The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-08-03

ZION Tor this widespread opinion, 1t
would put college. education in diff
ferent light; but it can be shown to rest
upon no surer basis than an occasional
sad example and the heated magma
ton of anxious writers of fiction. Two
facts must be borne in, mind: the
college boy enters academic halls at the
very time he is changing from boy to
man and finds all his expenses proper
tionately heavy. Then, too, in reckon
ing the expense Of son at college,
father frequently fails to charge
against the total the expenses he would
have incurred at home. 1t really costs
little more to dress boy at college
than at home; for city parent it costs
no great sum to board the boy, above
what it would cost at home.
Moreover, a few minutes calcula-
ton will show that every man who
sends his son to college is getting more
than he pays for. Every college is a
philanthropic institution; all of them
receive aid, either from endowments or
from benefactions, which enable them
to give tuition at far less than cost. AS
for the expenses of living in college,
these are as low as they can be made
rooms in the college dormitories are
never rented with a view to profit;
board is generally to be had at absolute
cost. Thanks to the wise foresight of
the men who have given literally to
the cause of education, college educa-
ton to-day costs not SO per cent of
what it cost a generation ago.
AS we have already indicated, the
incidental expenses are the heaviest
items the only outlet for extravag-
ance-and these are almost entirely
determined by the company the boy
keeps in college. The parent who sees
that his son meets and associates with
boys of modest means and simple tastes
need have no fear that the lads habits
will become extravaganza Indeed, if
the truth be told, parents are often as
much responsible for the extravaganza
Of their sons as are the boys them
selves.
Will the Boy Become Overbearing?
Once more. Parents sometimes
fear that the college holds real danger
for the boy in that it may encourage
him to become overbearing and
superior in his manners. Here again
the traditional returned college boy of
fiction is responsible for a vast deal of
misinformation. Parents read the
familiar and overdone story: the old
man sends the boy to college with the
money he has raised by mortgage, and
he fondly expects that the boy will
return to help him. But when the lad
does come back home he is supercilious
and naughty, laughs at the ignorance of
his parents, snubs the boys he used to
know, and is too superior a gentleman
to associate with the girls of the COM
munity. All of this is the veriest rot.
The college is not school for snobs.
1t is rather an institution where all
that is gentlemanly and chivalrous in
young man may be encouraged and
upbuilt. To suppose that what hap
pens in one Of thousand cases-and
that one doubtful-happens in every
instance is so manifestly absurd as
scarcely to need comment. Parents
who send their sons to college may
expect them to return ambitious; but
they need never fear that gentleman
born will come back brute unbearable.
Everything in college life is cal
culated to improve the manners and the
culture Of the lad; few things can be
found that are in any wise calculated
to make him snob. To be sure, there
was time in some colleges where, from
the lordly heights of sophomore
omniscience, the college boy looked
down upon the world. But that day
has passed with the coming of an era
when the college is adjusted to and is
part of the community in which it is
located. In no college is there any dis.
position to make the boy think himself
better than his neighbors; in every