Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-05
OXFORD UNIVERSITY
Many Queer Things About
This Famous Institution.
HOW STUDENTS LIVE
CUSTOMS THAT HAVE COME
DOWN FROM MEDIAEvAL DAYS.
More Play Than Work-College Fines
and Chancellors' Courts-Ameri-
can Scholarships.
HOW STUDENTS LIVE
Copyright. 1902. by Frank G, Carpenter,

Copyright 1902 by Frank G. CarPenter.l
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
OXFORD, June -. 1902.
In the Athens of the British empire, sur
rounded by the time-eat ten colleges of Eng
lands oldest university, under the shad-
ows of the mighty trees where for CEN
turtles the greatest scholars of our ntera-
ture have walked. l write for my American
readers. BY the bequest of Cecil Rhodes,
Oxford University has become to us the
most interesting seat Of learning outside
the United States From now on a hundred
picked American boys, two from each state
and territory, to be kept here at school.
Mr.. Rhodes will provides that each student
is to be allowed 900, or 81 500 a year for
expenses. and that the number shall be
kept full by new appointments made
through competitive examinations from
year to year. For this reason examinations
for Oxford will henceforth be as common
in our country as examinations for West
Point and Annapolis. and a stream of Ok
ford graduates vii slowly permeate every
part of the Union.
But first let me give you some idea of the
university and its surroundings. l despair
of transmitting more than an impres sion-
Nathaniel Hawthorne has truly said that
The world has no place like It, and it
would take a lifetime and more than one
to comprehend and enjoy it satisfactorily"
l have visited most of the classic spots on
the globe. but none like this. oxford is
more impressive than Athens and the spirit
of learned antiquity seems to hover more
closely over IL than over the older ruins of
India, China and Japan. For more than
loo years men have gathered here for
study. Tradition aScribes Oxford founda-
ton to King Alfred in 972 When it began
1t was connected with the monasteries. but
for more than seven centuries 1t uni
versity pure and simple. During the middle
had
one time. and on through the centuries new
colleges have grown up about it, and it has
held its own as of the chief educational
Institutions of the world
Twenty-Three Different Colleges.
The town of Oxford has now 10000 people
1t is situated about sixty miles from Lon
don, in the heart of rural England It is
embraced by the Isis or Upper Thames, and
the CherweH. which here join and
flow on to London, as the Thames to the
sea. The colleges are scattered all over the
city. They are not like our great schools
and you can get no idea of them by such
comparisons.
Oxford University is not one college. but
twenty-three colleges. Each college has it's
own buildings. massive stone structures of
two and three stories, surrounding green
courts or quadrangles with mighty trees
lining the streets in front of them and parks
are scattered here and there about them.
and in others stand trees centuries old.
The colleges are indescribable in their
time-wOrn and venerable grandeur. Many of
them are more like mOnasteries than COL
legeS. They have their cloisters looking out
upon the QuadrangIes and through their
carved dOorways you might expect to see
monk in gown and COwl come forth. The
walls are fairly chewed by the teeth of
time The pillars have holes in them like
those in the bark of a mighty tree long
since dead. and on the roofs of some the
slate is the wooden shingles of
its chapel and dining hall with its windows
of stained glass, many of them painted by
the old masters Some have walls beauti-
fully carved, some are paneled in oak and
wOndrous architecture meets you at every
step
How Colleges Are Constituted
Each college is independent of the others
Each has its own students, it's own profess
ors and its own lecturers. although the
students of the various colleges may at
tend lectures where they please. The stu
dents of a college live in it, and the num-
her varies according to the room and pOpu-
lartty of the institution. At present there
are $500 undergraduates going to school
number Of tutors.
The system of instruction is different from
anything we have at home. and it seems to
me that the American boys will have an
easy time and will be able to take honors
without working as hard as in the United
States The system seems to be merely
one of lectures without Rotations No
questions are asked in class room and the
sole test of a mans scholarship is in exami-
nations at the end of the term. Each stu
dent is supposed to have tutor who looks
over his work and revises it from time to