The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-20
OXFORD UNIVERSITY
SOMETHING ABOUT THE FAMOUS
 ENGLISH INSTITUTION.
1t is of Unusual Interest to Amer jeans Now Because of Cecil
 Rhodes's Will.
Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune.
 American and European scholarships for Oxford University, as provided for in the will of the late Cecil Rhodes, promi- ses to be the greatest innovation in all the centuries that have marked that great seat of learning.
 oxford alumni of a hundred years ago protested against the changes in the schools that occurred in their generation. The Oxonjan of the sos was seeing ruin in all that he had cherished long before the Chicago fire was a fact for history. The graduate of the late 10s already has voiced his displeasure at changes. material and ethical, which he had seen long before the will of a Cecil Rhodes was a subject for speculation.
 What now shall be the comment of the Oxonian of yesterday when the will of the South African dictator shall be carried out in it's details? 1
 For a hundred American students .irh- ported into the Oxford atmosphere must effect it's classicism such as it remains; for long ago it was asserted that. the classicism of fifty years ago had suffered and that the term ''an Oxford man" had lost all of its old time significance Ten years ago T. E. Kebbel in the conser- vative National Review. advised against any Oxford man of his time going to Oxford in reminiscent mood.
 "But,r he writes. If any one there be- at this moment, who, after an absence of thirty years or more IS moveo .o make a pilgrimage tof Oxford by the pleasures of memory, we would warn him to do nothing rashly. Let him make as many inquiries beforehand as If he were going to a foreign land; and make up his mind whether he is prepared to face the shock he will experience. It might besas we'll even to consult a doctor and ascertain that his heart is quote sound before venturing on the experimens For can promise him that In many particulars-not perhaps intrinsically the most important. but likely to striee such a man as strongly at least as any others he will find much to damp old associa- lions and to bring him up short before he has been on foot many hours.
 Citadel of Conservation.
 Nothing of course, can deprive OK ford of its romantic and literary associa- tions, and nothing that is likely to hap pen of its natural and material glories; only the extinction of civilization can pbliterate the first, and only brute violence destroy the second. Oxford IS till the Oxford of Campion of Cavaliers ana JdCOblteS, oI AOuicou anu JoiiSo', "i Wellesley and Canning, of Kebe and Newman The hand of improvement has not yet touched Magdalen- Tower. nor New College Gardens, nor St. Mary's Church, nor the noble sweep of the High Street.. These are all there as they were hundred years ago, and as they Will De. ct us hope. a hundred years hence Even lere. however, some of those useful de- . ,ornities have crept in, which bogmen call progress and men of taste cali vandalism. Tram cars run down the High and Magdalene bridge has been widened to make room for them.
 sBut what will make the deepest inn ,ression on the gaze of the long absent visitor is the change which has taken place in the environs of Oxford. For merly, whether we approach Oxford from the east or from the west. from the north or from the south, there was noth7 ing to mar the effect of the coup d'oeil which was in store for us. We came straight from the woods and the meadows into the heart of the university, and found ourselves at once surrounded by it's colleges and churches. without having passed through any intermediate zone of brick and mortar. St. Clements, indeed might call itself suburb. but it was short and there was mo- other.
 Now, on the contrary the visitor ap- pi, aches Oxford through fringe of genteel villas such as you may see at H.ghbury or Camberwell. bespeaking the growth of a new world outside the old one, and little in harmony with the idea of Oxford which he carried away with him a generation ago.
 "Tn my time it was easy enough to dis tlaguish a member of the university with out his acad smicals When last at OK, ford I remember passing lots of young fellows in the streets whom I could not for the life of me assign to any class of society. They did not look like townsmen: they did not look like gownsmen; they did not look like public school men come up to try for scholarships. I could not tell what they were. N