off in a single
term. Speaking of tumblers, it may be mentioned as an instance of
the progress of luxury, even there, that down to about 1815 such a
thing was not known, the drinking-vessels at dinner being
capacious pewter mugs, each table being furnished with two. We
were at one time a good deal incommoded by the diminutive size of
the milk-pitchers, which were all the while empty and gone for
more. A waiter mentioned, for our patience, that, when these were
used up, a larger size would be provided. 'O, if that's the case,
the remedy is easy.' Accordingly the hint was passed through the
room, the offending pitchers were slyly placed upon the floor,
and, as we rose from the tables, were crushed under foot. The next
morning the new set appeared. One of the classes being tired of
_lamb, lamb, lamb_, wretchedly cooked, during the season of it,
expressed their dissatisfaction by entering the hall bleating; no
notice of which being taken, a day or two after they entered in
advance of the Tutors, and cleared the tables of it, throwing it
out of the windows, platters and all, and immediately retired.

"In truth, not much could be said in commendation of our Alma
Mater's table. A worse diet for sedentary men than that we had
during the last days of the _old_ hall, now the laboratory, cannot
be imagined. I will not go into particulars, for I hate to talk
about food. It was absolutely destructive of health. I know it to
have ruined, permanently, the health of some, and I have not the
least doubt of its having occasioned, in certain instances which I
could specify, incurable debility and premature death."--_Scenes
and Characters in College_, New Haven, 1847, pp. 113-117.

See INVALID'S TABLE. SLUM.

That the commons at Dartmouth College were at times of a quality
which would not be called the best, appears from the annexed
paragraph, written in the year 1774. "He [Eleazer Wheelock,
President of the College] has had the mortification to lose two
cows, and the rest were greatly hurt by a contagious distemper, so
that they _could not have a full supply of milk_; and once the
pickle leaked out of the beef-barrel, so that the _meat was not
sweet_. He had also been ill-used with respect to the purchase of
some wheat, so that they had smutty bread for a while, &c. The
scholars, on the other hand, say they scarce ever have anything
but pork and greens, without vinegar, and pork and potatoes; that
fresh meat comes but very seldom, an