THE THAYER CLUB.

THE questions arising as to the management and condition of the Thayer Club are often spoken and written of by students in a humorous or flippant vein. We propose to consider these questions rather more seriously, for we know them to be of interest and importance to a large body of undergraduates.

In the first place, a few words of a statistical nature. The Thayer Club was founded in 1865 in accordance with the terms of a gift of money from Nathaniel Thayer, Esq. The object held in view by that liberal gentleman was to afford to poor students the means of obtaining good, substantial board at cost price. The club was organized under the form of an independent body, but this independence is now merely nominal, as the Faculty have an absolute veto on any vote passed by the association. The number of students connected with the Club has gradually increased, until it now amounts to 260. The principal officer of the concern is the Steward: he is elected by the members from among their own number, and receives a salary of $400 per annum. His duties are similar to those of the steward of any other club.

No one will deny that the gift of Mr. Thayer was generous and judicious, that there should be in Cambridge an institution where poor students can obtain good food at small price. Acknowledging these facts, we must at the same time set forth what we regard to be the two serious faults of the Club. One arises from the nature of its constitution; the other from the natural increase in the number of members, which cannot be helped, and from the neglect of the Faculty, which could be helped.

Let us take up these points in order. The constitution provides that the Steward shall be an undergraduate. We suggest that a professional steward, giving his whole time to the business, would serve the interests of the Club much better than it is possible for any undergraduate, however able and zealous, to do. At Williams College the poor students obtain excellent fare at $2.50 per week, while here the fare is poor and insufficient at $4 per week. It may be said that prices are much lower one hundred and fifty miles back in the country than near a large city. This is true; but it must also be considered that a club of three hundred men ought to obtain board at a much cheaper proportional rate than a club of seventy men, and that a professional steward would be able to arrange the wholesale importation of provisions from the country on a much larger scale than an undergraduate whose time for the business is, of course, limited.

In regard to the increase of the number of members, it needs no argument to show that the deserted depot which provided ample accommodation for one hundred students in 1865 affords but scanty space for three hundred students in 1873; that ranges intended for the cooking of eight joints of meat cannot be made to serve for the cooking of twenty-four joints; that although one waiter may wait properly upon ten men, she may not possess the power to answer the demands of twenty-four hungry undergraduates.

As to neglect by those having the highest authority in the matter, we will simply state the fact that we have now been members of the Club nearly three years, and that during this time not a single member of the Faculty has entered the place where the constitutions, the manners, and, in some degree, the characters of one half the young men intrusted to their care were being formed.

As our remarks are intended to be suggestive rather than condemnatory, we will close with a proposal. On the Delta stands a building, the interior of which is a beautiful and spacious hall, having beneath it the means of preparing dinner for eight hundred persons. Why should not Commons be removed thither? According to the present plan this hall is to be used on one day alone during the year, - for the dinner of the Alumni. We hope that that Association will yield one of its privileges, and confer health and comfort on hundreds who will come here when our college life is but a memory.