The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-10
STUDENT LIFE AT OXFORD
 BY NO MEANS LUXURIOUS

He or his family supplies the furniture and equipments.
 The usual arrangement Is that the retir- ing tenant of the rooms, having com pleted his course, sells his furniture to his scout" or 'gyp." who in turn dis poses of 1t at a profit to the newscomer whom he expects to serve in turn If there Is anything broken or lacking the newcomer must buy 1t. Then he can supplement the bed, chairs. table. book case, carpets. linen and tableware with such of his personal treasures as he wishes to bring to the university.
 In some cases the colleges have tried to abolish the oxtortions possible under this system by buying the furniture themselves and renting 1t with the rooms to the students. But the arrangement Is purely voluntary.
 If the undergraduate doesn't like the equipment provided he can supply his own. He will have to pay for 1t in. either case, so 1t Is simply a choice between renting from the college. renting from a furniture man on his own account and buying outright.
 So that so far as the furnishings of college rooms are concerned, their squalor or luxury, Is regarded as the undergraduates own affair. He can rem edy that condition due to tAe habits of his predecessors, if he pleases. It Is all a question of expenditure.
 At the same time, it is true. that in the university rooms the American stu dent accustomed to life at Harvard or Yale will probably be none too we'll pleased with his surroundings, so far as his rooms are concerned. The buildings are old and time has not improved their interior condition.
 Modern conveniences are remarkable for their absence. Cracks in the walls and warped doors and window sashes ad- init draughts The only heat is from a small open fire in the sitting room. There are many college rooms still lighted by oil lamps.
 Each student in college has 0 set of three rooms to himself-that is a study or living room, bed room and small box-lixe pantry in which to keep coal and food and the necessary alcohol stove. The rooms have double outer doors, the outer one of heavy oak, which the ten- ant slams when he goes out or desires to intimate that he is out, from which comes the expression sporting your oak" and an inner baize covered door.
 The open fire in the study heats only that room. The bed room is without heat, so it is frequently necessary in winter to break the ice in the water pitcher to se- cure that desired cold tub.
 The rooms are repapered and painted from time to time, and often the work is very badly done. The floors are frequent
 
 ly very poor The students comfort usu- ally depends entirely on the equipment he buys or brings with him.
 Hot water. unless the scout" can beg some from the college kitchen. must be obtained from the teakettle. There is no other source of supply.
 Food is carried in from the college kitchen also. The students dine together in the college hall.
 As to the condition in which the rooms are kept while they are occupied, that is very much a matter of chance. At Ok ford all female help is barred from the colleges. The undergraduates chores are done by scout, a man who has usu- ally served several generations of college boys and whose enthusiasm for his duties must be kept up by frequent tipping There is usually one scout 10 a staircase, on which half a dozen undergraduates have their rooms.
 The scout makes the beds, sweeps up, fetches water and coal and acts as the undergraduates messenger. Most of these men have grown old in the college serv- ice, and are disposed to make life none too comfortable to the college man who has not the means or the desire to be liberal As they are all very much alike. complaint and change of servant do not greatly improve matters.
 At Cambridge a known by imme morial usage as the ''gyp" and an elderly woman called the bedmaker devide the duty of keeping the rooms in order. The woman does the chambermaids or house. maids work. The man fetches the coal, brings in the food and carries the mes- sages. What has been said about the Ox.- ford scouts" applies equally to them.
 A storm of vehement protest from the university authorities was raised by the "American mothers" letter to the Times; but other Americans who nave visited the British universities find large sub stratum of truth underlying it's sweeping statements Compared with the college rooms at Harvard and Yale the quarters for British undergraduates are as cells to palace. They may be cIean, but thes are, as rule, not nearly as comfortable.