Eliot Bears Imprint of Strong Master; Finley Now Dominates the Largest House

Present Size of House: 446.

Vacancies for Freshmen: 134, Mostly triples (27), 14 doubles, few quadruples.

No deconverted rooms.

Price Range for Freshmen: $100 to 195 per term, mostly $170-195.

"Eliot House should have its individual distinguishing tone," says John H. Finley '25, Eliot Housemaster, "and Eliot's particular personality probably stems from two reasons." The first reason is the dashing personality and character of its original Master, Roger B. "Frisky" Merriman '96, and the second is the fact that the House has many large suites. Both facts contribute to the dignified gregarious quality that distinguished the character of the House.

Biggest of all the Houses. Eliot also has the largest suites, with many of them connected by easily-opened fire doors. Although the overcrowding has hit Eliot as much as any other college dormitory, it seems nowhere near so uncomfortable because the suites were so big originally. Big rooms, of course, tend to generate parties and bull session, which have been an Eliot trademark.

Much Talent

Finley points out the second chief House characteristic--that the house members seem to produce much talent. Eliot seems to go in for men who can write, paint, or act (as its always entertaining Christmas Elizabethan play proves). The academic standards, naturally always high, are not a primary consideration, although last year Eliot topped all other Houses in honors. Both '51 Rhodes scholars, both Scholarships to Cambridge (the Lionel de Jersey Harvard, and the Fiske Grants), one out of three Henry scholarships, and five out of six Bowdoin prizes went to Eliot men, although mark-wise the House as a whole is not so high as some others. This year, however, the House did not gain a single position on the senior Class committees.

Finally, Eliot's athletics have been consistently good. Although in the past the Mastadons have dominated the major sports like football and hockey, this year they have done very well in the minor contests gesides showing to advantage in the big-time sports.

Faculty members in Eliot form a strong part of the House structure. Its 26 tutors (nine of them resident) tend towards the Humanities, with a concentration of Government, History, and History and Lit. scholars. They form a congenial group, perhaps because Eliot is the only House where the old tutors elect the new ones (in all the other Houses they are appointed by the Master.) Finley himself knows every House member, appears at most sports events, and is a powerful cohesive influence in an naturally unwieldly House.

Finley has attempted to dispel the myth-that Eliot is a clubman's haven. Although it does have an above-average proportion of prep school graduates, he

stresses that Eliot men all have some forte, be it artistic, intellectual, athletic, or simply social. "Everything here depends on that solid group of middle men--non-specialistic gregarious students who draw the separate groups together in a certain loyalty to the house."

Perhaps most popular among its assets is Eliot's fine grille in the basement of I-entry where the hungry student can procure almost anything to eat from 5 p.m. till midnight. The house also boasts a chapel, a fine library, the best House darkroom, a projected are studio, ping-pong and pool tables, and squash courts, as well as the smallest and worst junior common room of all the Houses.

Besides the size of the House, another disadvantage of Eliot is the fact that many of its rooms overlook the subway yards or the central Kitchen delivery-way. Many, on the other hand, have a commanding view of the Charles