Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1889-07-05
Colleges. &c.

To The Editor Of The DiSpdtch:
Let me emphasize your articles in Mon
day and Tuesdays papers on the tricks of
northern college students by few facts.
You name Harvard University, but | be-
lieve il is notorious that cheating at ex-
aminations is the rule in the colleges in
the East. and thatit is the business real or
ostensible. OF certain professors and other
officers TO detect and punish It, though we
hear so little of the penalties that 1t IS
doubtful if they are often inflicted, and
from policy are never published.
The facts give as TO Virginia colleges
are leading. but | could not in any case
cite many. because there are not many to
cite. The offence is very rarely committed
III Virginia.
As MIR. jefferson wisely introduced the
elective system of study at the University,
which Harvard afterwards adopted and
claimed TO have originated, so he showed
his wisdom and his knowledge of the Viz
GINA character by proposing TO leave the
students very much 70 their own guidance
in matters Of conduct under code which
should grow out of their own sense Of
right and honor, subject only TO the laws
of the land. THIS sense of right and honor
was imbibed from their fathers, and pre-
pared them 10 substitute selt-reSpect and
individual responsibility for the restraints
WHICH Quiet HNSItllS Uhu duOIltQ lDf but
management Of youth.
This principle of course extended to the
examination for degrees: and the student
who cheated was degraded by the act.
/. One of the cases that | know of WAS of
a gentleman who, going INTO u matnemati-
cal examination, had carried and used the
formula for the solution of a difficult class
of problems scratched into his slate by q
pin. He died only few years ago, but
this act survives him with the few con-
temporaries he has left behind and his
course through life was in keeping with
this crooked act. SO with two Others Of a
subsequent period.
2. Later, by many years, student gradu-
ated in the law class. The fact that he had
cheated was discovered by some of his
classmates and made known to the Profes-
sor. But he only said Young gentle
men, that is more your lookout than mine
for it is the class and not the professor that
is degraded 10y the offence" They acted
upon the suggestion and compelled the
young man to leave the University without
his diploma
3. But the principle is not at all confined
to the University. IL obtains universally
in Virginia.
QUITE lately ut one Of orr colleges. rs I
learn from one OF its officers a student
VINO had passed through his course with
distinction was detected in cheating upon
information furnished by his classmates,
Who accused him Of intending 20 cheat at
the inal - he had done at several Of his
previous examinations Thereupou be was
watched, and being caught in the act by
his professor be WIS forced 10 surrender all
the evidences of Las intermediate pro-
ticlency and expelled the college.
give these cases Mr.. Editor, repeating
your article with variations, as 1t were. in
order that people who send their sons 10
northern colleges may know not only that
they waste their money abroad but do
their boys an injury by exposing them 10
COMMUNICATING influences. Bnt | give
them lust now for another reason. The
other day at the University celebration
Nj Grady. of Atlanta. one of the self-cOn-
stituted priests of the new southern dis
peneatIOu. the orator Of the two literary
societies, spoke OF these people as honest
and homogeneous with ourselves. and
Mr.. Kent. OF ST. Louis, tie orator of the
Society OF Alumni, himself an alumnus,
who ought 70 have known the difference
between the South and the North. took
for his theme a Plea for Homogeneous
People"
For one knowing them by the observs-
ton of lifetime. and regarding their col
lege morals as ~ keeping with their ethics
III all other things. | would discourage all
hOmogenity or attempt ut 1t, especially
that which might result from contact with
their northern colleges. 49,