A Quaint Bit of History.

Full two hundred years ago the authorities were as much concerned for our welfare as to-day. With that same painstaking care which has led the modern athletic committee to investigate the minutest details of our out-of-door life, even to the making of long journeys at the expense of the college, the corporation of old inspected and regulated the life of the Puritan collegians of the 17th century. They even felt called upon to say exactly what they should eat, and what they should drink, as the records still plainly show. On June 23, 1692, the corporation held a meeting in Boston, and discussed the subject of "Plumb Cake" with this result:

"The corporation having been informed that ye custom taken up in the College, not used in any other Universities, the Comencers to have Plumb-Cake, is dishonorable to ye colledge, not grateful to wise men, and chargeable to ye Parents of ye Comencers; do therefore put an End to that Custom, and do hereby order that no Comencer or other scholar, shall have any Such Cakes in their Studies or Chambers, and that if any Scholar shall offend therein, ye Cakes shall be taken from him, and he shall moreover pay to the College twenty shillings for each and such offence."

What the objectionable cake was, how it was made, and why the authorities disliked it, we shall never know. But certain it is that after this dreadful order was passed, Jacobus and Guilliemus with a taste for "Plumb Cake," must have gone to bed hungry after burning the midnight oil, or else have incurred the penalty of the college law.