OLD ACCOUNT BOOK REVEALS COST CHANGES
The Exeter News Letter, of Exeter, N. H., printed recently a short account of student expenses in Hanover nearly a century ago, which the ALUMNI MAGAZINE herewith reprints for whatever emotions it may stir in readers.
"The late Dr. William G. Perry, of Exeter, was a student at Dartmouth in the '40s and one of the most interesting souvenirs of his stay at Hanover is an account of his expenses during his senior year. Board at the most expensive boarding house in Hanover cost the student Perry $2.25 per week and an important feature of his wardrobe was a green broadcloth coat with silver clasps. Whale oil at 37 cents a quart caused it to be sparingly used. Most of the students used candles. Here are the expense items in detail: Fare up here, and expenses, $6; for furniture, $4.73; cleaning room and moving, .78; ticket for lecture, .25; hair cutting, .11; society tax, $1.40; pears and plums, .6¼ ; peck of apples, .12½ ; quart of oil, .37½ ;hoarhound candy for cold, .05; tax in class society, 06¼ ; wood sawing and bringing up, $1.21; cord, .03; blank book, .30; repairing pants, .20; liquorice, .02; tuition bill, $11.44; catalogues, $1; expenses at training, $1.72½ ; refreshments for myself and two friends, .25; wrapping paper, .09; to temperance society, $1 ; concert, .25; matches, .03; 2 pounds raisins, .25; post office bill, Mr. Condit's address, .19; oris root, .06¼ ; class tax, .13; one quart peanuts, .08; wood, .87¼ ; court plaster, .06¼ ; peck of apples, .12½ ; Butler's Analogy, .62½ ; paid the barber, .6½ ; quart of oil, .37½ ; entry tax, .18¾.
"The foregoing were the items for Dr. Perry's fall term expenses. Those for the winter term were very similar, but fewer in number, while the summer term items were diversified with expenditures at various times for ice creams, horseback rides, concerts, lemons, and other seasonable things, and a trip to Haverhill. A gold pin cost $4.25, while his society tax and diploma cost $1.87½ and the filling in and a case for the latter cost .75 more. Those expenditures finely illustrate the simplicity of college life 85 years ago. He died 1910, age 87 years'.
"It may be of some interest to state that our student's father was Dr. William Perry who practised in Exeter for more than 60 years. He was a great doctor and his name was a household word for miles around. On his way to Exeter in 1808 Dr. Perry came down the Hudson with Fulton on the first trip of his first steamboat, the Clermont. In 1879, at the age of 91, he visited Mount Washington for the first time and in a storm made the ascent to his great enjoyment. At his death in 1887 at 98 Dr. Perry was Harvard's oldest graduate."
