The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-27

Suffice it to say that poets have sung of its beauties and statesmen waxed eloquent over its beneficent influences, whose names have long since graced the roll of the immortal. Their words about Oxford are quite as true as eulo- gistic. Besides the town proper, which may with the euphemy of Baedekerian brevity be dismissed as pretty, but interesting" there ere some twenty odd colleges, innunerable halls, libra ries and laboratories. Most of these buildings date from a time when Rip Van Wrinkles tavern still bore the sign King George" while no few can North American Indian yet chased the buffalo in heather happiness and saw age sobriety. Built then in days when their inmates were subjected to ruder disturbances than the now obnoxious tram cars. they all present walls of a commensurate height and thickness, which. combined with the grey coat ing in which departed centuries have wrapped them, lends to Oxford an ap- pearance of permanence and venerahil- ity that elicits the admiration of even the most callous tourist.
 As an institution, Oxford Is fed
 eration of smaller bodies known as
 arate and distinct, the one from the
 other. Each has its own executive and
 its own faculty. and maintains it's own
 kitchens ant dormitories. Similarly, the University has it's own admins- trative head and corps of teachers,
 but. in lieu of any extensive arrange ment for feeding and lodging its num- bers. and not always to the same end, 1t supports large number of libra
 ries and laboratories. Of the former. one Is famous. the Bodleian, as con-
 bosk in the English tongue. The du- ties and prerogatives of the Universi ty are many. but those which chiefly concern the undergraduate are three, viz: Conducting examinations, award ing honors and degrees. and maintain ing ut-of-college discipline. There is a large new building on the main street known as the schools, where
 examinations are held under the su- Dervision of carefully chosen exam iners. The question papers are mar
 Vels in their way. and are said to require a greater knowledge of the
 subject to prepare than to answer them Degrees are conferred In about the same manner as in America, ex-
 pressive and as academical dress ispre-
 scribed for every one, the incongruity
 or graduating parel, sometimes
 seen seen at at home home is spared ones eeyesii By
 NersitY is that of keeping in some
 semblance of order about thirty-fve
 hundred young men of all races.
 creeds and nationalities. Two officers
 are set apart for this duty chosen
 from among the fellows of the diff
 erent colleges and known as proctor"
 on their nocturnal peregrinations by
 three chosen servants, whose duty it
 is to defend the majesty of their
 masters persons. and to illustrate at
 graduates They have. for obvious
 qualities and not from affection. been
 nicknamed bull dogs" or "bullers. ."
 The offences of which the proctors
 tQlre PnpniZanpP violations fha
 Rules and Regulations" as set forth
 Tn big book known as the "Statuta." This book is presented to every un- der graduate upon his matriculation
 and. since a knowledge of Its contents
 is supposedly of some value to him,
 has been carefully transcribed into
 things. 1t is forbidden to go abroad
 at night without the prescribed cap
 and gown; to frequent. any saloon,
 public house or other place where. li-
 with any female for whose moral and
 social integrity you are not prepared
 fully to answer. The penalties for transRressOns of these Lrohibitions
 run from fine of five shillings ($1.25) to one of five pounds ($25.0O) or in- stant dismissal. On the whole, how ever. the revenue derived from this source Is very little. While the stu | dents of oxford show very little par | tialitY for a display of their academi- ! cal raiment in the town bars the l rooms of their friends and the college ! clubs present such facilities for prt- Nate inebriation that they seldom need | imbibe publicly
 ! Reviewing the Oxford disciplinary | system in toto. the American at once
 takes exception to 1t as unnecessary
 and obnoxious and cites as cases in point the freedom from restraint of
 the great American universities. The ] Englishuan grants all this, and still
 his reply is effecie: Abolish the
 prog system and you get tue police | Our peccadIloes may be punished but they at least escape publicity"