THE AMERICANS AT OXFORD.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10631, 7 December 1910, Page 2

THE AMERICANS AT OXFORD.

WHAT THE ENGLISH THINK OF THEM.

(By Archibald Marshall.)

I wrote the other day that some of the American freshmen had come into Oxford with soft felt hats or a shape not worn here, and that these would probably soon be "discarded. And, curiously enough, -X have since 'found in that peculiar sqilash hat a sort of parable of character.. I 'have been told of ah American Rhodes scholar who has, so to speak, /unfurled his American squashj hat as a banner of nationalism. He is at one of the most' exclusive nrid aristocratic of colleges, and by sheer individuality has attained to the' highest degree of popularity. I suppose the best charce for a man of average character, -'whether he comes from America or from an English public school, to get on at Oxford is to know the ways of the place and be rather careful not to go outside them. He must not in any way ho eccentric he must not be a freak. Bvit this man, who is described as of great strength and stature- —he is an athletic "blue"—coming from one of the less sophisticated States of America, seems to have thought that he; might as well remain himself and see how he got on. He has got on so well that he is likely to pass into a proverb. He emphasises his Americanism —"puts it on," as thev say of him and he and his hat and his baggy trousers, and his slouch and his revolver, are caricatured everywhere and immensely enjoyed by undergraduate Oxford. He is reported, in his early days, to have had cause of complaint about Jus scout's want of attention, and to have sec at his table with his revolver by his side and said to him, "If you do not come when I call vou I'll shoot you dead." The threat was not particularly effective, because the scout fled from liis presence, and is said not to have appeared again for a week. But the story has proved highly effective. Such bright and breezy habits are welcome in a society that desires ardently to be amused and does not at all insist that everybody should he cut to one pattern, althought it will not brook the flouting of that pattern by men who have nothing to put in its place. . I cannot find in all my inquiries that there is anything to object to in the English undergraduates treatment ot the American undergraduates as such. In the case of the .man above mentioned, because lie has distinguished himself in the Oxford world and is 111 himself "one of the best," they hold out open arms. And there are other cases. In one college an American Rhodes scholar has been elected President of the junior C.Miiinon lloon;. This says even more than the election of a foreigner to the presidency of an athletic club, because the one goes mainly by seniority and the other is simply a matter of general sociability and even popularity. The President of the Junior Common Room in a college is the man the undergraduates of that college like best 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 calibre simply because they are strangers. Very lew Englishmen do. There is no doubt that the'snrt of careless frigidity with which an Englishman is wont to treat a stranscr until he gets to know him has snrprWl and confused people first coming to Oxford who are accustomed to an easier surrender, and in some cases has made them sink back into their shells and perhaps never again emerge from them. I do not see that this is a matter that can be "Itered without a radical change in British character, which is hardly to be expected. , _, . ~ ,-,?,„ What mi«*ht he expected is that Englishmen should not assume an extra degree of frigidity towards the stranger within their gates, that they should give them equal chances with Englishmen. And it is pleasant to loarn that they do this in Oxford, and even something more. . When the American Rhodes scholais first came to Oxford there were a good many "freaks" among them. I «ey came from all sorts of out-ot-tlie-way places, and had all sorts of out-of-the-way manners. Now, a treak among undergraduates is considered iair game, and is apt to be unmercifully ragged until he sheds some of his ireakhood or el«e makes good his claim to set conventions at defiance. But the American freaks were not "ragged, as English freaks would have been. I hoard this from several quarters, and particularly from an American undergraduate who is not a Rhodes scholar. He said definitely that the treatment ot Americans bv Oxford undergraduates was iar kinder" and more genial than would lie the case with Englishmen in an American University, and instanced men whom he had known who had gone from English schools to American universities and had had a very had. time simplv because of their English ways. The "only trace I have been able lo find of a grievance here is t.ie refusal of the Committee which grants ■ hluos to "Wo a half-blue to the university lacroSs team. Cambridge has given one, and it is stated that Oxford refuses because the lacross team is made up largely of Rhodes scholars. Whether this is true or not I do not know but it is stated, and it is the only grievance tluuI have heard stated. . _ And in spite of all .this there does seem to he growing up. in Oxford a Feeling not against Americans hut against the American Rhodes scholars. It is very slight as yet. and it is, of course stemmed by the men, such as; I. liavo mentioned, who have made the.. »»5 in Oxford life and loud some lust e to their less successful compatriots But it exists and the blame for it is put down to'the Americans themselves I talked to a man who, after gainingan athletic blue as an undergraduate staved on in Oxford to coach and do various other things,, such as in.nluce an nndor.zraduates' journal Hf M of all told me of the successful Bhoclts scholars and praised them, and it t*..s not until after some. time hat rather reluctantly admitted that as a body the Americans were not assifcessful as they might be lliey .< lid, he said, largely consort with each othei instead of joining hi with the men of then respective colleges. Thev did not seen to want to know their English fello - undergraduates. They treated Oxioid like an orange to suck, and the map it. of them gave little in return, -1 hen ideas of sport were not quite the samas ours, and they were weak in .then conception of a corporate life, winch is one of the most valuable of ideas to be learnt at an English university. I take it that this last .tern is aL tlie root of the whole matter. If it is true that the Americans fail to' understand that at Oxford their business is to help their university and their colleges, and not only themselves, then they arc missing one of the most valuable lessons that Oxford has to teach them, and. certainly one of the. things that they ought to set their minds to do it t e> are to fulfil the object with which tl ej have been sent here. I should not like to sav that it is true without hearing more" from the undergraduates themselves as I propose to do. But m the meantime there is undoubtedly some adverse feeling about the j Rhodes scholars, and if it is allowed to grow it will be good-bye to all that 1 Mr Rhodes hoped would come of increased national comity from his great bequest.