Show MERRY VASSAR GIRL Midnight Feasts and Frisl Frolics THE OLD CORRIDOR POLICE Oysters a 1a Hairpin and Apples a la Robe de Chambre Thinct in the Old Eootjack Days Special Correspondence of THE HERALD AM much puzzled understand any editor should 1 wish me to wrlte Z an article about midnight feasts at Yassar In fact 5 it is rather disc chantinr just as 0 = l 1 cne leaves colle e for good with her mind full of reat ideas about work j in the big ferious world to be quell I 0 tint e ab u schcol T girl prawns which she would aloud wish forgotten in fair nev dignity of bachelorhood Now a little es say on The Higher Education of Women or The Influence of College Bred Women on Affairs would seem tome much better worth while If I were an editor However if I cant be serious 1 will be reminiscent which litho next best thIng and remind you that the best of the good times are all over at Vassar since the cor ridor teachers tho policewere done away with For the last year the students baf done pretty much its they liked and i of course they have behaved better than ever before as there was no reason to do otherwise other-wise When the school was first founded in the old bootjack days the rules were very strict You dont know what the bootjack days were Why they say that Mr Vassar was so ignorant of tho requirements of youn women that ho included a bootjack in tbo furniture of each room in fitting up the co lege I dont know whether this is reatly true or not but I think it must be for I have seen several of the bootjacks which are valued very highly as decorations r r 3 1 1 r f 1 cat 1 t 4 t r j I f L i i it A MIDXIdnr BAXQET A I was saying in the old days the rule were strict and tho police were lynxeyed Iven as late as my coming 1SS7 the spy ystem was kept up and of course we had rest sport in eluding watchers When ever any girl got a box of good things from ome she at once planned a spread ipreads were of two kinds One was DECOROUS HESrECTAIlLS AND DULL under the protection and with the approval of the police The other kind was secret mysterious and much more alluring without with-out their knowledge An Invitation might bo In the form of a card with a rude draw IE on the one side and a menu on the other or a little note like this Miss requests the pleasure of your ompany for evening To which the invariable answer was Miss accepts with pleasure Miss s Invitation for evening 1SS The goodies were generally concealed behind books in the bookcases or else here about the room Extra supplies were brought up from the store in the uilding surreptitiously one at u time ajar ot olives today a bag of sweet crackers tomorrow until all had been secured When the evening came endless vigilance ras exercised by the visitors in reaching the room and then cloaks were hung over ransoms and keyholes to hide the light and voices were subdued to whispers Oysters were a favorite dish One of my notations was on a card at the top of which was sketched an oyster shell The invItation said to eat these There were favored ways of cooking oysters Dna was to straighten out a hairpin and thrust it through the mollusk and fry it by the gns jet the other was to make a stew This was much more difficult as it involved a saucepan milk spoons and plates Ono Jlirl kept a saucepan for a long time by aving it made with a handle to fold over iside Then after using it she would wrap it up in paper and put it In the bonnet bon-net rack in her trunk It was a tiny one about tho right size and shape Tho plates could be used well enough during the day to put under the flower plant pots instead of the usual brown saucers which could easily get broken That gave them an ex cuse for being The store in the building was established for the legitimate purchases of tbs faculty and students The latter bought usually candy crackers olives chowchow pickles oysters or fruit Hero is another bill of Care which will show the prevailing taste etty well Menu Chicken Salad Pickled Oysters Olive Pickles Sandwiches Biscuits Lakes Grapes Ice Cream Coffee This last was a permitted feast else the pungent smell of the coffee would probably prob-ably have betrayed it Occasionally there was fun at tho permitted feasts also I remember re-member one when some or the faculty was imited Wo had fried oysters which were cooked downstairs and brought up The drooms as you know open upon tho students sitting rooms The party was in the sitting room and wo were using one of tbe bedrooms as a serving pantry when all the oj B ters were spilled on the floor We immed the door shut and held l r + I f r 1 y yet rpi A WHI3PXRED CO SULTATIO rally r-ally deciding that the floor was pretty cleaD and that it wa too bad to disappoint 1 r ti our guests so we picked up tho oyster and carried them in rather cool but stil very palatable 1 LATINO IX STORES There was one girl in my class whose I mother made the most exquisite ketchup I Whenever she got a bottle from home we used to stir around for sweet crackers and things to go with it Atone of those feast the ketchup girls chum ale not wisely bu too well Next day the doctor called saw + what was the matter at once and prescribed Just as she turned to go the doctor looked up and saw the cloak over the transom where it had been put to bide the light She turned from the telltale sight to cast an awful look backward at the student but she never told All these feasts ought to attest the domestic do-mestic instincts of the educated woman Did you know that the students have a kitcban now They have eetirel owing to Miss Goodsell the lady principal who has fitted up at her own expense a big kitchen with gas stoves and sinks and all sorts of conveniences which the students are free to use to play housekeeper In The recent abolition ot the corridor police system sys-tem together with the kitchens and the liberty of purchasing at the college store a liberty that was only at first extended to the professors then to the seniors and finally to all classes have taken much of the romance out of tho evening spreads but have enabled them to be much more elaborate and appetising Olives speared out of a jar with a hat pin and eaten with one eye on the door and oyster stew cooked over a gas jet are not luxurious provender after all as 2 tl tnrc da f Un a 21 w4 l One of the early menus was apples a la robe do cnainbra home spun taffy and ones much elaborate cider Later ones are much more elaborate elabo-rate and sometimes include soups entrees and dont laugh please two kinds of ice cream A taste for ice cream is much less objectionable than a taste for such hard drinks as were found in the boys clubrooms club-rooms at Harvard Here is a newer bill of fare Oysters on the halt shell Boned turkey Chicken croquettes French bread Olhcs Jelly Pistachio cream Banana cream Orange ice Cake Coffee And now that I have been virtuously and obediently frivolous so long I am sure I shall be allowed to be disobediently serious for a paragraph LIFE AT YASSAR ISNT ALL IIIOH H ers The good times may be best remembered but they are but a comparatively small feature of a girls life in college A few hours a week would cover the play time of tho most giddy We did not at college like acme of the young men drink whisky ir steal gates or shoot pistols at policemen Dr club base ball umpires Wo did not dress flashily or frown on those of us who wero poor and struggling We did not haze the Freshmen in any way that could prove iffensive The breath of scandal never touched the school Many of the students ittended prayer meetings under no compulsion com-pulsion but their own wish and all were decorous in their behavior in public and irivato Wo tried to help each other toe to-e honorable and studious Without harm ng our health indeed with actual benefit to itwe probably maintained a better iverage in all our studies thau any mens college in the country oould show This has been conspicuously proved by one amous comparison with Harvard Please cmcmber all these things when you read this and believe that our innocent jollity vas only the piquant sauce of a serious life and worthy purpose Miitr X Y |