Sunday Hours at the Library Reading Room.

To the Editors of the Crimson:

The Gore Hall Reading Room seems to be open on Sundays at the wrong hours. It is very often the case that men would like to take the opportunity on Sunday to clear up back work, and yet they would not feel justified in using the whole of a day intended for rest, for such a purpose. On one day a week, at the least, it is good for a man to take a certain amount of rest and recreation out in the open air. Now the present hours at the Library Reading Room put a premium on spending Sunday afternoons indoors or else on letting go entirely work that could be done very comfortably in the evening. As everyone knows, the Reading Room opens at one o'clock and closes at five.

Most of the men in College are apt to leave Cambridge on Saturday. If the Library were open Sunday evening instead of Sunday afternoon, they would be able to spend Saturday evening and all day Sunday at home and return for an evenings' work after a good rest. Under the present scheme, if one intends to accomplish work in the Library, he might as well not leave Cambridge at all. This is the case at any rate with the man who lives any great distance out of town. Personally, I have been very much exasperated very often by the present system and I feel sure that this has been the case with others not a few.

There cannot be any reasonable objection to evening hours on religious grounds, for morning and afternoon services are both open to those who wish to go to church. Furthermore, even if two attendants prefer to have evenings free, in such a matter the wishes of one or two cannot be considered against the wishes of one or two hundred.

Altogether, it seems to me that if the University had tried to pick out the most inconvenient hours for keeping the reading room open, it could not have hit on better ones than those during which the Library is open, at present. 1902.