The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-10

London Letter to the New York Sun.
 N the whole of Oxford university, so
 far as it's 400o or more undergrad 3 uates are concerned. there Is one modern bathtub. Queens college is the lucky possessor.
 In Cambridge university. with its twen- ty-three colleges and even larger num- Der of students, it is doubtful if there is one.
 1 The undergraduate. If he would bathe. must provide his own bath. They sell such baths in all the furniture and supply stores in both towns and if he does not inherit one with the scanty furniture of his rooms from the last occupant the stu dent wishing to wash occasionally in his three years course at the university must buy one.
 When he moves he usually carries 1t with him. In moving. with an old sheet or a piece of rough burlap tied Qver tbe top, 1t Is fine receptacle for books and papers.
 This undergraduate bathtub is almost three feet in diameter, six inches or so deep and built of tin, painted over, oak color outside and white within. The stu dent usually keeps it under the bed In the morning his scout Cat oxford) or "gyp" Cat Cambridge), that is. his man servant-there is usually one of these for every half dozen underestimate slides it out, half fills it with cold water. and the bath is ready.
 The undergraduate, equipped with a big sponge, stands in the two or three inches of water and swabs himself with the sponge This is the cold tub in which the l British youth is supposed to delight. If he would take off the chill in winter. in defiance Of tradition, he can boil his lit- tie kettle on an alcohol stove and warm the bath, as far as possible, with the con tents.
 Down at tine boathouse after rowing or at the pavilion in the athletic field, after cricket or football, he can stand on A leaden or wooden grating and turn on A shower from above or adopt the sponge treatment. The sponges are huge things holding 6 pint or so of water, so the re- suiI IS very similar. At these places he will find no warm water at all.
 If anything better in the way of a bath Is wanted he can patronize the Turkish bath establishment-there is one run bv private enterprise in each university town or take trip to London. There is no other way.
 These are the bathing facilities, outside of dip in the river, offered by the two great British universities. The comforts in the students rooms are equally scanty. unless the undergraduate provides them himself.
 The prospect recently inspired Ian American mother with son to enter Ox- ford to write to the London Times an in- dignant letter of complaint
 Ought l." she asked, ito subject my boy, after four years of student life at Harvard, in rooms hung with fresh vet inexpensive paper, carpeted with soft toned rugs and furnished with perfect simplicity, but with a regard for comfort and cleanliness, to the squalor of such rooms as I was shown?
 'ls it necessary in order to turn out the polished well-groomed, refined English man, whom we admire so much in Amer ica, to subject youth to half-painted floors, ragged carpets, shabby furniture, shockingly greasy cushions, untidy wall l paper dirty mattresses and blankets, and to extraordinary discomfort?
 "1s it not in spite of these that they have become the finest gentlemen in the world? do not believe in the discipline of dirt. Discomfort and rigid simplicity are no doubt salutary. Of these I do not complain. But do hesitate In my admir- ation of the great university that counte- nances unnecessary disregard of cleanli- | ness"
 Now, the facts about this complaint are that the condition of the carpets, furni- ture and ct ceteras of the students rooms are his own concern and his family's en- | tirely. If this is unsatisfactory he is ex- pected to remedy it by providing his own. The colleges in the British universities undertake to educate youth to feed him and lodge him and to exercise a general | supervision over his health and conduct; but they do not pretend to supply him with the comforts ot his home. His com forts are his own affair."
 So. far as 1t is able, each college lodges it's men within it's own walls. For those left out of this arrangement it finds lodg- ings in the town and supervises their management. The college provides room and service, for which the student pays.