THE OXfORD UNDERGRADUATES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2456, 10 April 1901, Page 63

THE OXfORD UNDERGRADUATES.

(H. Beodeeick, in the National Re-

One of the best features of Oxford is this : that a man's parentage is never discussed or inquired into. It is taken for granted that he is a gentleman, whatever his appearance may be, unless he proves himself to be the contrary. This is, of course, only a general rule, to which there are exceptions. Sometimes we may hear a man express contempt for his neighbour because he is a nobody, and complain that the university is open to "all sorts of boundeis" nowadays. Such men are happily lare ; in general, patrician and plebeian live on terms of amity with one another, and meet on terms of equality with one another to then* common advantage.

This is hardly the case with the unattached students (they call them "toshers'" in 'varsity slang). Living apart, and outside the pale of college life, they do not get the opportunities which come in the way of ths college men, and .so they have none of those feelings of solidarity and esprit de corps which knit together men of the same college and tend to place them on the same footing. Hence, it is always well to enter at a college if possible, at any rate during a portion of one's time vt the 'varsity, for it is the college life which supplies that peculiar training which is one of the chief virtues and advantages of a university career. Readers of that inimitable novel, ''Verdant Green," will remember many mistakes made by the hero. They were mistakes which he could not well avoid, as they were breaches of unwritten law. which, as a law of details, is most difficult to learn. Some of the rules of etiquette seem too trivial to be mentioned : they concern dress, the proper way of wearing academicals, and a thousand other details. One curious point is that undergraduates never shake hands with one another. If you ask 20 freshmen to breakfast, the probability is that 18 of them will instinctively hold out their hands to you on entering the room. Ask the same 20 men a week or two later, and not one will do &o: "good morning"' and a nod will, be all that you will get. This custom applies only to undergraduates, and not to dons. It is customary to shake hands with a don. Indeed, a good story is told of a young 'varsity man, elected fellow of his college at an early date. Shortly after his election he gave a breakfast party to sundry of his college friends who were still "in statu pupillari." To his horror, when they came in they all shook hands with him. They looked on him as a don, though he had spent his undergraduate days with them.

tarrying parcels through the streets is forbidden by general undergraduate consents. It is possibly a good custom itm.au

aesthetic point of \ lev . but U is eeitamly iT oiu-pnicnt Vilicn one his hilt ;i di./.^n friends to tin unexpectedly, and has to g> into the town to fc.iagc for provrndor Home pi'iKl'lious me.i, uhder the a'oi esa'd em umstancts, walk out m cap and gown, raid dc\teiou.>-ly conceal the oltending package in the folds of the litter pen turn of academic garb. Tins <avour~, of subterfuge. J ho undergraduate is a hardy and cleanly arimil : whatcvei he may have been at school, at Oxford he is the champion of soap and cold water, hence one of Ins unwritten laws. Every one is supposed to have a cold bath every morning. This is a law to which every one conforms, at least outwaidb". If one does not, the college may peiliaps treat him to a cold bath in the' college fountai' or duck-pond, il it possesses one, some cole l winter's night on the break-up of p wnv pirty. The addition to the matutinal tub of hot water from a kettle is looked upon with suspicion, a; a practice derogatory to the dignity of undergraduates. Hence, almost even" one piefers to bathe in cold water, even in winter. In secret, doubtless, many put in so much hoL water and so little cold that the cold h swamped ; but his must be done by l cc 1 111 1 l' > .