The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-04-16
[Dr. Lyman Abbott, in Christian Union.l
How the Bows Live at Rugby

The public school, as every reader of
ssTom Brown at Rugby knows, is divided
into different ''houses." The pupil enters
house just IS at Oxford or Cambridge he
enters college" He becomes a member
of that house. At Rugby there are eight of
these different houses, and about the same
number at Elton. Each of these houses is
under the charge of its own house master.
He carries it on as clearinghouse, takes
the fees and furnishes the table, and peck
cts the profits or the loss. 1t is always
profit, and generally good one. Teaching
is much more remunerative business in
England than in America. The masters
salary will ordinarily range from $1,000 or
$500 year to $1,000 or $1,000. No one
knows exactly what the-income of a success
full house master or head master is, for he is
paid not salary by board of trustees, but
in fees and perquisites. But well-informed
Englishmen credit the head master of Elton
with an iRcame Of SIS 900 year, and prob
master at Rugby
Each pupil has his own room. Rooming
together and studying together are unknown
In England. The whole herding process so
common in America from the nursery up is
abborrent to an Englishman. He is 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 single
roommate. In Elton, at least in the ''col-
lege," the study room and bedroom are all
one, each boy having his own solitary apart
ment. The boy from his entrance on pub
lic-school life begins to shift for himself. His
house gives him a breakfast of tea aud
bread and butter; he markets for himself for
what else he wants eggs, marmalade, jam,
potted meats. In school, as out of it, the
American breakfast of fish, beesteak, hot
cakes, or what not, is unknown. The boys
breakfast'in small rooms, twenty or twenty
five together, each eating such breakfast a.
his means, his tastes, his skill in marketing,
or the liberality of a Weather friend may
afford him. The school is divided into class
es or .sforms.o The sixth-form boys break
fast in their own rooms, as they do after
wards when they enter the universities. In
the university they have a steward to get
the breakfast for them, run necessary err
rands, keep the room in order, and the like.
In the public schools this service is rendered
for the senior, or sixth-form boy, by boy in
the first-form, who blacks his boots, brushes
his clothes, runs his errands, does his shop
ping, prepares his breakfast of tea and toast,
and makes himself generally useful. This
is flag" The sixth-form boy may be
tailor's son, the first-form flag the son of a
duke; school distinctions take precedence of
all others. Hardship there sometimes is,
tyranny even occasional cruelty but no Eng
lish boy apparently feels the degradation
which every American boy would feel in
rendering snch a mental service. The boys
Of each house dine together In a common
hall; no soup; roast beef or mutton, bread
and dessert of Sweets" The school pro-
vides each boy with beer; wines are not al
lowed. There is very simple tea at six,
and supper of bread and cheese and, / be-
lieve, cold meat, if one wants it, before go
ing to bed. The rooms are warmed by the
freplace-the universal method in England
and lighted with candles. Ho the boys,
who do much of their principal studying
evenings, can get out Greek and Latin and
mathematics by the light of faring candle
and preserve their eyes is mystery on which
did not get any light and can give none.
Perhaps the Englishman's foggy atmosphere
accustoms him to dimness Of illumination.
He breads glare as much as an American
breads darkness.
There is one relic Of ancient times at Eton
which strikes the modern American as some
what singular; this is the whipping block
This ancient instrument stands in the cor
ner of the yard. When culprit is to be cas-
tigated, he is brought hither and a call is
made for the firstform boys. The two who
come 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 switching.