A PARSEE UNDERGRADUATE AT CAMBRIDGE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2605, 23 March 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

A PARSEE UNDERGRADUATE AT CAMBRIDGE.

Mb. B. R. Bomanjee, a Parsee undergraduate at Cambridge, has sent to an Indian paper a description in somewhat curious English of University life as he has seen it in this country. BKDS AND CHAfKLS. The besetting sin of the undergraduate, this gentleman tells us, is late rising. " Several men are known to leavo their beds five or ten minutes before the chapel commences so as to be just in time to be able to dress. This dress, on account of the brevity of time at their disposal, coneiste of jumping into a pair of bags without performjng even the necessary ablutions, and in putting a great coat on and buttoning it up almost to the chin ; and, finishing their toilette with the indispensable ' cap and gown,' they enter in full dignity the cli.iptl, and are marked down at once as present by two waiters who stand at the chapel door. It is a rule with several men to go to chapel with their lecture books concealed in there big coat in order to get up the morning lectures, which begin very generally after the chapel is over. While there are others who, instead of being either engrossed in the services or their lecturebooks, are busy tying up the streams of gowns just in front of them with their seats, which circumstance makes them feel rather uncomfortable when they rise to leave the chapel, and the knot is so cleverly managed that it necessarily requires another man's assistanee to relieve them from their unenviable position." THE DISPLEASURE OF THE DONS. Mr. Bomanjee considers attendance at chapel more or less a " bore," and so far as he is concerned an nnecessary part of the ritual of his College :—" Missing or absence from chapels is a very ordinary occurrence with undergraduates. Those who prefer cutting chapels to ' do the downy,' arc hauled np before tho dons or College authorities during the course of the day, but generally after hall—i. e., dinner—to account for their absence. Such visits to the dons often turn out to be far from pleasant. If after repeated warnings, the men will stick more to their beds than chapels, the visits not unfrequently teminata in a severe blowing up or a fine. Undergraduates, however, are uecd to this shabby treatment." THE PLEASURES OF THE BREAKFAST. TABLE. When an undergraduate wishes to entertain his friends, breakfast is the meal to which he invites them. " When a large party his invited the host takes care that the breakfast is of no mean order, for if he be the happy recipient of a big allowance of pocket money he goes ' tick' for everything stylish and the yery ' tip top.' He soon detects to his guests his great skill in scientific gastronomy, for proficiency in which the breakfast at the table gives ample testimony. Tho men do full justice to the dainty dishes, and to show their appriciation of the roaring good meal they are sitting at they fill their glasses with choice wines and drink bumpers to the health of the host. ' Everything the best of its kind, no stint and nonsense seems to be the wise rule which the University hands down and lives up to in these matters. However we may differ as to her degeneracy in other departments, all who have ever visited her will admit in this of hospitality she is still a great national teacher, acknowledging and preaching by example the fact, that eating and drinking are important parts of man's life which are to be allowed their due prominence, and not thrust into a corner, but are to be done soberly and thankfully, in the sight of God and man." THE FON AT NIGHT. Mr. Bomanjee recalls with evident delight the fun and frolic of the wine-party in the evening, and breaks out into the following rhapsody : —" Oh, you noncollegiate readers, yon little know of the pleasant time a company of gay young men ha 3 in the rooms of a hospitable undergraduate. What with thninpings of i pianos, accomponetl with roaring good songs and choruses, what with with hot milk punch going its round or with champagne ruling supreme, or now and then an accounting of a story causing sidesplitting laugher, or what with supper and its merry speech-making from the guests ? Great is tho fun and lively is the conversation at such wine-parties, which do not break up often till one or two in the morning. The rooms, which looked very decent before the entertainment commenced, are far from being in the same state after their occupation by a dozen young men assisted with drinks. The room soon gets filled with the 'ethereal vapour of the Virginian weed,' and bits of crockr.ry and other furniture are scattered in different directions of the room. Tho good day's work is over, and likewise their night vocations when, in the still of the early morn, they covet their beds, which are iu immediate demand after the barrels of inflammable liquid having found their way down their throats. They hail the gyp as he brings in a tray jingling of glasses, and the friends eagerly partake of a little negus, their last drink for the night, generally whisky toddy, to act as a ballast in a ship, or to keep down in their inside the continual struggle for mastery between claret and sherry and champagne and milk punch."