EHEU! EHEU!

WRITTEN ON HEARING THAT H. WOULD NOT BE OCCUPIED AGAIN THIS YEAR.

A HAPPY Hollis Senior once was I,

With numerous comforts blessed, and fair renown;

But now, dismantled of my dignity,

I tragically wander through the town,

That in some lodging-house, perchance, may

The gods of my unlucky hearth restore

To that unsullied sanctity which they

Do not maintain on Massachusetts' floor.

And if some dame, for reasonable fee,

(Once whom the Faculty could quite approve,)*

Would fain be hight my faithful land-ladye,

My Lares to her residence I 'd move.

And yet, where memory's subtle bond endears,

It's almost shameful to have turned and fled;

And left the reminiscences of years

/Without the rites of Class Day and of "spread."

And though I hope, with philosophic calm,

To take whatever Clotho spins to-day,

I cannot see without a rising qualm

Her elder woof so rudely torn away.

And then my notes, - my notes on Roman law!

And those unrivalled ones on Fine Arts 2!

Are fallen in some guilty gamin's paw,

Who don't love beauty and who can't construe.

Pale icicles are frozen round my grate,

And sheeted ice upon my chamber wall, -

With tears I view thy melancholy state,

Thou that I loved and lost, my Hollis Hall;

TO THE EDITORS OF THE CRIMSON:-

NOW that Memorial Dining-Hall has become a matter of personal interest to so many students, its management becomes necessarily the theme of many communications to the College papers; but, at the risk of trying your patience in the latter respect, I take this opportunity of noticing some careful investigation and their results within the hall, and correcting some rash statements without. In the Crimson for December 10 will be found an ably written article on the needs of Memorial Hall, embracing, in a general way, nearly all the species of complaints made by reasoning students; smacking, it is true, of the eight-dollar boarding-houses, yet far less unreliable than an editorial on this subject in the same paper, or than a still more untrustworthy one in the Advocate for January 10. It is in the light of careful investigations made by the Directors during the month of January that I now make these strictures. After the abundance of petty complaints, or rather the omnivocalism of the complainers, the results of their investigations were a surprise to the Directors themselves, and certainly make a most satisfactory showing for the present steward; who, except in the heated imagination of a rash editor, is not considered as occupying "the double position of servant of the students and creature of the President." In fact, the Directors have found Mr. Farmer not only ready to attend to complaints made by or through them, but most willing to act on their suggestions. Notwithstanding reports to the contrary, the figures go to show that Memorial Hall enjoys better fare, at less rates, than did the Thayer Club; not only are purchases now made on better terms, but the waste is proportionately smaller. The ability of the present steward in the purchase and executive duties of his office has been the subject of special commendation from the Directors' committee, and the ground for improvement seems now to lie wholly in some petty details of catering, - annoying, it is true, but easily remedied when pointed out in particular, instead of declaimed about in general.

As to waiters, it has been conclusively demonstrated that the number now employed is fully as large as is consistent with an unconfused and orderly system of service; there are brief or no delays in serving the different courses in their proper times, and whatever exceptional delays have been caused in the past were due to defective dummy or other kitchen arrangements for sending up the food into the hall, and not to a lack of waiters. The result, then, of the Directors' investigation is, a general commendation of the management of the Dining-Hall, and the fair interpretation of the figures and facts collected by them can support no other result. As to that mythical "contract" which a writer in the Advocate paraded in all its broken splendor, where each table was represented as having signed away its birthright to beer and brandy for the services of an undivided waiter, and then to have been cruelly defrauded of several shares in that waiter by a merciless College, - we can only answer that that scheme (alias contract) existed only in and for the year 1874-75, as is stated clearly in the head lines of that instrument.

A DIRECTOR.

*See Bible.