The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-05-20
THE UNIVERSITY ARMORY.
GETTING READY FOR WAR.

GETTING READY FOR WAR.
Our friend, Mr. Thomas j. Meighen,
has sent US a clipping from the St.
Paul Dispatch, Of May ?, 1896, contain
ing handsome picture Of 1.-THE new
Armory and Drill Hall, State Uniyer-
sity, Minneapolis" now being erected.
The Dispatch says:
"Thc University Armory and Drill
Hall. for which an appropriation Of
SIS. 900 was made by the last LeRisla-
ture, is now we'll under way. When
completed next September it will
form probably the most perfectly ar
ranged college drill hall in the coun-
try. Over 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 appears in the Dispatch this
evening,is the largest on the campus,
having extreme dimensions Of 135x24O
feet. 1t fronts on Seventeenth ave-
nue., facing the campus and completes
the crescent Of buildings on the uni
yersity grounds. The old Norman
castle OF England has been copied in
its architecture. A massive turret
rises on the front nter, while small
turrets surmount each corner of the
building. The walls are to be con-
structed of buff pressed brick 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 a massive
doorway approach by stone steps and
also by an inclined asphalt r3mp,
twelve feet wide, guarded by slid
ing portcullis of steel and oak, behind
which will be hung ponderous oak
doors. The whole appearance Of the
hall will be decidedly military.
The building is for the particular
use Of the university cadet corps, un-
der Lieut.. Leonhauser. A portion is
also set apart for the ladies to be used
by their physical culture classes. 1t
is also designed to meet the demand
Ut the university for large assem- oily
hall to be used at commencement and
other gatherings. The drill floor will
form an ideal place for the annual
college balls. Whether full gymna-
SUM apparatus will be placed in the
building has not yet been decided.
No appropriation was made for the
equipment with apparatus, and this
outlay will probably have to come
from private sources. The building
gymnasium apparatus can be placed
in the side rooms so as not affect in
any way the other purposes Of the
building.
Below the basement a fine rifle
range 10x220 feet will be built. This
is to be lighted by electricity and
absolutely bullet proof. On the base
ment floor will be two company rooms,
an artillery room, locker and bath
room for ladies and gents and space
for swimming pool.
The immense drill hall, 80x240 feet.
will occupy nearly the whole main
floor. Squad drill rooms, 36x95 feet,
may be cut off from this by movable
partitions forty feet wide 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, aud, together with the
balcony, will accommodate an audi
ence of 5000 persons. The large
rooms are partitioned off of the bal
cOny floor for the use Of companies.
One Of these will be given to the
cadet band. and also used as a military
and athletic trophy room.
We wish our readers, who are sell
ing wheat for fifty cents, barley for
twenty cents and oats for fifteen
cents bushel, could look at the pic
ture OF the magnificent and massive
structure given 10 the Dispatch, with
its fr0wning walls and donjon
keep, and portcullis Of steel and oak,
all built at the expense Of the tax
payers. in the midst Of unparalleled
suffering and distress. Might they
not ask themselves what all this has
to do with the great cause Of univer-
sal education? Is it part Of the pub
lie school system to train up the chill
dren Of the well-to-do classes to be
ready to shoot down the unfortunate
submerged mass Of humanity. IL their
wretchedness drives them to violently
seek bread?
What business has this University,
the child of the bounty and generosity
of the whole people. rich and poor, to
erect, in this latter age Of freedom. in
our peaceful midst, this fertilization,
copied" We are told, from the old
Norman castles of England" The
Norman castles were erected by
marauding robbers who had despoiled
the land owners Of England Of their
homes, and then sheltered themselves
behind massive walls, against a pos.
sible revolution of the poor, plundred
serfs. The history of the Norman
Conquest is one OF the bloodiest and
NEST degrading records in all human
nnals;-shocking dreadful, abomin-
able. William the Bastard gathered
the rutfians Of France and Belgium,
and with them descended 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 much thu
same kind of despoilment; the land is
in the hands of the
few; home-owners are rapidly becom-
ing tenants, and labor is being driven
deeper and deeper into the abyss; and
now our Normans, realizing that the
are always dangerous, have
been erecting great Notifications,
called ''armories," in all our great
cities: and this. our extensive Univer-