MODERN SCHOOLBOYS

Grey River Argus, 11 April 1911, Page 7

MODERN SCHOOLBOYS

♦ ' ARE THEY PAMPERED. "TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS." Mr G. S. Street recently wrote an article for the Daily Mail on our public schools, in which the view was expressed that the schoolboys of to-day are hardly of the same material as that of the older generations. • This view is supported by the original "Tom Brown," one of the heroes of the fight described in "lorn ,Brown's Schooldays." Tfie Key Augustus Orlebar is now nearly 87 years of age, but he still fulfils the duties of parish priest in .Willington, Bedfordshire. He says:— "I am afraid that, the boys of today are not quite of the same hardy stuff that they were in the "days of which my dear old friend Tom Hughes wrote. I don't imagine for a moment that it is their own fault. Nowadays boys are too much pampered 1 and coddled. There is no moral teacher greater than hardship, and 70 years ago the Rugby boy. had plenty of that. In my days we used frequently to take our icy cold baths in the light of pale matches, some of the toys would hold aloft. To-day nothing but a warm bath seems to be good enough for a boy. Looking" tack I often think that I owe my longevity to the lack of comfort in my Boyhood. "In Dr Arnold's days it was almost a handicap against a boy to be the possessor of a title. Well I remember when Lord B — 'Committed the faux pas of bringing- a manservant to school. That was tad enough in itself, but when the servant one day entered a room where several boys were sitting, and laying a hat upon a small table announced, 'This is my Lord B — 's hat," we voted the thing had gone too far Hardly had the manservant withdrawn than one of the boys walked mincingly across to the table, and with a well-directed kick smashed the hat beyond repair. 'This,' he said, holding- up the battered crown, 'is what remains of my Lord B— 7 s hat!" "Does the same healthy spirit exist to-day?" — but for a few moments Mr Oxlabar was silent. "I am afraid it does not," he said at last. CAUSE OF THE GREAT FIGHT. Of many other incidents he told, and then at last came the story of his own fight: — "It wasn't about little Arthur at all. There never was a little Arthur nor a Scud East nor a Flashman. All the characters in Tom Brown's schooldays were made up from bits of boys, just as I, on the occasion of the fight, stood for either Tom 'Brown or Slogger Williams. - My opponent was the elder, and of course, in the book 1 the older boy was Slogger Williams. For some time there had been bad feelings between us, and one day when I entered the hall carrying a fives bat I saw my enemy sitting- very comfortably enjoying a newspaper. It was too much, and, hardly knowing, what I did, I managed to knock him with my bat. In a minute we settled down to one of the most prolonged fights Rugby has ever known. In the took, Hughes describes it as having- iaken place in the close, but that is ;not correct. It was in the hall itself that we fought, and, of course, that made it very much worse, because we had so little room. "Did I win? I'm afraid neither of us can claim the victory, because when Dr Arnold entered the hall and himself stopped the fight, both ■o» vs w,ere so tyadly damaged about the face that he did not recognise us. 'Who are these boys?' he asked, and having gained the imformation promptly set us 200 lines apiece. "It was the first and last occasion that I was in the ring, and my antagonist, the Rev. Chancellor. Bulkeley Owen Jones has ever since been one of my firmest friends. Twentyfive years ago I prje&ched in his church, which is away on the other side of England, and a few months ago, when, the two of us were at Worthing we . had the pleasure of meeting one of the boys who had acted as one of the seconds." ■' 'SLOGGER' WILLIAM'S VERSION The Rev Chancellor Bulkeley Owen Jones who is the original of Slogger Williams ,gives a different version of the famous encounter. Mr Owen Jones is in his 88th year, and . is spending the evening of his life, in retirement in North Wales. What happened was this," he said:— "lt was a rainy day and a lot of boys had gathered in the schodlhouse hall. Orle'bar was teasing a little fellow, and the fellow said to ( me, 'Spank him, Jones.' I caught him a rather sharp tap; he lost his temper and knocked rrie down. At once the boys in. the hall shouted, 'Fight! Fight! Jones and Orlebar.' There was no help for it and we had a rare set-to. My own opinion is that I won, because when Arnold came and caught us Orlebar had fainted. My face was so disfigured that the doctor did not know me.. When he found out who it was he gave me a double punishment first for talking in chepel and^ secondly' for fighting. I had to write out 500 lines of Virgil. Orlebar was a mighty hitter and ' punished me severely, but I was in the better condition at : the finish, the reason being that I had just 'been out twice, with' the Big Slide hare and hounds. It was a fin» sport for keeping a man in condition. Orlebar s and I were the best of friends both before and nrter the fight." WELL-KNOWN REFEREE'S DECISION. judge Hughes, the author of Tom Brown's Schooldays, leaves the point open, and was wise in his generation. Now after the lapse of many years; the original of Tom Brown thinks' the fight ended in a draw, while Slogger Williams % claims the victory^ This important point re-

quired deciding-, so Mr Eugene Corri the ijest known authority on boxing in England, was asked to examine • the statements of the two principals and the account in the book. Mr Corrie says: — "From this account of the battle, and from what the principals say, my decision is in favour of Tom ißrown. He, undoubtedly, out-poin.ted Slogger Williams, and was tEe better. He showed himself the clevered 'boxer and fought with his head, for when' at the start he found that the infighting! did not suit him, he changed his plans and led on Slogger Williams, much to the lattery undoing-. Tom apparently was ready to recommence when the doctor came upon the scene, and the fight terminated, and so, I think, Tom Brown won on points." '