The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-20

of a laboring man who not only lives on of the surplus" fH The passing of the old-time Oxford town. the decay of conditions which made the university something more than an institution putting a hall mark upon class. and the modern spirit which is tending to drive r out of the classic atmosphere in which it's splendid architecture fipened.
 seem to be the three evils which Oxford men deplore.
 To the chance visitor to Oxford how ever. .the old town is one of the ripest in all England. It may lack a something g which belonged to 1t In the old coaching days, when with four-in-hands in a sharp l canter the 1,ondcn coach swept down High Street. stopped for change and pas sengers, and rolled away in the green
 lanes toward London. forty-five miles away.
 But if ''only one visitor in a hundred sees Oxford on a continental tour" that one person finds beauty and restful- ness and quaint individuality there that makes him. long after. wish to go again. From the woods and downs, where great Cotswold sheep browse along the hedges and where the picturesque English tramp and gypsy lounge along the roads and lanes, Oxford. with its gray towers, spires  culture that 1t has bsen for nearly 900 years. And from these same downs on some autumn Sunday the bells of the old
 tower voice music that never could be set to score. Perc Lacordaire wrote of the place: ] Fancy plain surrounded by uplands, and bathed by two rivers: mass of monuments, Gothic and Greek; churches, colleges. qladrangles, porticos, all dis tributcd profusely, but most gracefully. | in quiet streets terminating in trees and meadows. All these buildings. consecrat-
 ed to letters and science. have their gates open. The stranger enters as he would enter his own house. because these are the 1 asylums of the beautiful to all who are
 endowed with fssling. As you traverse l these noiseless q6adrangles there is no | an appearance of ruin with so much pres
 eryation. In Italy the buildings breathe of youth: in Oxford it Is time which shows itself. but time without decay and | small,' but even this does not take from the grandeur of the place; the monu- | n1ents serve for houses and give it an air of vastness."
 Yet already in America in general and
 in Chicago of certainty it has been ques- ! tioned If it be advisable to send the American youth into the classicism which remains in OXford's twenty schools. And this. not from the point of view of She | university and it's conservatism, but from 1 the point of view of the student holding l the scholarship. Writing of the schools l from even the Englishmans position, the Frenchman Villiars has questioned the practicability of the Oxford training. He
 says .I. of it: o. ,.s;. pensable to men who adopt the naval | military. legal or medical profession, | those whose vocation inclines toward the church or toward teaching find it difi- | cult to rise to any eminence in either of | these two professions unless they can add | to their names the initials M. A. or D.. | D.. for in England education is exclusive | ly. and perhaps fortunately. in the hands ] of the clergy. The number of those who go through Oxford and Cambridge Uni- I versailles is small. comparatively speak | ing, but it is amply su.hcient to provide | the country with capable principals and head masters of the public and private schools of the Kingdom, not to mention the 'dignitaries~and the clergy of the Es- | tabished Church.
 In Picturesque Surroundings. "The influence of the universities thus l directly and indirectly makes itself felt | thpoughout the length and breadth or | England to a degree unparalleled in any | other country in Europe. Almost every post in the university has been thrown | open to Iaymen as well as clerics, but | the privilege 0SSs) has obtained only in | recent years. and has mt as yet had any | perceptible influence, for all the 1mpor- l tants posts are still filled by clergymen | and nearly all the heads of colleges are I members of the clergy. The same rule l applies to public and private schools. the principals of which are usually clergy
 church, which directs the universities and through them the educational estab- l lishments of England, virtually is the l mistress of English education, which she C ntrols, and IS q natUraN consequence | the English mind and thought are under her immediate and powerful influence Balliol. of all the schools, has departed | farthest from this conservative and clin- ical procedure. According to the Rev F. Arnold. the n,atriculatioH eXamina tions at Balliol aim at much higher standard than in the case else where and it seems generally understood that in the ordinary course each undergraduate shall strive for university honOrs. The
 istorical system is exceedingly good. twenty of these colleges make up the university, the oldest dating back to the | twelfth century; the youngest scarcely third of a century old They are:
 Christ's Church College Magdalen Col lege, Queens College, Exeter College New College, Oriel College. Balliol Col lege. Corpus Christi College. Lincoln Col Worcester College. St. Johns College. All
 Souls College Wadham College, Penn
 broke College, Brasenose College. Trinity College. Keble College. Merton College Christs Church College has some of the architecture which made Sir Christopher Wren famous, a gateway with tower especially marking it's architecture. It's
 "Old Tom of Oxford IS e great bell.
 twice as large as that of St. PauIs which at 9 o'clock at night strikes lol times, corresponding to the number of students al the foundation of the school Magdalen' College is noted for some of
 it's old customs. one of which, at dawn of
 May l, consists of a choir chanting the Latin hymn, beginning:
 '"re Deum Patrem Colimus,
 Te laudibus prosequimur.'
 This custom dates back 800 years.
 Merton College distinguishes itself also
 by curious old custom described by Ar
 mold. When dinner Is over the senior fel-