughly Commendable Vagabond 



BY EDWARD F. BIGELOW, ArcAdiA, Sound Beach, Conn. 



CURIOUS, is it not, how some 

 words are a sort of slur upon the 

 human mind? They are pessimis- 

 tic in result although in themselves they 

 mav be only good. Take the word preju- 

 dice; it really means a prejudgment, yet 

 it conveys the impression that the mind 

 is thinking disparaging things. What is 

 a vagabond? One that exemplifies the 

 meaning of the Latin word '•vagus," to 

 wander around. It is a curious fact that 

 the mind usually thinks of a wanderer 

 as necessarily bad. Should not one sup- 

 pose that the language would commend 

 a vagabond as the very opposite of a 

 stolid loafer who has not life enough to 

 move from the position where he sits 

 and thinks and sometimes only sits." 



Bliss Carman of New Canaan, Con- 

 necticut, has for many years been teach- 

 ing and inspiring mankind with the idea 

 that one may wander around, yes, even 

 be a highly commendable vagabond and 

 think thoughts that are uplifting, even 

 heavenlv. "His poem, "The Joys of the 

 Road,"' in "Songs from Vagabondia," 

 gave me my first knowledge of this de- 

 lightful vagabond. At that time I had 

 become imkied with the spirit of Walt 



\M-iitman"s "'Afoot and light-hearted, I 

 take to the open road." 



One thinks of Whitman as swinging 

 along at a rapid pace in a rough and 

 ready style, but when we turn to Bliss 

 Carman we think more of mind and 

 heart than of legs. Xo one reading his 

 "The loys of the Road" would think of 

 him as hurrying. He contemplates and 

 uplifts. His vagabondage sees things 

 aright and gets their inner meaning. Xo 

 one has portrayed more perfectly nor 

 beautifully the joys of the road in 

 autumn. Every nature lover should know 

 the poem. It is almost impossible to se- 

 lect a quotation since the entire poem 

 might well be considered a single sen- 

 tence, a leisurely sentence wandering 

 along a delightful October road only 

 now and then to pause but not really to 

 stop. The thought goes on, one joy 

 leads to another so rapidly as to fill the 

 mind with a constantl\- recurring pano- 

 rama of beautiful pictures. Thus he 

 swings ofi^ leisurely : 



Now the jovs of the road are chiefly these: 

 A crimson touch on the hard-wood trees; 



A vagrant's morning wide and blue, 



In early fall, when the wind walks, too; 



Copyright 1915 by The Agassiz Association, ArcAdiA: Sound Beach, Conn. 



