The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1895-04-04
GREAT EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES.
Antique, Musty. Unpretentious, and Conse-
qcs1tly Disappointing to the Traveller.

European universities are not preten-
tiOus. The University of Berne IS q
surprise. One takes a little turn in a
covered roadway going at right angles
with the main street, Just where the
main street runs abruptly up and
against an ancient house. You would
think that you were going to the back
door of some saloon. At another turn
in this covered little footway is Il long,
low passageway, about fifteen feet
wide Rough and intellectually ancient
slabs pave it, and the top of the way is
of the same material. On one side is a
blank wall and on the other side is the
same, through which little windows ad-
NIT struggling and insufficient light
You might think YOU were in prison.
You are attracted 10y various bulletins
hung in frames upon the dark wall op-
pOsi>e the windows. GA reading them
YOU find that they are the announce
ments of various professors; YOU take
off your hat ut the sudden realization
that YOU are in the noble University OF
Bcrne.
There are three low, flat stories.
Everything is old, not to say antique,
and, in fact. musty. But there is M
atmosphere of solidity about it. The
stairway at the end of and within the
building leading 10 Tie various pro.cs-
sors' lecture-rooms is broad and plct-
uresque in It's UladOrned and even bar
barous roughness, it is like the steps
of some of the earlier and cruder feudal
castles. The doors of the various pro-
fessors' rooms are heavy, simple, slab
like affairs. On each door is the name
of the professor who there delivers lee
lures. At the end of the building was
a woodpile where man was busily en-
gagged saving wood. The library is
quite unpretentious.
One is impressed with the fact that
the extra vitality of the institution has
not gone to architecture and hligree
work, but to learning. The simplicity
of this great school, which is the pride
of Switzerland, is far more impressive
than the loud effects of many of our
mushroom colleges which have back OF
them millions and little else.
The University of Heidelberg is
larger, of course, but quite as modest.
/ asked the direction to it and was told
to 90 up a little, narrow street until l
came in a block or two to a small open
space, beyond which there was nothing
that looked like university. | asked
again for directions to the university,
and was told in answer: 1T is about
you" There were more buildings than
at Berne, but they were small, low,
and, as much as buildings could be, they
were "sickl'd DER with the pale cast of
thought" The library was superb-not
in appointments, but in books. The
scientific equipment was not glittering,
but it was complete. The buildings
impressed YOU with the idea that the
men in charge of that university mean
business. Throughout all of these
great universities one thing overwhelm-
ingly impresses you-thelr absolute and
utter lack of pretense. There is no
sham about them. There is nothing of
the "boom" order about them. You
could not imagine a catalogue being
sent out from one of these universities
announcing a faculty most of which
were merely tutors. The gray walls,
the solid floors, the unrelieved simple
ity and somberness of ALL are quite in
keeping with the real end and aim OF
all universities, which is the ascertain
ment of truth.