The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-09

President Harper. of Chicago University,
stated last week in public address tnat
of the five deaths which have taken place in
five years at the university three were trace
able to insufficient nutrition which in turn
was the result of the poor food supplied
in the district surrounding the university.
This, at first seems a severe reflection upon
the character of Chicago boarding houses,
but subsequent interview with President
Harper indicates that his remarks had ref
erence to the fare of students who, in old
fashioned parlance, boarded themselves
rather than to that supplied by restaurants
or regular boarding places. 1t was formerly
quite common custom for college student
with little money to hire cheap room in
the neighborhood of the school, there to
sleep, study and cook his own frugal meals.
Many an elderly citizen will tell of his ex-
perience in this line and probably take more
pleasure in the telling than he did in endur
ing the privations, but as he looks back at it
the enforced deprivation of luxuries seems
nothing more than salutary lesson in self
denial. In most instances this was doubt
less true, for though the student who in
those days boarded himself did so because
of small means, the food which he did allow
himself was, according to account, of a SUBJ
stantial character. Corn bread, molasses,
corn-meal mush and milk figure in these
tales, and certain home made viands of
lasting sort like dried fruits, sausages, etc.,
have a part. However great might have
been the longing for daintier fare, there was
Probably most people have an impression
that this manner of living is no longer prac-
ticed save by students in semi-rural COM
munities and near their own homes; indeed
many persons believe that the hunger for
education which leads to such self-denial
seldom exists nowadays, but according to
President Harper hundreds of boys and girls
are working their way through his institu-
ton and subsisting on mere pittance. A
case he mentions as one of many is that of
two girls from Iowa living together in one
room, their living expenses being less
than one dollar a week each Juliet
Corson once undertook to show that a
dinner for six might be provided for fifteen
cents, but later confessed that the plan
was not practicable. One skilled in the
nutritive value of foods and also expert
enced as a buyer might possibly provide
wholesome and nutritious meals for two
persons for the sum named, but few young
students are able to do it for themselves.
They subsst mainly on bread, crackers,
tea and the like, and practically suffer from
slow starvation. President Harper does not
encourage this sacrifice of the body to the
mind, and says: 1.-The university is turning
out men of strong intelligence but weak
bodies. Some OF them are moral and intel
lectual dyspeptics 1t cannot be expected
that they will be of much use in the world
If the body is not properly nourished the
mind will refuse TO act as ii should, and 1
therefore hold that it is as necessary to take
care of and cultivate the one as the other"
He wants TO establish students boarding
houses under college supervision where the
young men and women can obtain whole
some. well-cool1ed food at the lowest possi-
Bile cost. He would do well to establish.
also department where the science Of
foods and nutrition and cooking can be
taught 1t is not only inpecunicus college
lies with plenty in the larder suffer from
the same cause Through poor cooking. 1t
is when cookery is given its proper i'm
portance in the general economy and men
and women engage in it as they take up
other arts and professions that the evil he
lamenss will be done away with. Chicago
University can co greater service to the