The San Francisco call., 1908-08-23

It is too fashionable TO De typical
college town. for the student life forms
only a small portion OF the town life.
Before visiting this university l asked
a Chicago man who had gone to college
there what sort of a place Northwest
ern was. You'll find 1t a very nice
girls seminary" he said. "Of course
there are few men here and there. II
you look hard. but the census reports
36 fewer men in Evanston and 1000
more women, so you can get an idea
how it Is at the university
It isn't so bad as 1t sounds. however,
II one remembers that the departments
of law, medicine and dentistry are To-
Gated In Chicago. and so the greater
part of the. men students are not on the
campus proper. There has been some
iear that the steady increase OF girls
would discourage the rew men left in
the academic department, and that
eventually II might become a woman's
college. A recent endowment for an
engineering school has put an end to
any danger of feminization.
There is much paternalism at North
western, though it is taken in good part
by the students, many of whom are
sent there because it is under strict
Methodist rule Graduates from the
said to be religious atmosphere, but
in reality it's the spooniest college you
ever saw" This paternalistic policy
requires that the girls live in the DOR
mitories or with relatives, but the men
are free to have fraternity houses or to
board in the town.
girl who lived in a dormitory at
the University of Wisconsin described
visit to a Northwestern dormitory
1t was just like a boarding school,"
she said. A bell rang at $50 a. m.
and we had to get up or get no
breakfast We assembled in the hall,
and at another bell filed into the din
ing room. We stood until bell was
tapped and all sat at precisely the same
moment. All day long we went ac-
cording to bells and rules. and 1 can
tell you / was glad to get back to
Wisconsin where we had neither. Why
in every room at Northwestern there's
a slip OF rules pasted on the door, and
II girl breaks one she can't go to
Chicago for week. And their dances
close at 10! Excuse me-
Northwestern offers advantages to
the student who is wholly or partly
self-supporting. The university is on
the shore of Lake Michigan, and there
is life saving station on the campus
where number Of students are en-
ployed. On stormy nights these men
walk up and down the beach for miles
on their life saving mission. One of
the girls dormitories employs no serv-
ants. but allows the girls who live
there to do the work and thus live in
extensively.
On the campus there is also a large
academy or preparatory school which
is constantly training boys and girls
for future work In the university. This
plan must save the professors much
time, judging from the amount one
hears at Berkeley and Stanford about
"insufhcient preparation in the prepara-
tory schools"
There Is little in Northwestern that
T is like our western universities. unless
the popularity Of dramatics under CEN
sorship reminds one of Stanford. and
the suburban trains running into the
town suggest the Berkeley train serv-
ice.
Chicago's Fine Buildings
The University of Chicago beggars
description. I have said nothing about
the buildings of the other universities
because there is little to say. All of
them are expensive and considerably
better than the old buildings at the
University of California, but they have
been built at different times and in
accord with no definite architectural
plan. A building could be made of red
OF yellow DIlCh OF Tan OI gray SAND
stone, according to the builders fancy,
and while middle west campus is al
ways attractive because of the beau
tifu1 trees and lawns, the buildings
which would be well enough taken
separately form a strange hodge podge
when viewed as whole. The Univer-
sity of Chicago is like Stanford in that
its buildings are all of the same
architecture, and the effect IS cor
respondingly harmonious. When you
are on the campus. surrounded by these
ivy grown gothic buildings of gray
sandstone with their red tiled roofs
you forget that around you lies
great city OF two and half million
inhabitants The buildings are laid
out in quadrangle form, but the effect
is not similar to that of the Stanford
quad because the gothic style does not
permit of arcades to connect the build
! ings.
The most noteworthy feature about
Chicago university is the quarter sys-
tenn. 1t was President Harper's idea
and agreed with John ID. RockefelIer's
views of college on businesslike lines
for the busy man. The university has
been called 1.-THE great department