meals at a "boarding club." Several such establishments, mainly in private homes, developed. The best known of these early boarding clubs was operated by "Aunt" Mary Murdock on Xenia Avenue. Aunt Mary was "a stooped and elderly-looking soul who wore plain black dresses and an air of calm resignation."19 She was a political activist, especially on temperance issues, and "continually wrote letters of protest and suggestion to erring politicians from sheriff to senators."20 She was described as having "a sublime faith in mankind, and seldom would believe that the world was full of rascals or that some might be at her very table."21 Her failure to recognize that college boys would be boys led to several pranks at ·her expense. For instance, an evening worship service was regularly held at her boarding club. On one occasion when a visiting cleric "had made what seemed to be an unending prayer, he and Aunt Mary arose to find ~he house empty." All the boys had quietly exited by the front windowf 2 The unique atmosphere of the boarding club provided many humorous situations. One very Homecoming 1915. 40/Chapter V