The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-10-30
Special Cable to The Tribune.


OXFORD. Oct. 29.-The present
month is memorable one in the lives
of half hundred young Americans
! For it is now that the select company
of this years Rhodes scholars are get
| ting their first taste of the venerable
traditions and the history-laden at
mosphcrc of stately Oxford university
| They form the first group to arrive
from America since 1905, and their ar
revival of q long standing controversy
Ever since the unhappy breaks - of
the verdant young Americans whose
embarrassing lot il was to constitute
the pioneer delegation III 1904, Ok
omians have never ceased 10 deprecate
the wisdom of tho philanthropic be
quest which let loose these 'barbar
ianso within their exclusive gates.
This year brings another kink into the
snobbishness, Talking with some Ok
ford men on this matter, ] get an i'm.
preston OF campus full of cordial
Britishers. arms outstretcbed TO receive
their American comrades, while Rhodes
scholars from the effete districts of
Idaho and Dakota shrink along the
walls in shy alarm. The colonial and
German recipients of tho Rhodes be
quest wander into these outstretched
this ELUSIVE Oxford life. But the
Americans stand aloof, and withhold
within themselves the American en-
ergy and enterprise Cecil Rhodes was
so confident they would display.
To anyone who knows either Amori-
cans or Oxford this view will appear
at once to be very quantity untrue.
And although both in print and on the
lips Of Englshmon it has received a
lnn1 nf >f Ipfn
not at all the view of the average Ok
ford man. Nevertheless, the criticisms
directed at the American Rhodes schol-
ar, and, over his head, at the system
which brings him to Oxford, have ar
rived this year at some very cOgent
and suggestive disclosures which very
rarely filter into the ears of the wise
administrators of the bequest in Amer
lea.
American Rhodes Scholar.
In the very first place, il must be
that the American Rhodes
scholar is rather an older man than the
straight from the public
schools Of England An American
rarely eInbarks on Rhodes scholar
ship unless he has graduated from col
lege at home. Thus he is bit reluc-
tant about being classed, all over again,
with lot Of school boys, as an in
freshman. To his matured
mind, II IS not an easy matter at first
to make friends in such an apparently
frivolous atmosphere, And this friv-
olity grows up to curiousy O1onian
provides in men Of the American s own
age almost as effective a temporary
barrier against mutual sympathy.
Again, Oxford is a fearfully complex
place. One wrong headed action, such
AS the choosing Of an uncongenial col
|ege, damns man for his college life.
Americans are encouraged to mix, and
they always have mixed; but it is
hard Job TO mix with the "right'
crowd. Some colleges are declasse, and
man who gets into an attracitvely in
with a genial, declasse crowd, never
gets to meet the men he has really
'ome across the ocean to see. This
condition is familiar enough to Ameri- |
,an college men, but in Oxford 1T is
multiplied hundred TINES in the com
DleH1ty of the system, and the fatal |
inality with which lines of division
ire drawn.
"My Name Is Smith,
And it has never been denied that
oxford men are harder to meet on fae |
niIlar terms than any other set of |
heir reserved countrymen. Americans !
ire cautioned especially against two
expressions, common to every college in |
he United States. These are, "Pleased |
o meet YOU" and the form Of intro
luctiop which begins with "My name
s - The first, Englishmen don t
believe; the second is often re-
.eived as grave Oxonian received it
me morning at college breakfast He
vas the only man at table, and
umul tuous American from Ohio ap
'roached him with this familiar "open-
ng' and hearty slap on the back
My name is Smith, said the Ohioau.
The Englishman favored his accoster
With the famous Oxford stare and very
,olitely returned, Chow quaint"
Then he went on eating.
Then there is the question of scholar
hlp. Detractore of the American
Rhodes scholars say not only that they
ave failed to carry out their bargains
n getting immersed thoroughly in un-
life, but that they have
made a wholly inadequate showing in
scholarship. This is quite true, but
hey have done as well as tho Germans
n the CoouiaIs. And there are three
easons, irremovable ones they seem,
Why Americans cannot be expected to
10 any better. One is their very natural
lesiro to travel about as much as pos
ible. The English student usually
ponds all his vacation studying-it is
,art of the Oxford system that almost
10 studying gets done during term time
while the American spends at least
lalf Of it in travel Many Americans
70 so far, also, as TO take their de-
yree in two years instead of three, so
he whole Of the last of the summer can
,e spent in economically seeing the
world. All this cuts in on marks, Of
course, though perhaps not in the long
un, Oh the value of his work.
a more eogeut reason still is the
iast incentive placed on English stu
lents to win the coveted "6rsts" that
lcnotc scholarship. On them hang po
ltions in England of the most eDviable
quality; almost invariably they are
made men," The incentive to Ameri-
ans, as far as mere marks 90, is OBJ
Tiously not nearly Of so intimate
md pressing nature OF this fact,
Ilso, results arc eloquent evidence.
And lastly, Americans are not at all
It home among English educational