Evening star., 1923-12-16

aryk gave 100000 kronen from the
fund given him by the nation ss q
birthday present on his SEVENTEEN
anniversary. and Alice Masaryk, his
daughter, and others, helped.
On the first day that the colony
was to begin building. 500 men and
women students came to the front
and offered TO, work, and during the
construction more than 1900 took
part. They dug the foundations and
did all the rough labor. The girls
esta ablished kitchen to feed the
boys, and within a short time they
had a gang of university men doing
things they would have thought be-
low their dignity before. Every man
who worked four hours got his meals
free. and no one is given a room in
the colony who has not worked 900
hours or will agree to work that
much in the development of the In
stitution. Some OF the students to-
day have 700 hours to their credit
1t was a curiosity to the people OF
Prague to see the intellectuals doing
manual labor and thousands came to
watch them work. The students
charged entrance fees and they sold
stones and bricks as souvenirs. realiz-
ing $4,000 kronen the first day. All
this work was done under skilled
overseers and mechanics and the re-
suit Is a collection of buildings that
is now accommodating about zoo
students. One building, devoted TO
women, has fifty-four inmates.
Since this visit to the'colony I have
gone through the Students Home, an
institution established by the Y. NJ.
c. A. OF the United Statets and the
Ohio State University. Many OF our
colleges are now giving money to
help the poor students Of other coun-
tries. Yale is supporting a college in
China; Princeton, believe, does
something Of the same kind at Pc
king, and Ohio State students are in
terested IN this home here. to which
they contribute $4,000 every year
The colony is for rooming only
The home is a sort of clubhouse meet
ing place and cafeteria, where meals
are furnished 20 students at what Is
practically cost The house is patron
lied by something like 5000 boys and
girls during the school year, and it
is now serving several thousand
lunches and about 1900 dinners. The
lunches each cost 3ia kronen, which
just now means about IL cents. and
the dinner costs kronen. a cent or
so less The meals are all practically
the same, consisting OF meat, bread,
vegetables and coffee, but the lunch
cons are the most popular. for most
of the students can eat but one meal
a day in addition to the coffee and
rolls they have for breakfast and sup
per. This is no deprivation for most
Of them, for they would not feed bet
ter at home.
The house has an auditorium where
lectures are given and a social hall.
It has reading rooms where the BOYS
come to study. for many OF them
cannot afford light or heat for their
rooms. The club Is governed by a
council. one delegate being elected for
each. 200 students. in such way
that every nationality and faction is
represented on the governing board
Both women and men belong to this
home and the two sexes come to-
gether in the social hall
The students who frequent this inl
stitution belong to tweny-three dill
ferent nationalities. They arc. OF
course, Czechs, Moravians and Slo
vakians, but there are also Ukrain-
ians, Ruthenians, Bulgarians, Rus
SLAMS and a great many Jews AS a
rule the different .nationaIities get
along well.
Copyright, 1928 Carpenters World Trs =,