show that collegians can be well and cheaply fed if proper business methods are employed, and if the college authorities exercise no more than a general supervision.
The most interesting development of the present day, as already hinted, has been the return to the principle of the English system in its true intramural form, at the Freshman Dormitories. Here to be sure is no buttery, or service of meals in chambers, and the element of compulsion is supplied only by the rule that every man must pay for his Commons whether present or not; but the success of the plan is unquestioned. It suggests in fact the interesting speculation whether the same system could not be applied in other dormitories, or groups of dormitories, especially those devoted to a single class. Something of the sort was contemplated when Holyoke House was built in 1871, with a set of dining-rooms on the main floor[1]—but that was too far in advance of the movement. It seems not unlikely that the reawakening of class spirit, coupled with the decline of the club table, the discomforts of “eating round,” and the strong tendency of undergraduates to follow the line of least resistance, would now make the idea feasible. Time, that great expositor, will tell.
- ↑ Harvard Book, ii, 48.
