eat! We eat! Nov. 16th. at
Sofroni's. All those who want to get in give their names to the
monitor."

Eugene had heard nothing of this, but he judged that it originated in
one of the other classes. He spoke to the monitor and learned that only
seventy-five cents was required of him. Students could bring girls if
they wished. Most of them would. He decided that he would go. But where
to get a girl? Sofroni's was an Italian restaurant in lower Clark
Street, which had originally started out as an eating place for Italian
laborers, because it was near an Italian boarding house section. It was
located in an old house that was not exactly homely. A yard in the back
had been set with plain wooden tables, and benches had been placed for
use in the summer time and, later, this had been covered with a mouldy
tent-cloth to protect the diners from rain. Still later this became
glass and was used in winter. The place was clean and the food good.
Some struggling craftsman in journalism and art had found it and by
degrees Signor Sofroni had come to realize that he was dealing with a
better element. He began to exchange greetings with these people to set
aside a little corner for them. Finally he entertained a small group of
them at dinner--charging them hardly more than cost price--and so he was
launched. One student told another. Sofroni now had his yard covered in
so that he could entertain a hundred at dinner, even in winter. He could
serve several kinds of wines and liquors with a dinner for seventy-five
cents a piece. So he was popular.

The dinner was the culmination of several other class treats. It was the
custom of a class, whenever a stranger, or even a new member appeared,
to yell "Treat! Treat!" at which the victim or new member was supposed
to produce two dollars as a contribution to a beer fund. If the money
was not produced--the stranger was apt to be thrown out or some
ridiculous trick played upon him--if it was forthcoming, work for the
evening ceased. A collection was immediately taken up. Kegs of beer were
sent for, with sandwiches and cheese. Drinking, singing, piano playing,
jesting followed. Once, to Eugene's utter astonishment, one of the
students--a big, good natured, carousing boy from Omaha--lifted the nude
model to his shoulders, set her astride his neck and proceeded around
the room, jigging as he went--the girl meantime pulling his black hair,
the other students following and shouting uproariously. Some