The sun., 1916-08-24
THE AcADExIc OSTRICH.


To THE EDif'oR OF THE SuN-Sir: I
take II that most Of US are humanita-
r!an enough to care what the rest Of W
have to eat n what we ourselves have
to eat. A correspondent Of The U
complained recently about the food
served on Park Row.. lie can be sure
that Park Row sufferers are not the
only ones.
Mr.. Simeon Strunsky in an article on
Academic Heights in Harper's for
July presented an attractive picture OF
conditions up on Morningside Heights
THE eating shops are small. but they
strive for and attain artistic effects, cosey
corners. soft lights, quaint furnishings.
an actual spinning wheel in the window"
He added that this indicated something
better than the tastes that are satisfied
ut the cheaper restaurants. 1t Ia to be
noted that nothing whatever Is said
about food. Now either Mr.. Strunsky
never had to satisfy his %'innards'
three times a day on a Morningsids
restaurant diet or else It is so long Ago
that he has forgotten. So far az I
have discovered. In an experience OF
several years. there are only three ex-
amples Of the artistic type OF place he
describes. They are we'll enough in
their way, though n Of them happens
to be an expensive tea room. For my
part I would Just as soon DO without
the quaint furnishings and would
even forego the spinning wheel. Whole
some. clean. we'll cooked food. a rea-
sonably varied menu and generous serv.
ings constitute all anybody ought to
need for ordinary s%ustenance.
! don't say that this combination
can't be had In the M~orningside Heights
district but one has to hunt for 1t. Out
OF scores Of boarding house tables.
dining rooms (almost every apart
ment house has one). a few pan out
we'll. But our concern Is with res
taurants or lunch rooms.
Mr.. Strunsky scOrns the tastes that
are satisfied at the standardized places.
but one OF the kind is crowded daily.
II IL In striking contrast to certain
other places a stones throw from the
Columbia campus that could not stand
up under municipal inspection. BY the
way. when Is that crusade going to reach
Morningside. or will IL peter out before
Il gets there Hundreds Of students a
day eat food that may be technically
clean land may not. served in a way
to disgust. The assumption seems to be
that students will swallow anything.
To be sure. more han half a mile
down Broadway Is a good restaurant.
and more han half a mile down Column
bus avenue another Of the rathskeller
variety. As for the Columbia Unlver-
si,y I rave found people who
had been on the Heights most OF a
summer session M had never heard OF
it. 1t has never been the centre of
college community life that It might be
made. Let some aspiring candidate for
the PHI. D. make a survey OF eating
conditions up in his neighborhood in
stead Of starving while he studies how
t. help the masses.
Starving exaggerates It OF course.
for the academic ostrich Is moi an I'M
familiar bird may he soon go the way
OF the academic goat Of Harlem that
Mr.. Strunsky tells about. There are a
few OF US on the Heights who are not
particularly academic. and who would
rather not be the ostrich or the goat.
Why Is IL. anyway. that in the matter
OF eating places-cf high quality and
medium price New FOR has to lag some
generations behind Boston? W. ID. c.
New YORK, August %.