The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-11-23
RUSKIN HALL.

| The Poor Mans College at Oxford 1 Jude Fawley, in Thomas Hardy's re-
 cent novel, found that the walls of | Oxford were unassailable by a working
 man As "All Sorts and Conditions of
 Men had it's sequel in the Peoples Pal
 ace at Mile End, so Jude the Obscure
 has been even more quickly followed by
 Ruslin Hall at Oxford, although I sup
 pose MT Hardy cannot claim, like Sir Walter Besant, the honor of paternity.
 Ruskin Hall is the outcome of move | ment on the part of several Americans
 admirers of the author of Unto This
 Last" who were anxious to do some
 thing to realize the ideals of their proph-
 ct. Walter Vrooman, of St. Louis, their leader came to England about twelve
 months ago. and submitted to. the prn- cipal labor organizations and their lead
 CTS his plans for Poor Mans College in "the City of Light" They were so favorably received that he was prompt
 ed at once to practical action. and the
 college has now been at work for about
 six months.
 It occupies a house--No. IA St Giles
 -st.--which has some Ruskinian associa-
 tions. A few years ago it was the resi-
 dence of distinguished member of the
 university, and MT Ruskin was fre-
 quently his guest The house, which
 was taken by MT. Vrooman on lease from Balliol College, is rather the worse
 for wear, and money has by no means, I found, lavished on its furnishing. But 1t Is pleasantly situated in the quietude of the broad classic thorough for tyap md o1a6 walls EOf. the rest, it is not--as the visitor is soon made aware-an expensive philanthropy ic fad. The building being provided, the students themselves do the rest, nothing but contributions to the library being asked for from the British public. Ten shillings a week is paid by each man for board, lodging and washing, and ten shillings q month for lectures. As no servants are kept, every student is expected to take his share in the domes- tic work of the house. It was estimated that this would require about two hours manual labor on the average, every day; experience has shown that half an hour is sufficient. II is the Poor Man's College, but paid for in the main by the poor man himself.
 The promoters of Ruskin Hall have taken as their motto this sentence from the masters "Ethics of the Dust: Briefly, the constant duty of every man to his fellows is to ascertain his own powers and special gifts, and to them for the help of others" From this dictum may almost be said to follow their declared obj ct, not that a man should rise out of his class but | leach man, by raising himself, may help | to raise, through influence or precept, l the whole class to which he belongs" Accordingly, it is not technical educa- ton or professional training which | Ruskin Hall offers, although tuition will [ be given there on any subject which | may be desired. The syllabus, so far, history, political science, science, psychology, philosophy litera- ,ure, art and modern languages A con- siderable part of the tuition is given oy Dennis Hird, M. A., the warden and ' A. Beard, the correspondent. among he other lecturers being the Rev w. Downing, A. J. Hacking, M A., Hugh '. Hall, B. A., and F. W. Galton. Man ,hester College has invited the Ruskin Hall students to lectures by the Rev. [. F. Carpenter. M. A., and the Rev. Phillip F. Wicksteed, M. A. Miss Ked- lie Sarah Tytler) has given course if tuition on historical novels, while he ladies of the Backworth Club have aken in hand "The Writings of John