The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-19
OXFORD SPIRIT.
ITS EFFECT ON THE AMERL-
 CANS.
Views of Professor E. E. sIosson of the
University of Wyoming.

University of Wyoming.
 The history of Oxford and it's present
 standing do not point it out to the or
 dinary mind as the most promising
 place for the intellectual centre of the
 federation of the world. The zeal and
 ingenuity that the college authorities have shown in the past in devising rules
 and customs which have hindered q large part of their own countrymen
 from enjoying to the full the advan-
 tages of Oxford have not encouraged Americans to believe they would be tol- erated there, much less welcomed. h. deed of all the great universities Of the world, oxford has offered the few est inducements and the most impedt- ments to the foreign student. Many a young American has tried to break into Oxford, but found that the authorities knew nothing of the standing of the in- stitution from which he came, that he would be obliged to conform to petty regulations such as he had never found even in the public school, and, above 4ll, that there was little chance to work in personal collaboration with great in- vestigators A friend of mine who was drawn by the fame of Sylvester to Ox- ford found that there were no lectures In advanced mathematics because, as he said "the mathematical faculty had a cold in his head"; and after being snubbed for not wearing a dress suit he went on to Germany, like the rest of his lcountrymen
 It may be said that the average American is prejudiced against Oxford, and we must confess there is some truth in the charge It is for him the symbol of what he most fears and hates from a political social and religious standpoint. It represents to him what his ancestors fought against in l776 and what he talks against every Fourth or July. It Is the name that slips easiest to his tongue when To feels called upon (which is frequently to declaim against "cloistered learnns, 'monastic ideals" and "caste education"
 This prejudice is doubtless largely due to ignorance. But for his ignorance of the advantages of Oxford the Amer can student is not altogether to blame. Whenever we meet M A. Oxon we bore him with questions in the true Yankee fashion. but somehow he fails to convey to us the reasons for his evident belief that Oxford is the greatest educational Institution In the world, or even to show that it is an educational instttu- tion at all in our sense of the words. We ask him what opportunities there are for. work, and he tells us how late you can sleep in the morning, how eX- slusiye it all is, what privileges are granted to the nobility and the clergy, and how much more brilliant the stage setting and the costuming than any his torical drama on the stage. We ask him to tell US of the share that Oxford has had in those marvellous discover les of the last half century which have made for us a new heaven and new earth for we know how an alumnus loves to boast of these things. But he patiently explains that the aim of OK ford is culture rather than mere re- search. and instead of making narrow Specialists like those of German univer- sities, devoting a lifetime to the native case of the third declension or to some plant, the Oxford graduate Is a man of the world, scholarly gen. tleman It pleases us to hear him say this, for ever since we had been obliged to give up going to Leipsc we had been Inclined to think that German educa- ton was overstimated and misdirected. Therefore we hasten to inform him that we had often said the same thing to our friends on their return from Germany Upon which he expands somewhat and tells us that Oxford was founded "by for churchmen." and al- though dissenters were now crowding In, they were kept in their places. He also relates most amusing anecdote of the witty insults which are hurled from the gallery at the distinguished men who take the doctorate. Fearing lest our ideas of a liberal culture might conflict, we change the subject and ask him about the laboratories, and he ] grows eloquent about the architecture !, md the stained glass. This sounds but when we inquire wheth ar one can learn to make such beauti- ,u1 stained glass there now he thinks ;; not If we question him further he gets IS irritated as an Oxford man can, and , goes to extremes, saying that a univer- sity is place where they teach only useless learning" and concludes by