552 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



comment on the part of the student body. Tims, a freshman in agri- 

 culture adds to his report : " It may not be out of place to remark 

 that, if President Schurman went to a Huestis Street boarding-house, 

 he would not require two hours for meals." 



So, as a matter of interest, a record was made of all the individual 

 students who give six hours or less weekly to meals. As summarized 

 in Table 4, 215 men and 5 women, or 24-6 per cent, of the students who 

 answered our inquiry, give but 20 minutes or less to each meal. When 

 it is remembered that most of the students eat in boarding-houses where 

 more or less time is lost by the slowness of the service, some idea is 

 afforded of the unwarrantable haste with which students eat.* 



Furthermore, numerous students report 45 minutes, others 40, 35 

 or 30 minutes; last of all, a junior in architecture gives 26 minutes 

 daily to his meals. Certainly we should welcome any influence which 

 could make the student's dining-table more attractive as a place for 

 leisurely eating and beneficial conversation.! 



The time given to sleep is very uniform, with the variations wider 

 below than above; the longest sleepers are two young men, a senior in 

 law and a junior in mechanical engineering, who demand ten hours 

 daily, while one student reports but six hours ; two, five and two thirds 

 hours; and one, a freshman in agriculture, only five and a half hours, 

 daily, j 



The unclassified time is regularly higher in women's than in men's 

 reports, while the extreme of 7.43 hours daily not otherwise accounted 



* Doubtless many of these 220 students prepare their own breakfast, and 

 make a very simple fare of fruit, cereals and milk. If ten minutes sufficed 

 for this, they might spend 25 minutes each upon the two remaining meals at 

 some boarding-house. 



f The trouble may lie in part in the fact that the atmosphere of the typical 

 college boarding-house is one of haste: the table service, and even some share 

 of the preparation of food and the resetting of tables and washing of dishes, 

 falls to student waiters who must hurry their fellows to save time enough for 

 their own meals. And, at Cornell, this haste is augmented by the prevalence 

 of ' eight o'clocks,' and by the restriction of the noon interval, in many cases, 

 to the single hour between one and two, and, still further, by the fact that 

 nearly all the students board off the campus and must take practically a mile 

 walk for their lunch. Some confirmation of this opinion may be seen in the 

 higher average for meal hours of the women who board in commons on the 

 campus. 



But the trouble lies even more, in my opinion, in the fact that the average 

 student has never been ' educated ' to a proper recognition of the possibilities 

 of the dinner-table as a place for general conversation, for the exchange of views, 

 for the leisurely discussion of college news and of the events of the day in 

 the world outside. The ' talk while you eat ' habit should replace the ' bolt and 

 run ' habit. 



X This young man rises every morning at four o'clock, and works seven 

 hours every day for his support. 



