The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-08-07
OUR LADS AT OXFORD. What an Englishman Thinks He Has
 Learned About Them.

(Archibald Marshall in London Mail ]
 l wrote the other day that some of
 the American freshmen had come in-
 to Oxford with soft felt hats of a
 shape not worn here, and that these
 would probably soon be discarded
 And curiously enough I have since
 found in that peculiar squash hat a
 sort Of parable of character
 I have been told of an American
 Rhodes scholar who has, so to speak,
 unfurled his American squash hat as
 a banner of nationalism. He is at
 one of the most exclusive and aristo-
 cratic colleges. and by sheer indfvid-
 uality has attained to the highest de-
 gree of popularity. I suppose the
 best chance for a man of average character, whether he comes from Am- erica or from an English public school,
 to get on at Oxford is to know the
 ways of the place and be rather care ful not to go outside them. He must not in any way be eccentric-he must not be freak But this man who is described of great strength and stature-he is an athletic 'bIue"- coming from one of the less sophisti- cated states of America seems to have thought that he might as we'll remain himself and see how he got on. He has got on so we'll that he is likely to pass into a proverb. He empha- sizes his Americanism-"puts 1t on,"l as they say of him, and he and his hat and his baggy trousers and his slouch and his revolver are cnaricatur- ed everywhere and immensely enjoy. ed by undergraduate Oxford
 He is reported in his early days to have had cause of complaint about his scouts want of attention and to have sat at his table with his revol- yer at his side and said to him. eff you do not come when I call you I'll shoot you dead.'' The threat was not particularly effective, because the scout fled from his presence and is said not to have appeared again for highly effective. Such bright and breezy habits are welcome in so- ciety that desires ardently to be anus ed and does not at all insist that ev- erybody, should be cut to one pattern, although it will not brook the f1outing of that pattern by men who have noth- ing to put in it's place.
 I cannot find in all my inouiries that there is anything to object to in the English undergraduates treat ment of the American undergraduate as such. In the case of the man above mentioned, because he has dis tinguished himself in the Oxford world l they hold out open arms. And there are other cases. In one college an American Rhodes scholar has been elected president of the Junior Com. | mon Room. This says even more than the election of foreigner to the presidency of an athletic club, be- | cause the one goes mainly by senior- ity and the other is simply a matter | of general sociability and popularity. | The president of the Junior Common Room in college is the man the un- dergraduates of that college like best l of their number and they are quite | ready to prefer an American before | an Englishman.
 But Oxford does not hold out open arms to men of lesser caliber. Very few Englishmen do. There is no | doubt that the sort of careles frigid- | lty with which an Englishman is wont l to treat a stranger until he gets to know him has surprised and confus- ed people first coming to Oxford who 1 are accustomed to an easier surrender | and in some cases has made them | slink back into their shells and per- haps never again emerge from them. | do not see that this is a matter that | can be altered without radical | change in British character, which is | hardly to be expected.
 What might be expected is that | should not assume an ex- tra degree of frigidity towards the | stranger within their gates, that they should give them equal chances with | And it is pleasant to ] learn that they do this in Oxford and | even something more
 When the American Rhodes schol- first came to Oxford there were a | good many "freaks'' among them. | They came from all sorts of out-of- the-way places and had all sorts of | put of the-way manners. Now a freak | among undergraduates is considered | fair game, and is apt to be unmerci- fully ragged" until he sheds some of his freakihood or else makes good his claim to set conventions at defiance But the American freaks were not | ragged as English freaks would nave been. I heard this from sever al quarters and particularly from an American undergraduate who Is not | ] Rhodes scholar. He said definite
 y that the treatment of Americans | ,y Oxford undergraduates was far kinder and more genial than would l
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