St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1901-05-29
SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES.
The Educational Institution to Receive
Andrew Carnegie's Great Gift.

The Educational AmSutuuOM 10 ASoC0Nc
Andrew Carnegie's Great Gift.
Probably no gift ever made by an in
dividual for the purpose OF promoting
popular education surpassed that of An
drew Carnegie of $10,000,000 for the
free education of his Scottish fellow
countrymen in the universities of Scot
land. For while the four universities of
Scotland receive gifts of money and
power from the government, the univer-
sity education in Scotland has not here
tofore been within the reach of all who
desired it. 1t will take some time, per-
haps, for the idea of free university educa-
} ton to percolate down into the depths
of the Scotch mind, but once the idea is
fixed, no people will be more appreclative
of such splendid generosity:
1t may seem surprising that unlver.
sitv which antedates Harvard by 225
years should be in any need of endow-
ments, but the University Of St. Andrews
which dates from 1411, led for years
little more than mere nominal exist
ence. The times of the disestablishment
of the Roman Catholic church which
founded it were not favorable to the
growth of higher educational institu-
tions. In 1912 it was spoken of as al
most lying extinct. Alexander Stewart,
the natural son of James ". of cotland,
was appointed archbishop of St. An
drews in 1910, and although only IS
years or age, he had just turned his
brilliant mind to the development of the
university when he was called away and
went down by the side of his father on
Flodden Field. Even so late as 1774, in
| DR.. JohnSon's Journey to the Western
Isles, y the University of st. Andrews is
spoken of as ''pining in decay and strug-
Cling for lite," and while DR.. Johnson
says that no one would have been the
worse if the university had died two
hundred years before, he laments its con.
ditiOns at that time as a melancholy and
pathetic spectacle.
1t must not be inferred, however that
the present condition of the four univer-
stiles of Scotland St. Andrews, Glasgow
founded in 145O) Aberdeen (1494) and
Edinburgh (1582), is any thing akin to
poverty. Splendid buildings, consider
able endowments, fairly liberal scholar
ship and government support have made
the universities great educational insti-
tutions. st. Andrews receives from
parliament about $4,000 per annum
Glasgow, Sos 400, and the University
of Edinburgh $129,35O. Why, then,
should Mr.. Carnegie feel it necessary to
make such large gift to these institutions
i'll order that free university education
might be provided for every boy and girl
who was capable of passing the entrance
examinations and who desired the higher
education?
In the first place, the system of univer-
sty education in Scotland is very differ
ent from that in the United States. The
private endoWmentS are not so large
and the expenses of university educa-
ton are perhaps higher, as far as the
tuition fees aud similar expenses are con-
cerned. The salaries paid to the profess
sors are liberal and even high in proper
ton to the number of students. In st.
Andrews the highest salary is paid to
the principal, who presides over the
united colleges of st. Salvador and St.
Leonard, receiving $4,000 per annum.
Yet the university has only 379 students.
In Glasgow, with 1866 students, the
highest salary is paid to the professor Of
humanity, who gets $3.50 in addition
to his residence. In Aberdeen, with 82S
students, the professor of anatomy re-
ceives $4,000. In Edinburgh, the largest
of the Scotch universities, with 27S3
students, the professor of anatomy re-
ceives $4,000 per annum.
In the second place the Scotch boy or
girl who desires university education,
outside of the wealthy classes, must
work his way, and the chances are that
he will be ill-spared from home. Here in
America a college education seems to be
more or less matter ofcourse. In Scot
land the boy who goes to college from
some country towing goes because his local
tutor has prevailed upon the boys
parents, after much persuasion, to make
the sacrifices necessary to provide their
son with a liberal education. Likely
enough he is some "Geordie Hoo" who
has stood "feirst in the hoomanities" in
his home school, and who is the apple of
his tutors eye. And how many pathetic
sacrifices the giving of college education
to such boy entails Longer hours of
work for father and mother, Older clothes
for them that their boy may appear not
too badly before his fello VS. in college, the
raising of the necessary sum to pay his
tnition, the final long and earnest service
OF prayer, the fearful God be wi We
lad, the last handclasp, and the boy is off
to college, determined to win his scholar
ship that the sacrifices at home may not
be too great.
Once launched upon his university
career, the poor Scotch lad must show
the stuff that is in him. There are no
great dormitories, there is no Memorial
Hall, with its cooperative system of re-
ducing expenses. The lad goes to a
boarding house, where he gets room
for maybe four .shillings a week with
some roommate, this sum including the
cooking but not the providing of meals
by his landlady. His food is bought by
the landlady and served, cooked, in his
room. For breakfast he has oatmeal
porrldge with syrup, or, if he can afford
1T, with milk and sugar, bread and but
ter and cup-of tea. At noon he has
meat soup with perhaps a rice pudding,
sometimes fresh herring and potatoes,
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