Page:Samuel F. Batchelder - Bits of Harvard History (1924).pdf/190

 doorways the warfare went merrily on, potatoes reeking with gravy forming a favorite ammunition. At the premature close of a meal, these fights frequently overflowed into the piazza which then extended across the front of the edifice.

Moreover, by the new method of segregation, class feeling was now added to the other inciting causes. That indeed was at the bottom of one of the most famous of the later “strikes,” commemorated in a long satiric poem, “The Rebelliad,” much admired in its day. The affair began by a food-fight between the freshmen and the sophomores at Sunday evening Commons in 1819: When Nathan threw a piece of bread And hit Abijah on the head, The wrathful freshman, in a trice, Sent back another bigger slice, Which, being buttered pretty well, Made greasy work wher’er it fell. And thus arose a fearful battle, The coffee-cups and saucers rattle, The bread-bowls fly at woeful rate, And break full many a learned pate. Regardless of their shins and pates, The bravest seiz’d the butter-plates, And rushing headlong to the van, Sustained the conflict man to man.