THE BIC RECONSIDERED

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I was standing next to the two Nigerians during their confrontation with Hayes Bick. The students took their time deciding they wanted some coffee and a doughnut. The man behind the counter waited. When he put a tray in front of them one of the students, smoking a pipe, exclaimed it was dirty. The tray was a normal Bic tray with the usual coffee stains. The man wiped the tray with a paper napkin. The pipe smoker loudly protested that wiping a tray did not make it clean. The man removed the tray and put another one in front of the students. The students claimed that that tray was dirty also. Then the man told them that if they didn't like it there they could go to Waldorf's. When the pipe smoker again reminded him of his obligation to the public the man told him he wasn't the public.

One of the Nigerians called the police and led them to the counter. The policemen spoke to the students for over ten minutes; they were not immediately hustled out. The waiter was asked by the police to ask the students to leave.

This incident has been made to take on overtones of discrimination. Hayes Bickford's treats everybody, regardless of color or creed, with equal indifference toward their patronage. If one does not like the service at a cafe, then one finds a place closer to his standards of quality. Derek Reist, '67