A Collection of College Words and CustomsHall, Benjamin Homer
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A Collection of College Words and Customs
Hall, Benjamin Homer
College students -- United States -- Language; English language -- United States -- Slang; Slang
"The Tutors, who were seated at raised tables, could not, with all
their vigilance, see all that passed, and they winked at much they
did see. Boiled potatoes, pieces of bread, whole loaves, balls of
butter, dishes, would be flung back and forth, especially between
Sophomores and Freshmen; and you were never sure, in raising a cup
to your lips, that it would not be dashed out of your hands, and
the contents spilt upon your clothes, by one of these flying
articles slyly sent at random. Whatever damage was done was
averaged on our term-bills; and I remember a charge of six hundred
tumblers, thirty coffee-pots, and I know not how many other
articles of table furniture, destroyed or carried off in a single
term. Speaking of tumblers, it may be mentioned as an instance of
the progress of luxury, even there, that down to about 1815 such a
thing was not known, the drinking-vessels at dinner being
capacious pewter mugs, each table being furnished with two. We
were at one time a good deal incommoded by the diminutive size of
the milk-pitchers, which were all the while empty and gone for
more. A waiter mentioned, for our patience, that, when these were
used up, a larger size would be provided. 'O, if that's the case,
the remedy is easy.' Accordingly the hint was passed through the
room, the offending pitchers were slyly placed upon the floor,
and, as we rose from the tables, were crushed under foot. The next
morning the new set appeared. One of the classes being tired of
_lamb, lamb, lamb_, wretchedly cooked, during the season of it,
expressed their dissatisfaction by entering the hall bleating; no
notice of which being taken, a day or two after they entered in
advance of the Tutors, and cleared the tables of it, throwing it
out of the windows, platters and all, and immediately retired.
"In truth, not much could be said in commendation of our Alma
Mater's table. A worse diet for sedentary men than that we had
during the last days of the _old_ hall, now the laboratory, cannot
be imagined. I will not go into particulars, for I hate to talk
about food. It was absolutely destructive of health. I know it to
have ruined, permanently, the health of some, and I have not the
least doubt of its having occasioned, in certain instances which I
could specify, incurable debility and premature death."--_Scenes
and Characters in College_, New Haven, 1847, pp. 113-117.
See INVALID'S TABLE. SLUM.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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