At Williams College, a privy.

Night had thrown its mantle over earth. Sol had gone to lay his
weary head in the lap of Thetis, as friend Hudibras has it; The
horned moon, and the sweet pale stars, were looking serenely! upon
the darkened earth, when the denizens of this little village were
disturbed by the cry of fire. The engines would have been rattling
through the streets with considerable alacrity, if the fathers of
the town had not neglected to provide them; but the energetic
citizens were soon on hand. There was much difficulty in finding
where the fire was, and heads and feet were turned in various
directions, till at length some wight of superior optical powers
discovered a faint, ruddy light in the rear of West College. It
was an ancient building,--a time-honored structure,--an edifice
erected by our forefathers, and by them christened LEMUEL, which
in the vernacular tongue is called _Lem_ "for short." The
dimensions of the edifice were about 120 by 62 inches. The loss is
almost irreparable, estimated at not less than 2,000 pounds,
avoirdupois. May it rise like a Phoenix from its ashes!--_Williams
Monthly Miscellany_, 1845, Vol. I. p. 464, 465.

LETTER HOME. A writer in the American Literary Magazine thus
explains and remarks upon the custom of punishing students by
sending a letter to their parents:--"In some institutions, there
is what is called the '_letter home_,'--which, however, in justice
to professors and tutors in general, we ought to say, is a
punishment inflicted upon parents for sending their sons to
college, rather than upon delinquent students. A certain number of
absences from matins or vespers, or from recitations, entitles the
culprit to a heartrending epistle, addressed, not to himself, but
to his anxious father or guardian at home. The document is always
conceived in a spirit of severity, in order to make it likely to
take effect. It is meant to be impressive, less by the heinousness
of the offence upon which it is predicated, than by the pregnant
terms in which it is couched. It often creates a misery and
anxiety far away from the place wherein it is indited, not because
it is understood, but because it is misunderstood and exaggerated
by the recipient. While the student considers it a farcical
proceeding, it is a leaf of tragedy to fathers and mothers. Then
the thing is explained. The offence is sifted. The father finds
out that less than a dozen morning naps are all that is necessary