The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1903-02-11
OLD OxFORD'S POVERTY
Famous University Said to Be
In Dire Need Of Funds.
GENERALLY SUPPOSED TO BE R1OH

Correspondent Says Holders of
Rhodes scholarships Will Marvel
at Lack of Eauipment-GreatE Eng
fish Seat of Learning Declared to
he Too Poor to Keep Abreast of
the Times.
When Cecil Rhodes decided to found
scholarships for American, German ana
colonial students at oxford, he could
NOT have been well informed as to the
needs and the financial condition of the
historic university, says the London
correspondent of the New York Press.
Had he been so, he probably would
have made still another bequest to pro-
vide his beloved alma mater with mod
ern equipments, the lack of which is
daily becoming a greater embarrass-
ment and handicap to the famous 1nSt-
tuition. For, although oxford has the
name of being one Of the richest univer-
sites in the world, it actually is too
poor to afford a large enough staff, or
even sufficient books and accommoda-
ton to enable it to keep abreast OF oth-
er institutions of its class, to say moth
ing of outranking them.
1t is now being said openly in Eng
land that when the American holders
of the Rhodes scholarships reach OK
ford they are likely to be much less i'm
pressed with the beauty, age and state
illness of the classic university than by
its lack of proper equipment. Simply De-
cause there is no money to PROVIDE
Them the celebrated BOdleian library at
Oxford is practically without foreign
works on philosophy or on political
economy.
It's stock of books on modern history
is so comparatively scant that 1t is no
exaggeration to say that the scientific
study of European history cannot now
be carried on at oxford. For the same
reason there is no engineering depart
ment There is no equipment at all for
the study of mineralogy, a subject
which, it seems likely, the holders OF
the Rhodes scholarships will be espe-
cially anxious to pursue. There is only
one professor to teach geology, there IS
no mechanical laboratory, while the ar
engagements for the studies of electrici-
ty and magnetism were described by
one who knows Oxford well as moth
ing but a brilliant professor lecturing
in a tin shed with scarcely any appa-
ratus and on a scanty income"
The Assyrian language is now taught
in almost every important American
and German university, but it cannot
be studied at Oxford, and neither can
rabbinical Hebrew, tongue with an
important bearing on the study OF the
Old and New Testaments. Though there
are now millions of Buddhists under
the British flag, Pail, the sacred Ian
guage of that faith, is not dealt with
in the empires most famous institution
of learning
Oxford is about the last place in the
world which would strike the visitor as
to the slightest extent in need of funds.
It's buildings are impressive, and the
ceremonials connected with them are
stately The great halls are decorated
richly, and there is a general air OF
prosperity, if not luxury. The univer"
sity has the reputation of being i'm
mensely wealthy, and so it is; but to-
day it's expenses almost equal its in
come. The different colleges all are
well to do, but each one of them spends
nearly all it's income on it's own needs
and sets only a small percentage aside
for the use of the university as a
whole
In Oxford's present state every addi-
tiOnal student means an extra strain
upon the university's exchequer. And
Mr.. Rhodes scholarships will make an
addition of one-seventeenth to the num-
Der of undergraduates.