A CURE FOR AN OLD EVIL.

IT is with much hesitation that the writer introduces once more into the columns of a college paper a subject so ancient and threadbare as the college goody. But he begs the reader to restrain his indignation for a moment, when he shall learn that the only reason for the writer's presumption is a laudable desire that this article may be the last upon the subject, and because after profound meditation he has hit upon a plan at once simple and effective for making the goody of to-day a thing of the past, and the goody of to-morrow a thing of beauty.

We have all read in Political Economy of "efficient labor," and the means by which this condition is arrived at. But none of us have read that one of the devices for making labor efficient is that the wages of the laborer should be paid by a person other than the one for whom the labor is done. The laborer is impelled to do his work thoroughly by the fear of dismissal at the hands of his employer; but if the work is done for a person other than the employer, and the latter is indifferent to the manner in which it is performed, who can expect the laborer to take pains with his work? He gets his wages whether he works well or ill, therefore it is manifestly to his advantage to take as little trouble about it as possible.

This is exactly the position of the goody at present. She receives her pay from the Bursar, without regard to the manner in which she treats those for whose service she is employed. There is no reason why she should do her work as long as she is paid for not doing it. The fault lies not so much in the goody as in the system.

Now, if the reader has had the patience to follow me so far, I will recommend to the suffering public in general, and to the Bursar in particular, a new system by which the work of the goody may be rendered efficient, and our rooms assume an appearance of cleanliness.

Let the College deduct from the rent of each room an amount equal to that paid the goody for keeping it in order. Then let the occupant of each room hire a goody on his own account, to be paid by himself, and whom he may dismiss if her duties are neglected.

By this system every goody employed would know that her wages depended on the efficiency of her labor, and she would then attempt to do something besides breaking mantel-ornaments and putting ashes on the floor, which at present are about the only traces which she leaves of her presence in a room.

Patient reader, I look forward with you to the time when the virtues of the goody may be extolled by the collegiate muse, and when we shall recognize in the neatness and order of our rooms the beneficent hand of an "efficient" goody.

B. T.