The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-15
WITH RHODES AT OXFORD.
College Friend of the Colossus Tells
OF His Student Days mt OrfeI.
Writer in Mainly About People Gondon.l

Writer In Mainly About People Oondon)
As an old college friend of the great
man. of South Africa, / may, perhaps, be
allowed to add a few recollections of him
in the old DAYS of our college friendship
We entered our names together at Oriel
College, oxford, in October, 1878, and ad-
miratiOn Of that dear old house was always
the passion OF RhOdes's life, second only to
that of carving out new empires for British
rule, or extending his railway from the
Cape to Cairo. He once proposed to found
a new Oriel College IN South Africa, and
without doubt would nave carried out his
intention if the war had not intervened:
Cecil Rhodes was not a very Industrious
student in those old college days. His
health was not very robust. Neither the
river, nor Cowley cricket grounds, nor the
old running path knew him as a competitor.
Nor was he over fond of study Two years
ago, when the college entertained him as
the honored guest of the evening at the
Gaudy dinner he was sitting on the right
hand of the old dean-the same dean who,
having in older days a somewhat sharp and
sarcastic tongue, had said to Rhodes: MIR.
Rhodes, don't you think that you could find
a more congenial sphere for the exercise or
your peculiar genius at New Inn Hal?'
Old Oxford men will recollect that New
Inn Hall, now entirely destroyed, was then
a kind of refugium peccatorum where those
who could not pass their examinations
within the prescribed period and were
obliged for this or other reasons to leave
their college, could find a recognized shelter
and abode until the tyranny of
tion was Overpast. Rhodes was then being
reprimanded for neglecting to attend lee
lures; his reply was decidedly characters
tic. He said in his deep. rather gruf voice:
If you will let me alone, Mr.. Dean. I4
pull through" 7
At the end of his first year his health
broke down. and his place in college knew
him no more. He was ordered TO go to
South Africa, where his cousins were al
ready engaged in diamond mining. Rhodes
stayed out there exactly Il year and re-
turned to Oriel, where we were all de-
lighted to welcome him back. He cared
not FOR multiplicity of friends, but was
very stanch and true to those of us who
knew him well. During that year of alb
sence he made some money out of dia-
monds, and he used to carry some of the
| precious stones about with him in a little
cardboard box, which he kept in his waist
coat pocket.
on more than one occasion this box was
Produced at lecture time for the inspection
of Rhodes's friends when the lecture was
more than usually dull. Presently it would
be upset and the stones scattered on the
floor; and then there would be a mighty
hunt and much confusion, and the lee
turer would look up from his well-woTn
MS and exclaim: What is the matter,
gentlemen" And the usual reply was
given: 'Oh. sir, it is only Rhodes and his
diamonds" and the lecturer himself would
join in the hunt.
memorable occasion. The University of
Oxford had just conferred the honorary de-
gree of ID. c. L. on the Hon. Cecil Rhodes.
in spite of much opposition on the part of
WIN ~ AAA1G A1 q OH I'LL
scrupulOus adventurer.' and was d~isquali-
fed for any such distinction on account of
the part which he had taken in the Jane
son raid. The lord chancellor was present,
representing Queen Victoria, the royal VS.
itor of the college, founded by her prede-
/ cessor, King Edward III. No reporters were
there to record the speech which Rhodes
delivered on the occasion. in which he bold
ly defended himself against his traducers.
His eloquent words live only i'm the recol-
lection of us who heard him:
''You have compared me" he said. with
Lord Give and Warren Hastings and 9th
ers who have made IL their business in life
10 act as pioneers and found empires for
the extension of English sovereignty. Even
some of these men,, greater men than /,
have not escaped calumny and have been
tried before their peers for alleged miscon-
duct. But they were acquitted. as L have
been acquitted. though i do not deny that i
nave made mistakes, and there are certain
events in my life which, IL they occurred
again, would have been arranged differ
emily"
Cecil Rhodes made many friends during
his strange and brilliant career, but none
more true than those men who knew him
in his old Oriel days. ere the cares of en-
pire-making and the magnitude of wealth
had left their mark upon him and dulled
some of those attractive qualities which en-
deared him to us in the days of early man
hood.