The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-05-04
How the Boys Lke at Rugby.

The public schools, as every reader
II tom Brown at Rugby knows, is
divided into different ''houses." The
pupil enters house just as at Oxford
or Cambridge he enters a college"
He becomes a member of that house.
At Rugby there are eight of these diff
ferent houses, and about the same
number at Eton. Each of these houses
is under the charge of its own house
master. He carries it on as boarding
house, takes the fees and furnishes the
table, and pockets the profits or the
loss. 1t is always d profit, and gener-
ally a good one. Teaching is much
more remunerative business in England
than in America. The masters salary
will ordinarily range from $1,000 or
81, 500 year to $1,000 or $4,000. No
one knows exactly what the income of a
successful house master or head master
is, for he is paid not a salary by board
of trustees, but in fees and perquisites.
But well-informed Englishmen credit
the head-master of Elton with an in
come of $4,000 a year, and probably
it is not less in the case of the head
master at Rugby.
Each pupil has his own room. Room
ing together and studying together are
unknown in England. The whole herd
ing process SO common in America from
the nursery up is abhorrent to an En-
glishman. He is a semi-social, but never
a gregarious animal. In Rugby there
are dOrmitories in which the boys sleep,
and sitting-rooms in which they gather
for social life, but each boy has his
room for study, usually without even a
single roommate. In Elton, at least in
the college" the study room and bed
ROOM are all one, each boy having his
own solitary apartment. The boy from
his entrance on public school life begins
to shift for himself, His ''house" gives
him breakfast of tea and bread and
butter; he markets for himself for what
else he wants-eggs, marmalade, jam,
ported meats. In school, as out of it,
the American breakfast of fish, beef
steak, hot cakes, or what not, is I'M
known. The boys breakfast in small
rooms, twenty or twenty-five together,
each eating such breakfast as his means,
his tastes, his skill in marketing, or
the liberality of weather. friend may
afford him. The school is divided into
classes or "forms." The siXth-form
boys breakfast in their own rooms, as
they do afterwards when they enter the
universities. In the university they
have steward to get the breakfast for
them, run necessary errands. keep the
room in order and the like. In the pub
lie schools this service is rendered for
the seniors, or siXth-form boy, by n boy
in the first-form, who blacks his boots,
brushes his clothes, runs his errands,
does his shopping, prepares his break
fast of tea and toast and makes himself
generally useful. This is a flag" The
sixth-form boy may be a tailor's son,
the first form flag the son of a Duke;
school distinction takes precedence of
all others. Hardship there sometimes
is tyranny, even occasional cruelty; but
no English boy apparently feels the deg
radiation which every American boy
would feel in rendering such mental
service. The boys of each house dine
together in n common hall; no soup;
roast beef or mutton, bread and dessert
of sweets The school provides each
boy with beer; wine is not allowed.
There is very simple tea at six, and
supper of bread and cheese and l be-
lieve, cold meat. if one wants it, before
going to bed. The rooms are warmed
by the fire-place-the universal method
in England-and lighted with candles.
How the boys, who do much of their
principal studying evenings, can get out
out Greek and Latin and mathematics
by the light of flaming candle and
preserve their.eSes is mystery on
which 1 did not get any light and can
give none. Perhaps the Englishman's
foggy atmosphere accustoms him to a
dimness Oh illumination. He breads a
glare as much as an American breads
darkness.
There Is one relic of ancient times at
Eton which strikes the modern Ameri-
can as somewhat singular; this is the
whipping-block. This ancient instru-
ment stands in the corner of the yard.
When culprit is to he castigated he is
brought hither and n call is made for
the first-form boys. The two who comes
last at the scene pay the penalty for
their hardness by being required to hold
the offender down over the block while
the head master administers the switch
ing.-Dr. Lyman Abbott, in Christian