Chafing Chicle Chewers Champ Chunks To Ease Awful Strain of Concentration

That gum consumption jumps tremendously during examinations, that chewers are habitual addicts, and that the quantity of gum consumed by students far exceeds the popular conception are the conclusions drawn from a recent survey of gum-chewing conditions in the College.

Emerson D furnished the most enlightening information. Research revealed 117 wads under the 72 seats in the center section. First prize went to a seat with 13 wads; one with 11 ran a close second. The entire 330 seats harbored 322 gobs. Calculated to represent a frankly insignificant average, 88% of the College's classroom seats must hide wads of some sort.

Memorial Hall Restrains

Reports show an astonishing increase in deposited wads after examinations. Students evidently seek solace from nervous tension in gum-chewing. Rather significant, however, is the fact that the number of wads in Memorial Hall after an exam cannot compare with the number deposited in Sever and the New Lecture Hall. The awe-inspiring nature of the edifice must exert a restraining influence on the chicle-grinders. Especially heavy sufferers from deposits during exams are the so-called "examination boards" laid across armrests for the occasions.

The greatest number of wads occur just under the edge of the seats. Certain seats show many more exhausted lumps than others, indicating occupancy by rabid chicle-chewers.

1 3/4 Inch Single Wad

Though expansive quantities are usually the accumulation of months, one unmistakably single mass measured a diameter of one and three-fourths inches. The muncher of such a wad is the sort of fellow Kipling would refer to as a man.

Students apparently respect classrooms and the feelings of instructors as a rule, for Sever's tiled ground floor is liberally bedaubed each day with wads discarded upon entrance. Chicle gum is dried balata juice, which comes from the South American Sapodilla tree, and College caretakers are unanimous in consigning the stuff to perdition.

Usually printed hopefully on the gum-wrappers is the admonition to "Use this wrapper to dispose of gum," but such is the artistic nature of the chewers that they prefer to dispose of the sticky masses in the nude.