The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-12-05
TOM TURNER'S DUEL,
A Story Of College
Life.
CHAPTER l.


It's an old story now, for this shocking
afiir took place in the year 1910, when
Tom Turner and l were freshmen to-
gether at St. Boodle's College, the Uni
versity of Oxbridge.
st. Boobies Is one of the small colleges
in 0xbridge, but it had in our day, and
has still, believe, the reputation of be-
ing about the pleasaHtest and most COM
Portable place in which an undergrad
uate's lines could fall.
The "men" of the college were a very
nice set, but it must be confessed not "a
reading lot" nor much addicted to hav-
ing their names appear in conspicuous
places in the class-lists, but taking their
degrees, when they did take them, in a
quiet, sometimes in an extremely delib-
crate way. Once, indeed, remember
that st. Boobies man came out double
first; we were all as much delighted as
amazed, This shows, we said, what St.
Boobies men can do when they like.
But the strange thing was that none of
us knew the man; we had never met him
at supper-party or wine. 1t was said,
and no doubt truly, that he lived in col
lege, for all st. Boobies men did, and
certainly his name was in the calendar.
And when he took his place at the high
table we all admitted that his features
were somehow familiar to us, and That
we must have seen him in chapel or in
hall. No question but that he really
was st. Boobies man. And when Dick
Slasher offered hundred to one on it, he
could find no one to take even such long
odds.
But if, as a rule, we did not distin-
guish ourselves in the examination halls,
We did pretty we'll elsewhere; we had
five "'Versity blues" amongst us, three
in the eleven and two in the eight. Our
boat was high on the river, and in the
hunting-lield we fattered ourselves that
we were unrivaled. And was not this
something! As we won steeple-chase,
bumped the stern out of the boat before
us in the river, or bowled down one after
another of our opponents wickets, we
used to hear on all sides, "Well done, st.
Boobies! that'stheir stylel St. Boobies
forever! Hurrah!" And we felt and
knew that this was glory. Ia
We used often to discuss the relative
merits of the two theories of education
the general and the st. Boobies theories,
as may call them. "Well," Dick Slash
er used to say, "it seems to me an absurd
thing TO measure a mans usefulness in
the world by his skill in dealing with
your Greek or your cube roots, whatever
fhaxr fho 30 nnt x.,h ,hof do E,.n. nd
what she is. II the Duke. had looked
into the Senate House when the little 90
was going on, he'd have never said,
That's where the Battle of Waterloo
was won.' Come, I'll lay ten to
one it would have been GO it, St.
Bodies with him. Will any one
take meT Of course no one took him.
Even had there been any means of de-
Gliding the bet, we were al quite OF his
opinion, and ready to give odds, every
one Of us. r.@n-a
As for our "dons," they were first
rate set, we all agreed, with no nonsense
about them. So long as a St. Boobies
man did not do anything sufficiently
singular to bring his college in to undue
notice, he was not interfered with, and
any success in the orthodox st. Boobies
line was always heartily welcomed and
applauded by the authorities. 1t was
whispered, indeed, that one tutor, DR..
Turtle, was anxious to change the char
ter Of St. Boobies, and make it more of a
reading college; but this, l think, was
SANDER He certainly took no definite
step in such direction; and the rumor
took its rise, | imagine, from certain
gruff and severe air which the doctor put
on to awe freshmen and keepthem down,
as it were, a little at first, SO that they
might not be quite unmanageable by
their third year. ,.....
From what has been said it may easily
be supposed that college life at St.
Bodies was about as easy-going and
pleasant a sort Of thing as can be imag-
ined. i...... ...l.r .uatT.E ....'-
r"r pf' .
CHAPTER III. rt