The College Toga.

The following account of the college Toga, as worn in 1836, may be of interest to Harvard students. It was written for the old Harvard Register by Mr. David Greene Haskins:

"The reader who has remembrances of Cambridge running back to 1836 - the year that Harvard celebrated her two hundredth anniversary - will recall with a smile the fanciful summer garment of the students then in vogue, called the College Toga. For at least two seasons it was in high fashion with the undergraduates. It was made of gingham, of a color and pattern to suit the taste of the wearer. It was a loose-fitting garment reaching to the knees, was gathered at the neck, and also at the waist, behind. It had a turned-over collar, a small cape rounded in front, and a belt of the material of the dress. The sleeves were either hooked or buttoned at the wrist. It was trimmed with a long-tasselled white fringe. The accompaniments of this dress were a low-crowned and broad-brimmed straw hat, secured by a broad ribbon under the chin; trowsers, and silk or thread gloves, of a color in harmony with that of the toga, and, usually, a heavy cane. It is not known to whom belongs the distinction of having first conceived the College Toga. * * * * It may be of interest to remark that the writer was an undergraduate at the time referred to, and that the identical toga, not yet shorn of its pristine attractions, in which he used to disport himself, lies at this moment before him."