Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, JUNE 10, 1912. ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 10 June 1912, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, JUNE 10, 1912. ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS.

CONSIDERABLE attention has been directed to the Earl of Tankerville's announcement in an interview in the "New York Herald" that he has decided to take his son and heir, the Lord Ossulston .from Eton and educate him at a Boston school. "T do not want him," said Lord Tankervilie, "to be a youngster with a title who has been kow-towed to bv a sycophantic crowd of pseudo and would-be aristocrats who lick the boots of our.voung noblemen p.t school in order that they may later walk into society

under their protection." At Boston. Oasulston, who is 14 years of age, and has been onlv one term at Eton, will be entered under the family name of Bennet, and if his fond father's desire is" carried out, will be known among his Schoolfellows simply as Charles Bennet.

Whether the Boston school boys will prove to be the sturdy democrats Lord Tankervill;- hopes, and thus falsify the popular impression that Americans dearly love a lord, remains to be seen, but in the meantime old Etonians are up in

arms in defence of then' school. 'J he charge of snobbery is rigorously repudiated, -and it is contended that at Eton a. boy with a title is treated exactly the same as any other boy, and is never called "My Lord," or "Your Highness,'' even by the servants, but only "Sir." For instance. Prince Arthur of Connaught while at Eton was called "Connaught" by masters and boys alike. There arc- now about 70 titled boys at Eton. ■ including Prince George of r i eck. who is a lower school boy, and has to fag like any other lower boy. His fag master is Mr G. F. Freeman-Thomas. All the titled boys are punished like ordinary flesh by the captains of the house (senior scholars) if they deserve it. Those statements certainly suggest that there is a democratic atmosphere at Eton. A more satisfactory explanation of the. transfer of Lord Tankervilie s heir from Eton to Boston, it is considered, is to be found in the fact that Lady Tankerviile, who was Miss Leonora Sophia van Marter, is an American, and objects to the Tagging and corporeal punishment in force at Eton.

But while Lord Tankervilie is taking his son from an English school to an American one. because he would be kowtowed to by social inferiors, Mrs William B. Leeds, widow of the "Tinplate King." who died Three years ago, and left a fortune of £3.000,000, has decided to take her son from New York and send him to an English school to escape the

toadying that as a rich man's son he would be subjected to in America. "Young Englishman are different." says Mrs Leeds, "They have a lot of healthy amusements, and grow up clean, and fresh, and strong. Then, too, at an English school nobody will to„ady to William because he is wealthy. It will make no difference to them. Tlioy will respect him for what he is, nut 'or what his father earned for him." We have Lord Tankervilie saying, "In placing my son at an American school I am actuated by a desire to- have him grow up in atmosphere whr-re work is not regarded as some thing to be ashamed of." and Mrs Leeds unconsciously answering him with the statement, "I don't think wealthy young American men are precisely a credit to society. Their idleness makes them dissipated." It would be interesting if Lord Tankervilie and ill's Leeds would publielv compare notes in a few years' time, on English and American schools after they have had experience of both. In the meantime both countries can contemplate the exchange of scholars with the philosophy of the American showman who declared, "What we lose on the swings we make up on the round- I abouts."