The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-10-07

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GETTING READY FOR WAR.
| Our friend. Mr.. Thomas j. Meighen. has
! sent us a clipping from the st. Paul Dis
| patch, of May 2, 1896, containing hand
| some picture of the new armonry and drill
nall, State University, Minneapolis now
being erected. The Dispatch says:
The University Armory and Drill Hall
Tor which an appropriation of $4,000 was
made by the last legislature is now well
under way. When completed next Septem-
Der 1t will form probably the most perfectly
arranged drill hall in the country. Over a
hundred workmen are now employed. on the
building. and the basement wall is nearly
| complete. The contractor expects to have
the armory ready for use at the opening of
the fall term of college.
THE new building, picture of which ap-
pears in the Dispatch this evening, is the
largest on the campus, having extreme di-
mansions of 135x24o feet. 1t fronts on Sew
enteenth avenue, facing the campus and
completes the crescent of buildings on the
university grounds. The old Norman cas-
tie OF England has been copied in it's archi-
lecture. massive turret rises on the
front center, while small turrets surmount
each corner of the building. The walls ara
| " NC COHStTuCteu Oh DUH pressed Orlck, with
profuse trimmings of pink Kasota stone.
The roof is to be of slate. The building is
three stories, including the high basement.
The main entrance in front will be through
massive doorway approach by stone steps
and also include an asphalt tramp, II feet
wide, guarded by sliding portcullis of steel
and oak. behind which will be hung ponder
Gus oak DOORS. The whole appearance Of
the hall will be decidedly military.
1.-THE building is for the particular use Of
the University cadet corps, under Lieut..
Leonhauser. A portion is also set apart for
ladies'. to be used by their physical culture
classes. It is also designed to meet the
demand of the University for a large assem-
bly, hall, to be used at commencement and
other gatherings. The drill floor will form
an ideal place for the annual college balls.
Whether full gymnasium apparatus will be
placed in the building has not yet been de-
cided. No appropriation was made for the
equipment with apparatus, and this outlay
VIII probably have to come from private
sources The building is constructed in
such way that gymnasium apparatus can
be placed in the side rooms, so as not to
affect in any way the other purposes of the
building.
y,
10x22o feet will be built. This is to be light
ed by electricity, and absolutely bullet
proof. On the basement floor will be two
company rooms, an artillery room, locker
and bath room for ladies and gents, and
space for a swimming pool
'"rhe immense drill hall, sOx24O feet will
occupy nearly the whole main floor. Squad
drill rooms, 36x95 feet. may be cut off from
I>lo
at each end of the building. The roof over
this immense hall will be supported by
steel trusses and furnished with large sky
lights. This hall can be seated with
chairs. and. together with the balcony, will
accommodate an audience of 5000 persons.
The large rooms are partitioned off the bal
cony floor for the of companies. One
of these will be given to the cadet band.
and also used as military and athletic
trophy ROOM
We wish our readers. who Gre selling
wheat for 50 cents, barley for 20 cents, and
oats for 10 cents, could look at the pic
ture of the magnificent and massive struc-
true given In the Dispatch, with it's frown-
ing walls and donjon keep and portcullis
of steel and oak, all built at the expense of
the tax payers. in the midst of unparalleled
themselves what all this has to do with
the cause of universal education? Is it part
of the public school system to train up tho
children of the well-tO-dO classes to be ready
to shoot down the unfortunate submerged
mass of humanity, if their wretchedness
drives them to violently seek bread?
What business has this University, the
child of the bounty and generosity of the
bo1o r;o md To t.,
this latter age of freedom in our peaceful
midst. this fertilization, copied we are
told. from the old Norman castles in Eng
land" The Norman castles were erected
by marauding robbers, who had despoiled
the land owners of England of their homes
and then sheltered themselves behind mas
sive walls, against a possible revolution Of
the poor, plundered, serfs. The history Of
the Norman Conquest is one of the bloodiest
and most degrading records in all human
Misunderstanding, dreadful. abominable.
William the Bastard gathered the rsf1ians
of France and Belgium, and with them de-
scended upon and took possession of the
fair fields and pleasant homes of Saxon
England, amid scenes of havoc and horror
and cruelty such as the world has rarely
witnessed.
we are Undergoing To-Day InuCn the same
kind of despoilment; the land Is concen.
trating in the hands Of the few: home
owners are rapidly becoming tenants. and
la Dor is being driven deeper and deeper In
to the abyss; and now our Normans.
alizing that the oppressed are always dam
gerous. have been erecting great fortifica-
tons called "armories." In all our great
cities; and this. our expensive University
offshoot. Is simply one Of these The Nor
mans Of a thousand years ago, to their
honor be 1t said. came out and did their own
tighting-our Normans. from behind the
safe shelter of their bank counters, are
organizing the boys of the University, and
the children In the public schools, and even
the Sunday school classes in the temples
erected to the glory of the Prince of Peace,
defence Of the fruits of oppression and in
justice of the money changers.
Butt will be said-if the laboring pee-
pie resort to violencs would you not have
them resisted?
The labering people are eurseives--tne up
per classes rise from and sink back again
into the lower classes, by one perpetual
Transformation and Formulation. If you
Cypress a people and render their lives
hopeless; if yeu starve, humilate and de-
e GUN.