The Grit-advocate., 1906-04-06
Students at Old Oxford
College Life There Something of Novelty to
American Rhode. Scholars.
Especial Correspondence.)

The first contingent OF American
Rhodes scholars has now been at Ok
for for more than whole academic
year. Already the scholars have had
many experiences and gained many
Impressions that may be of interest
to their el!ow-countrymen.
Their reception, on the whole. has
been a friendly one. Although they
found their English cousins less de-
rlonstrative in their bonhomie than
themselves, and although they thought
it queer at first that these cousins on
being introduced to man merely said
How dyou do" with perhaps dis
tant nod, they soon discovered that
this reserve was rather trick of man
ner than an indication of unsociabili
ty.
1t gees without saying that the life
here is a good deal of novelty to
the Americans. In the morning the
undergraduate is gently aroused by
his scout" (manservanU in time to
keep chapel or roller" troll
calD a few minutes before s O'Clock.
He is under the sad necessity of
keeping a specified number-vary!ng
in c fferent colleges from twentyfonr
to forty-of either one or the other
during the term if he is to receive
official credit for having resided" that
term. Ii he keeps the time e-honore1
practice of 'rollers''-insttuted. no
doubt. to inculcate early rising-he
must arrive at certain room an6
with a goose-quill pen affiX his sig
nature to piece of paper before
bell ceases ringing. If he has chosen
to keep chapels" instead he must be
Ia chapel before another bell stops ring
ing, and must remain there through.
out a service of about twenty minutes.
After rollers" or chapel there is a
wait Of nearly an hour before break
fast. "Brekker" is served la carte,
without the carte, in the students
sitting rooms. and to each man alone,
unless he happens to be guest or the
host a. breakfast party as more
often hLppen than not. At breakfast
party the social time is prolonged after
the heal till 10 O'Clock, or even later,
by talk and smoking. Then every
body is supposed to do his duty by
books and lectures until luncheon time
about l o'clock
Afternoon in Open Air.
The afternoon until or o'clock
is spent out of doors, whether the
sport be rowing, football hockey,
cricket, lacrosse. golf, tennis. polo,
hunting, running, riding. cycling, or
merely walking. The Oxford under
graduate feels that he cannot exist
unless he exercises in the open air
in the afternoon. About 4:3O every
body goes somewhere for tea. wheth.
er it be to fellow-students room at
college, a public tea room, OF the
home of a friend. The little college
tea parties usually last till about 6
O'Clock, leaving free hour betw cen
that time and dinner. This hour is
spert studiously or socially, accord.
ing to the inclination of each indi-
vidual. Dinner Is served '.in hall'-
large, chapel-like building-where the
appearance of the place itself, the
manner of serving, and the queer table
customs all seall of the past and its
traditions. After dinner coffee is
served in the rooms of those who
desire 1t. Then the student is pre-
pared for the evening, which he
spends perhaps with his books, play
ing bridge at the theater, or perhaps
at some other of the many diversions
possible. Such, in brief, is a typical
day at Oxford
College hospitality at Oxford has
no equal anywhere else in the world