•*,o'' 
 
 ^°-nj.. 
 
 
 ■e. •»"•'* .4''' 
 
 
 ^^ . 
 
 
 r^ * 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■^'--o^ 
 
 <i^°<. 
 
 
 
* 't^. \V 
 
 ♦ -t^<:v^v i^^ O 
 
 rr.-' ^0- 
 
 
 ^-.>^^' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^^ - . . . ^r 
 
THE VOYAGE 
 
 OF A 
 
 VICE-CHANCELLOR 
 
THE VOYAGE 
 
 OF A 
 
 VICE-CHANCELLOR 
 
 WITH A CHAPTER ON UNIVERSITY 
 EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 BY 
 
 ARTHUR EVERETT SHIPLEY 
 
 MASTER OF CHRIST's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; 
 VICE-CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY. 
 F.R.S., SC.D., HON. D.SC, PRINCE- 
 TON; HON. LL.D., MICHIGAN. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 1919 
 
. ^ '^ Aj 
 
 Copyright, 1919, by 
 ARTHUR EVERETT SHIPLEY 
 
 3EC 13 iUi3 
 
 ^CI.A55 9 26 
 
GENTI 
 
 INTER OMNES GENTES 
 
 HOSPITIBUS 
 
 BENIGNISSIMAE 
 
Preface 
 
 The following extracts are from a private 
 diary which the author wrote whilst on an 
 extensive tour in the United States during 
 the autumn of 19,18 as a member of the 
 British University Mission. Our Mission 
 had been invited to the United States by 
 the Council of Defense at Washington and 
 had been sent out under the auspices of the 
 British Foreign Office. For more than 
 sixty days we went up and down a vast 
 country, travelling many thousands of miles, 
 and, seeing so many Universities and Col- 
 leges and so many Presidents and Professors 
 that those amongst us who had not hitherto 
 had the privilege of visiting the United 
 
 States formed the idea that all its cities are 
 vii 
 
Vlll 
 
 Preface 
 
 university cities and that all the inhabitants 
 are professors, an idea very awful to 
 contemplate ! 
 
 As the author has tried to indicate in his 
 Dedication, everywhere we went we met 
 with kindness, and kindness that came from 
 the brain as well as from the heart. But 
 especially we owe thanks to certain "guides, 
 philosophers, and friends" who shepherded 
 our steps. One of these, an official of the 
 United States Bureau of Education at 
 Washington, accompanied us on the whole 
 tour. His extraordinary powers of organiza- 
 tion, his inexhaustible information, and his 
 ready and self-sacrificing help, cannot be 
 too highly praised. Others who helped us 
 on our trip were: the Secretary of the 
 Reception Committee of the Council (a 
 professor of Harvard), who met us on our 
 arrival at New York and accompanied us 
 to Washington, and later to Boston; the 
 American Secretary of the Rhodes Scholars 
 
Preface 
 
 IX 
 
 (a professor of the Massachusetts Institute 
 of Technology), who guided us from Boston 
 to Chicago. From Chicago to Minneapolis 
 we had the great advantage of the presence 
 of the Chairman of the Reception Commit- 
 tee of the American Council on Education 
 (a President of one of the leading Colleges 
 in the Middle West) ; and the President of 
 the University of Kentucky travelled with 
 us from St. Louis to Lexington, where his 
 own University is situate. All these gentle- 
 men were ever ready and helpful in explain- 
 ing the intricacies of American university 
 life. We were fortunate enough to meet 
 them at many centres, and always found the 
 same helpful advice, and care for our wel- 
 fare. To each and all of them we owe a 
 deep debt of gratitude. 
 
 Certain parts of this Diary have appeared 
 in Scribner's Magazine, New York, and 
 others in Country Life, London, and one 
 section entitled ''The Universities" has ap- 
 
X 
 
 Preface 
 
 peared in The Edinburgh Review. This is 
 a more serious account of the facilities pro- 
 vided by the United States for Higher Edu- 
 cation. It is, of course, very incomplete; 
 but it is impossible to compass within a small 
 book the immense variety of organization 
 and the varied range of subjects the Mission 
 encountered on its voyage. The owners and 
 editors of these publications have given the 
 author leave to reprint and he thanks them. 
 
 A. E. S. 
 
 St. George's Day, 1919. 
 
"It is always a writer's duty to make the world better." 
 
 Dr. Johnson. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 The Voyage of a Vice-Chancellor "^ . i 
 
 University Education in the United 
 States 143 
 
Chapter I 
 The Atlantic 
 
 "In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm, Dame 
 Partington . . . was seen at the door of her house, 
 with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing 
 out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the 
 Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused. Mrs. 
 Partington's spirit was up;, but I need not tell you 
 that the contest was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean 
 beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop, 
 or a puddle, but she should not have meddled with 
 a tempest." 
 
 Sydney Smith, Speech on the Reform Bill, 
 delivered at Taunton, England, Oct. iz, 183 1. 
 
 September 25th, 1918 
 
 THE present passport is pink, printed 
 on pink paper with little red lines 
 criss-crossing all about it. Gone — 
 and probably gone for ever — are those aris- 
 tocratic old passports with fine lettering on 
 fine paper, down the face of which ran a 
 stream of historic titles which, in the two the 
 
2 The Voyage of 
 
 Government basely forced me to surrender in 
 exchange for the present pink abomination, 
 began with a Marquisate and trickled 
 through the lower degrees of the peerage un- 
 til one ended in a Barony or two, and the 
 other fell as low as a Baronetcy. So many 
 historic titles seemed to justify the ''We," 
 which reads a little odd as, "We, Arthur 
 James Balfour." Each of my old passports 
 was studded over with "vises" and "permis- 
 sos" and covered over with gorgeous Russian 
 and Turkish stamps and much Cyrillic and 
 Arabic script. These I had to give up in ex- 
 change for a common-looking paper marked 
 by a rubber stamp in violet-blue ink, which 
 simply "shouted" at the pink, with the word 
 "seen." 
 
 ' The older form could be folded up and 
 put away in a pocket-book and forgotten till 
 asked for, the new form is bound up in cheap 
 green boards of such a size as to be always, 
 intruding on one, no matter how wide one's 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 3 
 
 pockets are. The old passport had the reti- 
 cence of a gentleman and was content with 
 your signature, the new one clamours for vul- 
 gar details about your age and personal ap- 
 pearance, and it gets them. 
 
 The difference between passports ancient 
 and modern may be compared with the dif- 
 ference between a clean £5 note, with its 
 crisp, white paper, fine lettering and the 
 romance of its secret signs, and that modern 
 form of "filthy lucre" the current 10s. note. 
 
 Thursday, September 26th 
 
 We arrived at our Port of Embarka- 
 tion in a gale and it continued to blow all the 
 night, and all the next day, 
 
 Friday, September 27th 
 
 during which we wistfully tried to 
 fulfil the divergent and incoherent instruc- 
 tions we had severally received from the 
 
4 The Voyage of 
 
 Minister of Information : and it blew all the 
 night of that day. On 
 
 Saturday, September 28tK 
 
 it blew worse than ever and our pessi- 
 mist, who is an authority on weather, cheered 
 us up by assuring us that we were embark- 
 ing at the very worse time of the year and 
 that we should have equinoctial gales the 
 whole way across. 
 
 It wasn't so easy to get on board. We 
 stood in a vast, damp, dreary dock in two 
 queues, saloon passengers and steerage pas- 
 sengers, and waited to have our papers in- 
 spected. Our inspector was of a slowness 
 beyond words and when at last I was 
 getting near to him I was so angered by a 
 pompous man "on somebody's staff" pushing 
 ahead of all of us and engaging in an inter- 
 minable conversation with our man, that I 
 deserted my class and joined the steerage 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 5 
 
 group and was on board in five minutes. 
 I was a little sorry that I did this as I saw 
 a poor old Jamaican negro "turned down." 
 Some one had told him that Jamaica was 
 in America and he had, with a fine impar- 
 tiality, registered on one paper as an 
 American citizen and on another as a British 
 citizen. I wonder what became of him. I 
 suppose I shall never know. 
 
 Later in the day I had my revenge on 
 the staff man. He turned out to be a suc- 
 cessful writer of the more vacuous forms of 
 revue, and he took his art and himself very 
 seriously. After luncheon he changed his 
 tunic and put on a Norfolk jacket so that 
 down to his waist his torso or bust was 
 civilian, whilst below his waist his lower 
 extremities were military. In effecting this 
 exchange something had gone wrong with his 
 braces and all that afternoon and evening 
 he walked about in a stately and haughty 
 way festooned behind with loops which 
 
6 The Voyage of 
 
 recalled the flowery swags of Mantegna's 
 pictures. 
 
 Sunday, September 29th 
 
 On Sunday morning we moved from 
 the dock into the river and waited till tea- 
 time on its muddy and rubbish-laden waters. 
 The wind had completely dropped and a 
 sabbath-calm and a river-fog lay on every- 
 thing. All day we waited swinging with 
 the tide until about 5 p.m. when we felt 
 the first delicious thrill of the engine at 
 work. All this day large tenders laden with 
 hundreds and hundreds of American soldiers 
 passed us going up-stream to the City on 
 their way from the troop-ships lying further 
 down near the mouth of the river. 
 
 On coming on board on the previous day 
 it became obvious that when not on deck 
 we should be living entirely in artificial 
 light. All windows and port-holes had 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 7 
 
 been made absolutely light-proof and whilst 
 the public saloon and state-rooms were bril- 
 liantly lit up, no ray of light was allowed 
 to leave them. After dark the decks were 
 quite black and if you groped on to them 
 it was through heavy curtains and blackened 
 doors. The insignificant glow of a cigarette 
 was strictly forbidden and the darkness of 
 the outside was infinitely darker than Cam- 
 bridge or even Norwich at its worst. 
 
 During the morning each passenger was 
 given a Boddy's Life Jacket and at 4 pJm. 
 we were paraded on Deck B and received 
 a card indicating which boat was ours, and 
 to this we went. An officer — who ought to 
 be a University Lecturer — then in one of the 
 clearest, concisest and shortest of speeches 
 told us what we were to do in case there was 
 need to do anything. We were all wearing 
 the life-jackets and I had thought we should 
 feel a little self-conscious, if not ludicrous, 
 but we didn't. It all seemed so natural, and 
 
8 [The Voyage of 
 
 so much in the day's work, that one took it 
 as though one had worn such robes for years. 
 These jackets are stuffed with the fibres 
 known commercially as kapok. For the 
 following account of this vegetable product 
 I am indebted to Mr. L. H. Dewey of the 
 Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington, 
 whose letter I quote: 
 
 The name kapok is a Malay name, applied to 
 a cotton-like down produced in the seed pods of 
 the kapok, or randoe, tree, Ceiba pentandra. 
 This tree is native in the West Indies and in 
 many parts of tropical America. It has been 
 widely distributed in the Tropics of both hemi- 
 spheres and is found on many of the tropical 
 islands. In English-speaking colonies it is 
 usually known as the silk-cotton tree. In Span- 
 ish-speaking colonies it is more often known as 
 ceiba, though the name ceiba is often applied to 
 other species of the genus Ceiba, and often to 
 some of the species of the genera Bombax and 
 Chorisia. 
 
 The kapok tree was introduced into Java at 
 least half a century ago, and it is cultivated 
 there over large plantations in the region of 
 Samarang, and is also grown along the road- 
 sides and borders of fields on many plantations 
 throughout the central part of the island. 
 
A Vice-Chancellor ^ 
 
 During the past ten years systematic efforts 
 have been made to set out kapok trees in planta- 
 tions, and especially along roadsides, in the 
 Philippines, and more recently in Porto Rico. 
 These newer plantings, however, have not yet 
 reached a stage of commercial importance. 
 
 Nearly all of the kapok of commerce hitherto 
 has come from Java, and the greater portion of 
 it has been handled in the markets of Rotter- 
 dam and Amsterdam, Holland. 
 
 Kapok has been used at least fifteen years as 
 the principal material in stuffing life preservers 
 and life belts on the Dutch steamships sailing 
 to the Orient, and also on the North German 
 Lloyd. I think that it was used on the English 
 P. & O. Line, but I have never been on those 
 ships and have no definite information on this 
 point. It was used on the other ships not only 
 for life belts and life preservers but also as a 
 stuffing for mattresses and pillows. It is a very 
 good salutary stuffing and serves the purpose 
 quite well, except that it breaks to pieces more 
 quickly than cotton, wool, feathers, or hair. 
 
 Kapok has been very thoroughly tested for 
 buoyancy by the Government of Holland. I 
 think that Professor Van Iterson, of the Hoch 
 Schule at Delft, either planned or was inter- 
 ested in some of these tests. The results indi- 
 cated that it was the most buoyant material 
 available for various forms of life preservers. 
 Its buoyancy depends on each individual fibre. 
 These are unicellular hairs with relatively thin 
 
10 The Voyage of 
 
 walls, practically impervious to moisture, and, 
 except under very strong pressure, each indi- 
 vidual cell remains very distended, like a min- 
 iature cigar-shaped balloon. In a life preserver, 
 therefore, they act like so many millions of little 
 sacks of air. 
 
 Kapok has been treated specially and spun 
 experimentally at Chemnitz, Germany, but it 
 can not be classed as a spinning fibre. It can 
 not be spun alone without special treatment on 
 any machinery now made. The fibres, which 
 average scarcely more than 10 mm. in length, 
 are not only too short for ordinary spinning 
 material, but they lack "felting" properties 
 necessary to make them cling together so as to 
 form a yarn. This very lack of "felting" prop- 
 erties, or the property of becoming matted, 
 makes them especially valuable as stuffing 
 fibres. In this respect a good stuffing fibre and 
 a good spinning fibre have qualities diametri- 
 cally opposed. 
 
 After this, even when we had passed the 
 danger-zone, we had always to carry these 
 jackets with us and as they were white 
 oblongs, with bold letters printed on them, 
 when we passed one another in the inspis- 
 sated gloom of the companion- or alley- 
 ways, we looked like ghosts of newsvendors 
 
A yice-Chancellor ii 
 
 from the happy days when newspaper pla- 
 cards still existed. We clung to our jackets 
 as old ladies cling to their white Shetland 
 shawls, and, like the old ladies, we sometimes 
 left them about. 
 
 The same fibre is used in stuffiing comely 
 waistcoats which are less conspicuous than 
 the "Boddy Jacket," and there is also a 
 waistcoat whose buoyancy depends on its 
 being blown up. Opinion varied as to the 
 relative values of these rival articles. Hav- 
 ing both I wore both, but if I had to choose 
 but one, I should choose the "Boddy," 
 though the wearer should know that kapok 
 is very inflammable. Before leaving, how- 
 ever, I had consulted a friend of mine. Dr. 
 P., who with his wife had just come back 
 from the States. On the whole he spoke 
 well of the blown-up waistcoat, at least as 
 regards himself, but he added, "Mrs. P. was 
 not so sure as she was constantly deflating." 
 
 One elderly steward had been torpedoed 
 
12 The yoyage of 
 
 seven times and after taking to the boats 
 had been seven times rescued by the de- 
 stroyers. We naturally sought the advice 
 of so experienced an expert. "You don't 
 'urry Sir, you don't 'urry, there's always 
 plenty of time," was his sole and philosophic 
 contribution to the gentle art of being tor- 
 pedoed. Another somewhat younger steward 
 handing round tea and catching the last 
 glimpse of land, the north-west of Ireland, 
 calmly remarked: "Well, this is about the 
 place they generally gets me." He had been 
 torpedoed three out of his last four trips. 
 
 We must have crossed the bar about 
 dinner-time, and these two words remind me 
 that in spite of certain obvious discomforts, 
 there were very substantial comforts on 
 board. We had left, as we were told to do, 
 our various ration-coupons on the dock at 
 the port of embarkation, and crossing the 
 gangway arrived in a ship flowing with milk 
 and honey — a ship of sweetness and in parts 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 13 
 
 of light. We were given white bread, lots 
 of cream, real butter, Stilton cheese, sugar 
 — even lump sugar — any amount of mar- 
 malade or jam, quantities of fruit, not only 
 apples — if Eva had lived in 1918 I don't 
 believe she would have wangled Adam with 
 an apple — ^but grapefruit, melons, oranges, 
 pears, grapes, nuts, etc., etc. One couldn't 
 help feeling with the fat boy in Pickwick, 
 "How we shall enjoy ourselves at meals." 
 
 We dropped down the river that evening 
 in the foggy darkness and then! 
 
 Monday, September 30th 
 
 On coming on deck on Monday I 
 came on to one of the most glorious and 
 fascinating scenes I have ever seen. The 
 sun was shining brilliantly, the dancing sea 
 was a perfect blue with glistening white 
 caps. To the left lay Rathlin Island and the 
 shimmering coast of Antrim, to the right 
 
14 The Voyage of 
 
 Jura and Islay, a fitting and satisfying 
 setting for the centre of the stage which was 
 occupied by our amazing convoy. We had 
 been told we were the largest convoy that 
 had left our shores, but then we had been 
 told so many things! Anyway, here in the 
 blue sunshine and on the dancing sea was 
 a score of great ships, and such ships ! They 
 were painted in every colour of the prism 
 and in every variety of inconsecutive and 
 inchoate pattern. Solomon in all his glory 
 was not so variegated as any one of these 
 amazing vessels, though doubtless his colour 
 scheme was more coherent. 
 
 To explain these bizarre and dazzling 
 things it is necessary to make a brief excursus 
 into that manner of art known as Cubism. 
 I do not propose to say anything about the 
 Cubfst's pictures, for I never could see any- 
 thing in them, but what I conceive to have 
 happened is this : the Cubists (or perhaps the 
 most Cubic of them) said to themselves, 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 15 
 
 "There are a very large number of average, 
 ordinary, dull people in this world who see 
 nothing in our pictures, therefore to those 
 people there is nothing to see and therefore 
 to them they are invisible." When the war 
 broke out these Cubists, who are as patriotic 
 as they are commercially capable, said, "If 
 to the average, ordinary, dull person our 
 pictures are invisible, could we not by paint- 
 ing the British ships in our manner render 
 them invisible, say, to the commander of a 
 U-boat who in matters of art probably is 
 an average, ordinary, dull individual"?" At 
 any rate the Cubists seem to have got the 
 contract. 
 
 But however it came about we owe grati- 
 tude to some one for providing us with so 
 radiantly beautiful a sight. At first we 
 seemed to be moving in regular formation, 
 keeping our distance and our time, but soon 
 we changed the formation. We, as it were, 
 now set to partners, we advanced towards 
 
i6 The Voyage of 
 
 our neighbours and then coyly (or shyly) 
 retired ; at one time it seemed to me we were 
 playing Roger de Coverley, "up the middle 
 and down the sides/' zigzagging and pirouet- 
 ting across the ocean. The whole thing was 
 so exhilarating, so fantastic! Yet behind 
 its grotesque and fascinating beauty — which 
 put all the scenes of Chu Chin Chow or any 
 Granville Barker scenery into the shade, for 
 we were living, moving, vibrating — one felt 
 such an amazing reality of Britain's power 
 and might. A sea-plane flew over us, one of 
 our own. I wish the Kaiser had been in it. 
 
 All this time we were encompassed about 
 and shepherded by numerous destroyers who 
 tore up and down on every side spying out 
 the seas. They were not camouflaged but 
 grey-coloured and seemed so small that one 
 felt that if they had come within reach one 
 could have stretched a hand over the taffrail 
 and picked them up. We were distressed 
 that there was no way of thanking them for 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 17 
 
 their services. No more monotonous, more 
 dangerous, more uncomfortable life is there 
 than that led by all ratings on these con- 
 voying craft. What they do should be more 
 fully and more publicly recognized. 
 
 In reading an unknown poet, at any rate 
 unknown to me, the other day, I came across 
 a poem — No. 13 — whose hrst line so har- 
 monised with my views about these wonder- 
 ships that I venture to quote it: 
 
 "GLORY BE TO GOD FOR DAPPLED 
 THINGS." 
 
 Eager to know more about one whose appre- 
 ciations so happily coincided with my own 
 views on * 'camouflage," I hastily turned to 
 the note contributed by our Laureate: 
 
 Poem 13. PIED BEAUTY. Curtal Sonnet: 
 sprung paeonic rhythm. St. Beuno's Tremeir- 
 chion. Summer "77" Autograph in A. — B 
 agrees. 
 
 "Faint but pursuing" for I felt I must know 
 at least who and when my bard was, I 
 
i8 The Voyage of 
 
 turned to the author's preface. He at least 
 might know. Here I found that poem 
 number 13 is a Curtal-Sonnet 
 
 constructed in proportions resembling those of the 
 sonnet proper, namely 6, 4 instead of 8, 6, with 
 however a half line tailpiece (so that the equation 
 
 1 12 , O 21 ,v 
 
 IS rather r = — = lof). 
 
 222 
 
 I had hoped to find the personality of a poet, 
 but I stumbled against what looked like an 
 equation of an immature algebraist. 
 
 Tuesday, October ist 
 
 We closed the day in the centre of 
 a marine fairy scene, we awoke next morn- 
 ing and found we had been dreaming. A 
 cold wet morning, a heavy sea, no trace of 
 the convoy, all the ships scattered on their 
 several occasions, the destroyers racing back 
 to port only to turn round and start off again 
 to escort another convoy out. 
 
 Owing to my having forgotten to put back 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 19 
 
 my watch over night 55 minutes, I got up 
 one hour before I had meant to. This vexed 
 me quite a bit; first, because I had to live 
 over again an hour that I had thought satis- 
 factorily disposed of, secondly, because 
 breakfast was not ready, and then I reflected 
 if this mischance had happened to me in my 
 own University, where I really ought to have 
 been, how easily could I have reached the 
 Senate House by 9.30 a.m. without any un- 
 due effort. About the time I should have been 
 reading my annual address to the Members 
 of the Senate we passed a large convoy going 
 East. 
 
 It grew duller and rougher and for the 
 rest of to-day, as the poet has it, "a gentle 
 pensiveness my soul possessed." 
 
 Wednesday, October 2nd 
 
 I think the Bishop — for we have a 
 Bishop, and a Monsignore and a chaplain, 
 
20 The Voyage of 
 
 and several padres, a poet, an oil-man, a 
 play-writer, several members of the Cana- 
 dian Siberian Commission, lots of flying men 
 and five Japanese on board — in fact just the 
 ordinary crowd of men (there are only men, 
 why aren't there children?) whom one is used 
 to meeting on liners. The Bishop was argu- 
 ing yesterday that there could be no news if 
 there was no one to read it — I think the 
 Bishop must be an idealist. His talk re- 
 minded me of Ronny Knox's poem: 
 
 There was a young man who said, God! 
 It surely to you must seem odd 
 
 That a tree as a tree 
 
 Simply ceases to be 
 If there's no one about in the quad. 
 
 Well, to-day we received Monday's 
 French and American communiques and we 
 read them, so there was news — and it was 
 good. 
 
 The Captain told us that our convoy had 
 been attacked by U-boats but, as the modern 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 21 
 
 phrase goes, there was "nothing doing." The 
 news that we had been attacked so cheered 
 our pessimist that he had an extra course at 
 lunch. 
 
 Thursday, October 3rd 
 
 The worst of travelling in a boat 
 primarily designed for freight, and which 
 is carrying no freight — we had barely a 
 hundred tons on board — is that the thing 
 becomes light-headed. There was a heavy 
 swell, and all Wednesday night and all 
 to-day we have bobbed about in a most out- 
 rageous manner. Still to-day the sun Is 
 shining. I have a great sympathy with those 
 folk who worship the sun. We sighted a 
 ship and immediately turned and fled north. 
 Evidently the neighbourhood of ships in 
 these waters is unhealthy. 
 
 About the fourth day, from the upper deck 
 or the ship's bow, we begin to see floating 
 
22 The Voyage of 
 
 patches of seaweed — gulfweed, or sargasso 
 {Sargassu?n bacciferu7ii)^ as it is called. For 
 the most part this appears as single stems or 
 in small rounded heads, yellow-brown or 
 olive-green, awash with the surface. But, as 
 we proceed southward, larger masses appear. 
 William Beebe gives the following ac- 
 count of the gulfweed in The Atlantic 
 Monthly (October, 1918, p. 477): 
 
 An amazing amount of fiction and nonsense 
 has been written about the sargasso-weed, but 
 the truth is actually more unbelievable. Though 
 we see it in such immense patches, and* although 
 for days the ocean may be flecked with the scat- 
 tered heads of the weed, yet it is no more at home 
 in mid-ocean than the falling leaves in autumn 
 may claim as their place of abode the breeze 
 which whirls them about, or the moss upon which 
 at last they come to rest. Along the coast of 
 Central America the sargasso-weed grows, on 
 coral and rock and shell, flowering and fruit- 
 ing after its lowly fashion. The berry-like blad- 
 ders with which the stems are strung are filled 
 with gas, and enable the plants to maintain their 
 position regardless of the state of the tide. Vast 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 23 
 
 quantities are torn away by the waves and drift 
 out to sea, and these stray masses are what we see 
 on every trip south, which, caught in the great 
 mid-ocean eddy, form the so-called Sargasso Sea. 
 The weed along the coast is honest growth, 
 with promise of permanence. The great floating 
 Sargasso Sea is permanent only in appearance; 
 and when finally the big masses drift, with all 
 their lesser attendant freight, into the Gulf 
 Stream, then life becomes a sham. There can 
 be no more fruiting or sustained development of 
 gas-filled berries. No eggs of fish or crabs will 
 hatch, no new generation of sea-horses or mol- 
 lusks appear among the stems. Bravely the 
 fronds float along ; day by day the hundred little 
 lives breathe and feed and cling to their drifting 
 home. But soon the gas-berries decay, and the 
 frond sinks lower and lower ; as the current flows 
 northward, and the water becomes cooler, the 
 crabs move less rapidly, the fish nibble less eag- 
 erly at the bits of passing food. Soon a sea- 
 horse lets go, and falls slowly downward, to be 
 snapped up at once or to sink steadily into the 
 eternal dusk and black night of deeper fathoms. 
 Soon the plant follows and, like all its chilled 
 pensioners dies. The supply from the Sargasso 
 Sea seems unfailing, but one's sympathies are 
 touched by these little assemblages, so teeming 
 with the hope of life, all doomed by the current 
 which is at once their support, their breath, and 
 their kismet. 
 
24 The Voyage of 
 
 Friday, October 4th 
 
 Wet, warm, with a sticky moisture, 
 and still very rough. I think this way we 
 must have passed through a cyclone. About 
 luncheon time the sea and the wind simply 
 seemed to lose all control over themselves. 
 
 They raged like the heathen, and we tossed 
 and pitched more than ever. At dinner- 
 time things began to improve and for some 
 three hours it was merely rough, then the 
 whole thing began over again and half the 
 night or more was a pandemonium of noise 
 and turmoil. 
 
 Saturday, October 5th 
 
 The sea is still very rough, but the 
 air is dry and the sun shines. This is an 
 immense improvement and the berths are 
 beginning to give up their dead. They say 
 we are south of the Newfoundland Banks. 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 25 
 
 Sea-weed is again drifting about, probably 
 on its long journey from the Sargasso Sea. 
 
 In the afternoon we saw a balk of timber 
 slithering up and down the climbing waves. 
 It filled me with a sense of unutterable lone- 
 liness. What was it doing in this limitless 
 waste of waters? Whence had it come? 
 Whither was it going? Why? What would 
 be its future? Probably months of restless 
 tossing accompanied by an ever-increasing 
 water-loggedness until it slowly sinks to the 
 abysmal bosom of the "benthos" to form a 
 resting-place for deep-sea barnacles to nestle 
 on and a shelter under which chaetopods 
 can creep. 
 
 Sunday, October 6th 
 
 The weather is worthy of the day, 
 warm, without winds, brilliant sunshine and 
 a low, slow swell. We passed a Belgian 
 relief ship so beautifully camouflage that it 
 
26 The Voyage of 
 
 looked twice as far off as the Captain said 
 it was. 
 
 Morning service (Matins) was at 10.30, 
 Acting on the dictum of the Bishop that the 
 only pleasure in life that never palls is 
 stopping away from Sunday morning church, 
 I stopped away and went on with my writ- 
 ing, but I was represented at the service by 
 the Boy who also acted as organist and 
 played "God Save the King" and three 
 hymns. Cuthbert, who wasn't feeling quite 
 up to it, also stayed away. He has not been 
 down to a meal since we left the river of the 
 port of embarkation ! 
 
 In the afternoon the washing came back. 
 The shortage of starch, which has so agitated 
 the Episcopal Bench at home, is evidently 
 not felt in this wonderful ship. 
 
 Monday, October 7th 
 
 All night it has been stiflingly hot and 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 27 
 
 as we must not open a port-hole it has been 
 rather oppressive. At six o'clock it suddenly 
 began to blow, quite suddenly and with a 
 noise like the opening of an exhaust pipe. 
 The steward informs us that the sky is full 
 of "mouse's tails," a cryptic but ominous 
 utterance. 
 
 The Captain — we don't see much of the 
 Captain — told us that he had had to cut off 
 ten feet of the distal end of his masts in 
 order that his ship may pass under the Grand 
 Trunk and Intercolonial Railway Bridge, 
 which is at last in position above Quebec. 
 I am not an expert on masts and they look 
 to me very well as they are, but he evidently 
 resents his loss and has a bit of a grudge 
 against the Railway Companies. 
 
 Every morning I read a daily portion of 
 Professor G. E. Maclean's excellent "Studies 
 in Higher Education in England and Scot- 
 land." I was pleased this morning to come 
 across the following lines: 
 
28 The Voyage of 
 
 The duties of the Vice-Chancellor at Oxford 
 and Cambridge are so numerous and complex 
 that it is not unusual for his health to break 
 down, though his term of office is only two or 
 four years. 
 
 There is probably during term time no more 
 harder worked official in the United Kingdom. 
 
 I wish I did not feel so well ! 
 
 Tuesday, October 8th 
 
 A very rough night, the screw con- 
 stantly racing out of the water and jarring 
 one out of one's sleep. To those who like 
 myself sleep very slowly this was a bit of a 
 nuisance, but joy came in the morning. At 
 sunrise the turmoil abated and we had a 
 day of brilliant sunshine, tempered by a cool, 
 north-easterly breeze. 
 
 This morning we got Cuthbert on deck 
 and he sat in the Bishop's deck chair for 
 some hours. I think the sun and the fresh 
 air did him good. He is certainly eating 
 better. 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 29 
 
 Wednesday, October 9th 
 
 Coming up towards Sandy Hook on a 
 perfectly placid sea we were blessed with 
 just that amount of haze which turned 
 Coney Island into Venice, the sea into an 
 Adriatic lagoon. We might have left Trieste 
 overnight ! The same merciful mist changed 
 the clear-cut outlines of the sky-scrapers into 
 Turner's pictures, and the Boy and the Poet 
 became ecstatic with the ecstasy of youth. 
 On landing, the joy of Cuthbert and the Boy 
 on being again on ''terra firma," for New 
 York is built on bed rock — a very sustaining 
 form of Gneiss, known as Manhattan Gneiss, 
 capable of bearing great burdens or what 
 would the skyscrapers do, poor things^- — 
 was so great that they waltzed along the 
 dock until they reached their respective in- 
 itials and awaited with such patience as they 
 
30 Xhe Voyage of 
 
 could command the official visits of the 
 officers of the Customs. 
 
 Everything was made easy for us and that 
 evening we began the series of ceaseless kind- 
 linesses and unbounded hospitalities which 
 continued all our trip. 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 31 
 
 Chapter II 
 The States 
 
 'If 'these' two creatures grew into one 
 They would do more than the world has done." 
 Browning, The Flight of the Duchess. 
 
 Thursday, October loth 
 
 LAST night it was broken to me, in 
 the kindest possible way, in sympa- 
 thetic terms which could not be more 
 "tenderer," if we may quote Mr. Weller 
 Senior, that I am to be painted for the Har- 
 vard Club. This morning I gave the first 
 sitting at a charming studio in Gramercy 
 Park. I am not one who usually laughs 
 much before noon, but the artist was so 
 amusing and so bright that we hardly quit 
 
32 The Voyage of 
 
 laughing from 9 to 1 1 a.m. The studio is 
 decorated by a portrait on a large scale of the 
 four Harvard Professors of Philosophy, 
 Royce, Wm. James, Parker and Miinster- 
 berg. The last-named is represented by an 
 empty chair. It seems that his habitual in- 
 solence and "overbearichkeit" was a bit more 
 than the artistic temperament could stand. 
 After a few sittings he was asked to leave the 
 studio and to stay away. 
 
 The following is queer but true. When 
 it became clear that the United States were 
 about to enter the war, Miinsterberg peti- 
 tioned the authorities to intern him — one 
 wishes one could spell it without the "n" — 
 in the Cambridge gaol, as he thought that 
 there his food supply, always an important 
 item in a German's outlook, could be more 
 generously supplemented than elsewhere. 
 
 We dined at the Century Club with its 
 members and made speeches. 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 33 
 Friday, October nth 
 
 Raising the liberty loan has clothed 
 Fifth Avenue in a mass of bunting, each 
 section being devoted to one of the Allies. 
 The effect is very brilliant as the flags 
 flutter in the sunny, clear breeze. 
 
 Cuthbert is very much disappointed that 
 he did not arrive in time to assist at the 
 unveiling of the heroic bronze statue of 
 Mr. Chauncey M. Depew, which the ex- 
 Senator has presented to his native town. 
 Mr. Depew delivered the unveiling and 
 unfailing dedicatory oration. The advan- 
 tage of these proceedings is obvious. There 
 will be for instance no need now to get 
 together a Chauncey M. Depew Memorial 
 Committee. No one will have to equate in 
 terms of cash the nicely balanced more or 
 less of his esteem for the ex-Senator, with 
 his duty to the Liberty Loan. That peren- 
 nial source of difference, marble, bronze or 
 
 3 
 
34 The Voyage of 
 
 lead is eliminated. Bronze it is, and bronze 
 is as durable as brass. Mr. Chauncey M. 
 Depew pronounced the eulogy himself, and 
 no one could have done it better. A man, 
 even a politician, is very conscious of his own 
 virtues, and no ex-Senator can be charged 
 with that lack of appreciation of the subject 
 of his memorial statue which is often met 
 with in unveiling orations on post-mortem 
 inaugurations. We shared Cuthbert's disap- 
 pointment. 
 
 Dined with the members of Harvard 
 University at their splendid Club and made 
 speeches. 
 
 Saturday, October I2th 
 
 To-day, being Liberty Day, Mr. 
 Wilson put on a black coat and a top-hat 
 and marched with an interminable pro- 
 cession down Fifth Avenue. I saw it soon 
 after il a.m. and again about 4 p.m. and 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 35 
 
 for all I know it may still be marching. The 
 whole thing was impressive, but the "mo- 
 ment" was the passing of the President 
 carrying a small flag. One could not help 
 reflecting on the power of good it would do 
 if the Pope would put on a black coat and 
 a top-hat and walk down the Corso. Such 
 things seem to bring folk together. 
 
 Dined with the New York Schoolmasters 
 at the Aldine Club, down-town, and made 
 speeches. After dinner went to the Audi- 
 torium, away up-town, and made more 
 speeches. At 5.30 p.m. on this day there was 
 not in this Continent a soul more keen about 
 Liberty than I was, but by 10.30 p.m. I had 
 weakened quite a bit. I had listened to 
 eighteen speeches on the subject and deliv- 
 ered two. I sympathized with Patrick Henry 
 who exclaimed after marrying his second 
 wife, "Give me Liberty or give me Death; I 
 prefer Death." 
 
36 The Voyage of 
 
 Sunday, October 13th 
 
 Motored some forty miles up the 
 Hudson, a brilliant day in all senses. Dined 
 with the Rhodes Scholars at the Harvard 
 Club and made speeches. 
 
 Monday, October 14th 
 
 As our newspapers say when the 
 House of Commons has an all-night session, 
 I am "still sitting" to my artist. I took 
 Cuthbert to see her and the two got on very 
 well together. We left in the afternoon for 
 Washington and dined on the train. We 
 made no speeches. 
 
 Tuesday, October 15th 
 
 During the afternoon, President 
 Wilson received us and very cordially asked 
 us to lunch on Thursday, October 17th. 
 After leaving him we spent a couple of hours 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 37 
 
 with Bishop Shahan at the Roman Catholic 
 University where amongst many things we 
 saw was a fully equipped and entirely mod- 
 ern Chemical Laboratory, as large or almost 
 as large as any in Great Britain. In this 
 worked monks and priests of most of the 
 religious orders. 
 
 Wednesday, October i6th 
 
 After a Conference on Education in 
 the morning with the authorities of the 
 War Department we embarked on the 
 Admiralty yacht ^ybil and left for Mount 
 Vernon. It was a perfect autumn afternoon 
 and the brilliancy of the fading autumn 
 leaves was reflected in the still waters of the 
 Potomac. Their colours were so blended 
 that we could only wonder at the beauty of 
 the scene, but our hosts were by no means 
 satisfied. They apologized for the absence 
 of certain red tints, this they attributed to 
 
38 The Voyage of 
 
 a cold spell in Seotember which had caused 
 the fading foliage to skip one stage in its 
 colour diminuendo. As has been pointed out, 
 ^'there's beauty in the colour of decay," but 
 it was obvious that there is more beauty if 
 the decay be gradual and not unduly has- 
 tened by cold spells. 
 
 As we came opposite to Washington's 
 house, the flag was lowered, a bell tolled and 
 the ship's bugler sounded the "Last Post." 
 A naval officer on the Eyhil told me that this 
 touching tribute to a great gentleman dated 
 back to 1812 when the British Admiral of a 
 fleet sent to fight Washington's countrymen, 
 as his ships passed Mount Vernon on their 
 way up the Potomac to shell the Federal 
 Capital, gave the order to salute the grave of 
 the first President with this usage, which has 
 ever after been followed. Well, sailors al- 
 ways were gentlemen.^ 
 
 The charm of the house, of the garden, of 
 
 * Germans alone excepted. 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 39 
 
 the several views both inland and riverwards 
 was multiplied by the beauty of the after- 
 noon, and we left as sundown was setting in, 
 with buzzards circling over us and a solitary 
 blue heron standing on one leg on a grassy 
 islet near the landing-stage. 
 
 We dined that night with the Assistant 
 High Commissioner of our country and the 
 only speeches were two quite short ones to 
 explain there were to be no speeches. 
 
 Thursday, October 17th 
 
 To-day we lunched with the Presi- 
 dent and Mrs. Wilson. Both were extremely 
 cordial and friendly and did us the quite 
 unusual honour of granting us two hours of 
 their much occupied time. Later some of 
 us visited the Carnegie Institute and tried to 
 grasp the almost incredible variety of its 
 many activities and the quite incredible num- 
 ber of dollars it administers. 
 
40 The Voyage of 
 
 Later In the day the Trustees of the Car- 
 negie Institute gave a banquet at the Wash- 
 ington Hotel where we met a couple of 
 hundred of the most distinguished men in 
 Washington. Here the speeches reached a 
 climax, for they began with the melons. I 
 made an after-dinner speech before the soup 
 was served, and had to leave out quite a lot 
 of points. Whenever the band paused for a 
 moment some one made a speech, and there 
 were so many, and so many of us lacked 
 what the Railway folk call "terminal facili- 
 ties" that we had well-nigh three hours of 
 speeches. But it was all so kindly and so 
 friendly that it won our hearts. 
 
 Friday, October i8th 
 
 This morning we went to Baltimore, 
 and here perhaps we came across more 
 evidence of the terrible plague which this 
 autumn is decimating the land than we had 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 41 
 
 till now met with. Hitherto I have not men- 
 tioned it, but even on the dock at New York, 
 the Head of the British Mission in New 
 York City had told us something of the ex- 
 tent and virulence of the scourge, a very fatal 
 form of influenza followed in many cases by 
 a still more fatal form, of pneumonia. That 
 very morning two of his clerks had died. On 
 one day there were 750 deaths from this 
 plague in New York City alone. The Sec- 
 retary of State at Washington had given me 
 an appalling list of the deaths amongst the 
 families of the Diplomatic Corps in Wash- 
 ington; no Embassy, no Ministry, had es- 
 caped. 
 
 One saw in Washington folks walking 
 about the streets wearing white masks, some- 
 thing like gas-masks. In the barbers' shops 
 all the attendants wore masks, but the supply 
 of them was totally inadequate. The medical 
 and nursing profession, greatly depleted by 
 the war, practically broke down. At Balti- 
 
42 The Voyage of 
 
 more, although no one spoke much about it, 
 we heard gruesome stories^of a little girl 
 found shaking in a cupboard whither she had 
 fled after the death of both parents and all 
 her brothers and sisters; of the bodies of a 
 man and his wife found alone in a house 
 eight days after their death. It was as it 
 were living through the pages of Daniel De- 
 foe. The day before we reached Baltimore 
 25O5 including some of the more brilliant of 
 the young Johns Hopkins teachers, had died. 
 
 At Philadelphia, with a population of some^ 
 thing under two million, there had already 
 been 250,000 cases. All theatres, churches, 
 "movie"-shows, and saloons were closed. No 
 assemblage of more than twenty-eight per- 
 sons was permitted. The undertakers and the 
 authorities at the cemeteries were unable to 
 deal with the dreadful condition that pre- 
 vailed. Thousands of bodies lay unburied, 
 and owing to the national feeling about fun- 
 erals the people would not adopt the natural 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 43 
 
 and hygienic expedient of burying their dead 
 in cloaks or in-sheets. An old friend of mine, 
 
 Lady , told me at Washington that she 
 
 had just buried her nephew at Philadelphia 
 and had to pay £40 for a coffin which took 
 three days to deliver. 
 
 So great was the need of help at the 
 necropolis at Philadelphia that the Admiral 
 in command of the shipbuilding yards at 
 Hog Island sent over two of his excavators 
 to dig two great common graves. After 
 some hours he was informed that there was 
 no one to direct his men where to dig or to 
 register the dead or indeed to do anything. 
 Although he made no charges, yet he found 
 some outside person was taking money. He 
 telephoned to the Archbishop — in America 
 you telephone to anyone — to say that unless 
 someone in authority took charge within two 
 hours he would recall his excavators, and 
 somehow something was arranged. 
 
 In the State of Connecticut the "jail- 
 
44 The Voyage of 
 
 birds" were requisitioned and detailed to dig 
 graves. The epidemic has been most fatal in 
 the military and the naval camps. Already 
 it has claimed a greater number of victims 
 in the army and the navy than the total casu- 
 alties in the war. 
 
 In spite of the grief and sorrow which we 
 could not but note in our hosts' faces, they 
 received us with a brave front. Naturally, 
 we felt keenly that at a time of such national 
 woe we ought not to be intruding, but per- 
 haps after all we could do "no other" and so 
 they and we simply "carried on" and talked 
 on other matters. 
 
 At Baltimore we visited the new Univer- 
 sity buildings of Johns Hopkins, new since I 
 had been there, a fine set of libraries and lab- 
 oratories built of a pleasant light red brick 
 with ample windows. There had been the 
 usual fight between the people who were to 
 use the buildings and the architects. Here 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 45 
 
 the Professors won, for in Johns Hopkins the 
 university rooms and windows are large and 
 let in floods of light. 
 
 We lunched at the Country Club beside 
 the Golf Course and made speeches. So 
 many speeches did we make that it was 4 
 P.M. before we rose to hurry off to an inter- 
 view which Cardinal Gibbons had promised 
 us. His Eminence was a refined and kindly- 
 old gentleman, 84 years of age, yet with 
 strength and courage and truth in his face, 
 just the sort of saint to steady the nerves and 
 bring hope to the heart of a sorely stricken 
 and largely ignorant population. He told 
 us that he was the youngest prelate at the 
 Vatican Council in 1870, and that now he 
 was the oldest Roman Catholic bishop alive. 
 He also told us that the celebrations in 
 honour of the Jubilee of his election to the 
 Bench, which were just due, had been post- 
 poned owing to the pestilence, and somehow 
 
46 The Voyage of 
 
 he gave me the impression that he was not 
 altogether sorry. 
 
 The Boy visited the tomb of Edgar Allen 
 Poe in the heart of the city, and thought it 
 needed care. 
 
 We were "off to Philadelphia" in the 
 evening. 
 
 Saturday, October 19th 
 
 Motored to the studio, in the Univer- 
 sity, of Tait Mackenzie, whose sculptures 
 go from strength to strength. He is modelling 
 a group of men going over the top, the finest 
 war memorial I have yet seen. Later we vis- 
 ited the University Art Museum, full of 
 beautiful things, beautifully displayed. The 
 Museum has a circular auditorium of novel 
 and stately proportions and with perfect 
 acoustic properties. We lunched at Houston 
 Hall with the faculty and made innumerable 
 speeches. One by the Provost, a very charm- 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 47 
 
 ing Provost, contained some quite plain 
 speaking about the way the old Universities 
 in Great Britain had kept their doors shut to 
 foreign students; this and further criticism 
 after dinner, when we all spoke over again, 
 has set us all thinking. I had hoped that in 
 a Quaker City one would not speak unless the 
 spirit moved one, but the "attendant spirit" 
 in the form of the Provost was always with 
 us and was always moving us. 
 
 In the afternoon we motored to the 
 Quaker College of Swarthmore, a co-educa- 
 tional institution in which the education is 
 by no means left out. As in other places, the 
 buildings were set on a hill, in vast grounds, 
 and equipped lavishly; for instance there is 
 a large open-air theatre, a fine swimming 
 bath and an observatory with a 24 in. lens 
 telescope, a finer instrument than exists in 
 Ireland, as our astronomical member told 
 us, and many other features hard to find in a 
 boys' or girls' College in our country. 
 
48 The Voyage of 
 
 Sunday, October 20th 
 
 Spent part of the morning at Tait 
 Mackenzie's studio in his charming home. 
 The Boy, who has for some days been 
 suffering from suppressed music, obtained a 
 certain temporary measure of relief at their 
 grand piano. 
 
 In the afternoon we visited some dear old 
 colonial churches in which Washington wor- 
 shipped and then, by way of contrast, went 
 to a great magnate's palace and saw the finest 
 private collection of pictures I have ever seen. 
 Rembrandt's ''Mill," recently bought from 
 Lord Lansdowne, hangs in the galleries. This 
 is regarded by Bode, who has lately, we are 
 told, been organizing the artistic looting of 
 the invaded countries, as the most perfect 
 picture in the world, but since he failed to 
 distinguish a Lucas from a Leonardo, or to 
 acknowledge his error when found out, his 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 49 
 
 opinion on artistic matters leaves us un- 
 moved. 
 
 Some Italian pictures have, owing to a 
 certain law, a little difficulty in leaving their 
 country. One collector who had bought at 
 a considerable cost a genuine Old Master in 
 Rome got over this difficulty by having a 
 sea-scape lightly painted over it. On reach- 
 ing the West the collector sent it to his pic- 
 ture-cleaner to have the sea-scape removed, 
 and after some months he wrote to ask how 
 this was getting on. The picture-cleaner re- 
 plied: "We have removed the sea-scape and 
 we have removed the Old Master and what 
 do you wish done with 'The Coronation of 
 William IV'?" 
 
 Monday, October 21st 
 
 This morning the Admiral in com- 
 mand of the shipbuilding yard at Hog Is- 
 land took us over it. Fifteen months ago 
 
50 The Voyage of 
 
 students from the University were botaniz- 
 ing on its swampy site. To-day there are 
 some forty ships in all stages of construc- 
 tion, seventy miles of railway track in the 
 yards, 30,000 workmen, who with their fami- 
 lies are housed in hundreds of dwellings 
 which have sprung from the sea-foam in the 
 course of a few months. There are numerous 
 hotels and clubs for the unmarried hands. 
 
 Here we met a camouflager, who allowed, 
 as I had seen in New York, that much more 
 blue is used on their ships than on ours. He 
 also told us that the design was by no means 
 haphazard, but carefully thought out and 
 drawn on paper before being adopted. Each 
 ship has a model and unless the camouflage 
 succeeded in deceiving the enemy by a certain 
 number of points in the compass — I suppose 
 the Censor won't let me say how many — it 
 was rejected altogether or revised. 
 
 Later in the morning we motored to 
 Bryn Mawr which was as charming as ever. 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 51 
 
 Here we lunched and then went on to 
 Haverford, an old home of mine, which 
 like the Brown University at Providence, 
 R.I., and doubtless others, has rejected the 
 gilded unsectarianism of Mr. Carnegie. 
 
 We dined at the Arts Club with the 
 Director of the Drexel Institution, who had 
 the happy idea of asking each of us to talk 
 about ourselves. Never have I heard better 
 speeches ! 
 
 Tuesday, October 22nd 
 
 We had a quiet day at Princeton, a 
 really restful one. In the morning we visited 
 some of the numerous departments turned 
 into war work, especially those connected 
 with aircraft, for Princeton has specialized 
 in this branch. After an informal lunch with 
 my host at my old Princeton home, we had 
 two hours to ourselves, a great boon in these 
 hurried days. Then we attended a Review, 
 
52 The Voyage of 
 
 the President taking the salute, and after- 
 wards a short formal meeting in Nassau 
 Hall with the Faculty. This was a very dig- 
 nified proceeding. The speeches were short 
 and to the point. 
 
 It was a memorable occasion. Fifty years 
 ago, to the day, President McCosh, whose 
 name you can still conjure with, took over the 
 guidance of what was then a much smaller 
 institution. Five years ago to the day I had 
 the honour of taking part in the opening ex- 
 ercises of Dean West's magnificent Gradu- 
 ate College, now the home of the Paymasters 
 of the Fleet. But these aniversaries are as 
 nothing compared to the fact that over the 
 Hall in which we met the British flag was 
 floating where it had not floated for 177 
 years ! 
 
 Wednesday, October 23rd 
 
 On passing through New York we 
 were entertained at a most sumptuous 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 53 
 
 banquet by the members of the Lotus 
 Club. Here we met many of the out- 
 standing men of the City, in all branches of 
 literature, learning and commerce, and here 
 we heard the last of the many Wilson notes. 
 As so often happens, the evening report was 
 an exaggeration of what the morrow was to 
 bring forth. Much eloquence, for the 
 speeches with one exception (and the speaker 
 of this sat next me) were long and many, 
 dealt at length on the term "unconditional" 
 but that word was lacking in the full report 
 of the President's Note in the newspapers 
 next morning. 
 
 The third of the classical injunctions to 
 the after-dinner speaker, "Get up, get on, 
 and get down," is neglected in this country. 
 Never have I heard so many brilliant per- 
 orations passed by — especially by one of our 
 Mission — and the first always seemed to me 
 the best. Nevertheless it was a most suc- 
 cessful gathering and we left a little before 
 
54 The Voyage of 
 
 midnight much heartened by innumerable 
 expressions of good-will and much touched 
 by innumerable acts of kindness. 
 
 Thursday, October 24th 
 
 Our visit to Yale was another restful 
 one. In the two laboratories I visited, the 
 pathological and the biological, I was im- 
 pressed both by the thoroughness and by the 
 originality of the researches being carried on. 
 Here, as at other American universities, there 
 is ample room and a most cordial welcome 
 awaiting the British graduate who wishes to 
 study on lines hitherto hardly touched on in 
 our Islands. 
 
 Friday, October 25th 
 
 The President of Yale had in the 
 most kindly fashion arranged a short confer- 
 ence between the Faculty and the members 
 of the Commission; this my colleagues tell 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 55 
 
 me was one of the most helpful meetings 
 which had as yet taken place; unfortunately 
 before it was more than half-way through I 
 more or less collapsed. The incessant strain 
 of meeting hundreds of hospitable hosts each 
 day, the constant speeches and the eternal 
 lack of sleep had proved too much for more 
 than one of us. I retired to the handsome li- 
 brary of the comfortable club which put 
 us up, a library where that blessed word 
 "SILENCE" is not only enjoined but exer- 
 cised, and fell asleep in an armchair. On 
 waking I decided, to my great regret, to omit 
 Amherst, Smith and other Colleges, and go 
 straight to Boston. Here I took refuge with 
 an old Cambridge friend in the quietest of 
 hotels inhabited by great numbers of dear 
 old mid- Victorian ladies whose age justifies 
 the proud boast of the proprietor that no one 
 ever dies in his hotel. On arrival I went to 
 bed. 
 
56 The Voyage of 
 
 Saturday, October 26th 
 
 Slept. 
 Sunday, October 27th 
 
 Slept most of the morning and in the 
 afternoon went out to the hospitable house 
 of the President of Harvard. On the way 
 our most kindly guide and his wife drove us 
 out to Concord through autumn-tinted roads 
 and country lanes. We saw the homes of 
 Hawthorne and Emerson. It was interesting 
 to learn that the son of the latter, Dr. Ed- 
 ward Emerson, was still living in his father's 
 village, just as it is to know that Longfel- 
 low's daughter is still living in her father's 
 stately house in Cambridge just around the 
 comer from President Lowell's house. We 
 saw the virile statue by a Concord sculptor 
 of the young farmer who fired the first shot 
 in the War of Rebellion standing at the foot 
 of the bridge inscribed with these lines : 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 57 
 
 By the rude bridge that arched the flood, 
 Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, 
 Here once the embattled farmers stood 
 And fired the shot heard round the world. 
 
 April 19th, 1775. 
 
 We also saw on what was once the battle- 
 field of Concord a touching tribute to our 
 soldiers : 
 
 They came three thousand miles and died, 
 To keep the past upon its throne. 
 Unheard beyond the ocean tide 
 Their English Mother made her moan. 
 
 April 19th, 1775. 
 
 On the way home we stopped at the old 
 cemetery at Sleepy Hollow where in ideal 
 setting Emerson and Hawthorne and Tho- 
 reau lie. The sun was setting, a light au- 
 tumn mist veiled all sharp outlines; it was 
 four-thirty on a Sunday afternoon, a time 
 when one's vitality is at its lowest, a time 
 when at home I always read Thomson's "City 
 of Dreadful Night." I felt at peace with the 
 world and in complete harmony with tombs. 
 
58 The Voyage of 
 
 Monday, October 28th 
 
 Early in the morning we visited 
 Tufts College, pleasantly set on a hill. At 
 11 A.M. I lectured to some 700 Harvard 
 students in khaki and naval kit on some of 
 the inconveniences they may meet at the 
 front. Nobody coughed ! 
 
 The great crowds of splendid youths we 
 meet everywhere seem almost overwhelming, 
 full of fun, working hard and deadly in ear- 
 nest. At least half of them everywhere are 
 in sailor's uniform and are apparently in 
 training for commissions, though how such 
 thousands are to find ships is difficult to 
 imagine. Of course, many of them are spe- 
 cializing in such subjects as sea-planes, wire- 
 less, etc. 
 
 Tuesday, October 29th 
 
 This morning we visited Boston Col- 
 lege, a Jesuit College, which grants degrees. 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 59 
 
 As usual the buildings are placed on a hill 
 commanding beautiful views of river, lake, 
 mountain and city, the outline of the last- 
 named tempered by distance. All this we 
 saw from a roof -garden. On descending in 
 the elevator I noticed with envy that it was 
 fitted with a mechanism, which, if Mr. Edi- 
 son could but fit it on all politicians, orators 
 and after-dinner speakers, would save an im- 
 mense amount of time and enable us to get 
 on with the war. The mechanism enables 
 the lift to record : "This elevator automati- 
 cally closes itself within 30 seconds." 
 
 The chapel, and indeed all the buildings, 
 were stately, well proportioned and satisfy- 
 ing to the eye. The inside decorations were 
 exceptionally beautiful and some of the more 
 artistic and restful were the work of one 
 of the Fathers, An elderly priest seemed to 
 take an especial and solicitous interest in me, 
 and after a time he confided in me that 
 though he had met many Oxford men I was 
 
6o The Voyage of 
 
 the first Cambridge man he had ever seen. 
 He watched over me as if I was an unique 
 specimen and before we left gave me to un- 
 derstand that this singular experience had 
 greatly widened his outlook on life. 
 
 On the way home I was pleased to find 
 that the President was using and had used 
 for years the "Cambridge Pocket Diary." As 
 the originator, and for some years the author, 
 of that modest tome I felt a certain degree of 
 pride. 
 
 We lunched with the President of "Tech" 
 and his wife in the magnificent new build- 
 ings which have been put up on the Cam- 
 bridge side of the Charles River since I was 
 last in Boston. 
 
 During the afternoon we met the Harvard 
 Faculty in their Hall and had many helpful 
 talks. 
 
 After dinner we went into Boston to a 
 reception at the new home of the American 
 Academy of Arts and Sciences. Here again 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 6i 
 
 I met many old friends. One, a world-wide 
 authority on Brachiopods and Japanese art, 
 who had been very good to me over thirty 
 years ago when first I came to Boston, had 
 travelled sixty miles to see me again. The 
 crowd, however, was so great and the noise 
 we made was so loud we could converse but 
 little. One felt in sympathy with the old 
 lady who said, ''How can one converse if 
 people will talk?" However, I was lucky 
 enough to meet several zoologists and we got 
 away into a quiet comer and talked shop. 
 
 Wednesday, October 30th 
 
 Yesterday it was 80 degrees in the 
 shade and at 8 a.m. this morning it was 
 already 70 degrees. The heat is indeed 
 overwhelming. We are assured it is un- 
 usual, but except in the Tropics the weather 
 seems to me to be always and everywhere 
 unusual. 
 
62 The Voyage of 
 
 The wife of our host took us to see 
 "The House of the Seven Gables" at Salem. 
 This is a delightful place and is maintained 
 with the same pious and thoughtful care as 
 is Mount Vernon. The whole arrangement 
 recalled the merchants' houses at King's 
 Lynn, for behind the house is a garden run- 
 ning down to the water's edge where the 
 schooners used to anchor, and in the garden 
 is a counting-house. 
 
 The headlines of the newspapers are as 
 large as ever but not so quaintly phrased. 
 However, I have just come across an old 
 copy of a Southern journal which records the 
 capture of Nazareth in the following words : 
 
 "British capture Christ's Home Town." 
 
 Another one which heralded an interview 
 with one of our Mission was: 
 
 "DISHPAN loses lure for female sex in Eng- 
 land, says prominent British Woman Educator." 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 63 
 
 We left in the evening for Montreal, 
 travelling luxuriously in a private car which 
 had been kindly placed at our service by the 
 Dominion Government. 
 
 Thursday, October 31st 
 
 All Hallowe'en. 
 At Montreal we were received by the 
 President and Faculty of McGill University 
 in their spacious Library. Here we were 
 shown their admirable system of card-cata- 
 loguing, and the rapidity with which a book 
 asked for can be placed in the asker's hands. 
 One feature that struck us greatly was their 
 circulating library. Hundreds of books are 
 sent to country villages in batches of a dozen 
 or so, and are sent back after a certain fixed 
 period. It recalled the same sort of distribu- 
 tion that exists in our Local Lectures organi- 
 zations in England, but it is carried out on 
 a greater scale. Canada does everything she 
 
64 The Voyage of 
 
 can to help the farmers and their women- 
 folk in far away districts, and the Post-Office 
 carries for them, free of charge, any weekly 
 newspaper they care to order. 
 
 McGill University, though sadly depleted 
 by the absence of a very large percentage of 
 its members at the war, was still keeping the 
 flag of learning flying. We lunched with the 
 President of the University and his wife, and 
 met many of the leading Professors. Noth- 
 ing could have been kinder than our recep- 
 tion. It is thirty-two years ago since I first 
 visited this great Canadian University, and 
 the changes and improvements that have 
 been effected in that time are truly remark- 
 able. 
 
 Later in the day we visited the Town 
 Fine Art Museums and some private collec- 
 tions. A former pupil of mine is doing a 
 great work in Montreal in getting together 
 and admirably setting out great and varied 
 collections of artistic objects. Like so many 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 65 
 
 students of the biological sciences he has a 
 real feeling for colour, form and design. 
 
 We dined with the Governors of McGill 
 University at the University Club. We 
 made speeches and enjoyed short talks with 
 many old friends. 
 
 Friday, November ist 
 
 All Saints' Day. 
 In the morning some of us visited the 
 MacDonald College of Agriculture near St. 
 Anne's, a very efficient and as usual most 
 beautifully equipped institution. In the aft- 
 ernoon we went to three of the buildings 
 amongst the dozen which, scattered about in 
 the City and French quarter of the City, con- 
 stitute the Montreal and Roman Catholic 
 University of Laval. A second half of this 
 great institution is in Quebec and just at 
 present there is a movement on foot to sep- 
 arate one from the other. We saw the 
 
66 The Voyage of 
 
 Schools of Commerce, of Veterinary Science, 
 and of Dentistry. The students of the last 
 two Schools have proved invaluable in 
 France, and have taken a very full and most 
 helpful share at the Front. 
 
 At Laval the lectures are in French and 
 it is primarily, though not exclusively, the 
 University of the French Canadian. McGill 
 students attend some of the Laval Courses, 
 especially Law Courses. 
 
 In the evening the Boy and I dined with 
 one or two of the big men in Montreal and 
 listened to some very lively comments as to 
 the men in the Dominions the British Gov- 
 ernment "delighted to honour." I tried to 
 assure them that the Dominion did not suffer 
 alone. 
 
 Saturday, November 2nd 
 
 We left early for Ottawa, arriving at 
 that "proud city of the Waters" soon after 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 67 
 
 noon. The Governor-General gave us lunch 
 at the new and magnificent Chateau Laurier 
 Hotel and here we met the Premier, upon 
 whom I had conferred the honorary degree 
 of LL.D. less than five months ago. Laurier 
 and many of the present Cabinet Ministers 
 were there but there were few speeches. 
 
 I spent some time at the headquarters of 
 the Entomological Branch of the Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture. With its twelve acces- 
 sory laboratories scattered throughout Can- 
 ada it is doing great work second to none in 
 or out of Canada. We had tea with the 
 Duke and Duchess at Rideau Hall, dinner 
 at the Golf Club where Bishop, the Canadian 
 ''ace," was also dining, a truly marvellous 
 airman who has brought down fifty Huns. 
 
 Sunday, November 3rd 
 
 Reached Toronto quite early in the 
 morning after a somewhat chequered night. 
 
68 The Voyage of 
 
 I spent most of the day with the mothers 
 and friends of some of the Canadian officers 
 who had stayed during the last four years at 
 my Lodge. 
 
 We had tea at the house of one of the 
 leading financial authorities of the country 
 who is however more proud of the beauty 
 of his Bank's banknotes than of his out- 
 standing business ability. He thinks they 
 will live and certainly they ought to. To 
 most people the beauty of a banknote is in 
 direct proportion to the dominant cypher 
 and they seldom look beyond this, yet they 
 should dwell on the charm of the portrait 
 of Martha Washington on some of the U.S. 
 issues. 
 
 Monday, November 4th 
 
 This was really a great day for us. 
 We saw something of the magnificent build- 
 ings of the unversity with their complete 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 69 
 
 equipment in every department. We had a 
 helpful talk with the Faculty and learned 
 much about the largest and wealthiest of the 
 great Canadian Universities. Toronto is co- 
 educational. They have the most absolute 
 and the fullest equality of the sexes and the 
 women have the front seats in the lecture 
 rooms. 
 
 As I have written we really had a great 
 day: most of us managed to get in four 
 speeches. 
 
 (i) In the morning we addressed the 
 Faculty on the objects and aims of the 
 Mission; here as indeed everywhere we were 
 welcomed and made to feel welcome. 
 
 (ii) A little after noon we lunched with 
 several hundred of the leading business 
 men at the Empire Club, and here an un- 
 fortunate thing happened. In my speech I 
 described how one of the less informed of our 
 Labour Members had reproached the older 
 Universities for neglecting to teach what he 
 
70 The Voyage of 
 
 called "the newer subjects," such as Textile- 
 Fabrics, Brewing and Dyeing. In replying 
 to him I had pointed out that these subjects 
 were by no means new, that textile-fabrics 
 had begun to come into use in the Garden of 
 Eden, that the processes of fermentation 
 were understood by Noah, and that dyeing 
 was one of the most ancient of arts. In re- 
 porting this part of my speech the news- 
 papers made me say that "dying was one of 
 the oldest of human industries." I was sorry 
 for this, as though the undertakers seemed 
 pleased I fear the local clergy thought me 
 flippant. 
 
 (iii) Immediately after lunch we were 
 received by the Mayor and made speeches 
 to the Corporation. The Mayor was kind- 
 ness itself, and showered us with gifts, 
 culminating in lovely silken Canadian flags. 
 
 (iv) We dined at a charming club as the 
 guests of the University. I sat between the 
 Governor and the Premier of the Province, 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 71 
 
 and here we were delighted by meeting 
 again the unveiler of the recently erected 
 statue to Lincoln at Springfield, 111. We all 
 made speeches. 
 
 The food conditions in Canada are to a 
 visitor from the other side of the Atlantic 
 overwhelming. They are the same in the 
 United States. The people of North Amer- 
 ica have made great and, for the most part, 
 voluntary sacrifices to solve the food problem 
 in Europe, and they have solved it. Much 
 more would they send could they get it 
 across. Still much remains behind. 
 
 At the numerous hospitable dinners and 
 banquets we had eaten the fare was both 
 ample and excellent, but the excess of a 
 City Dinner was mercifully and properly ab- 
 sent. At the hotels things were on a differ- 
 ent basis. At Toronto we were housed in a 
 thoroughly comfortable house, not one of 
 those gilded palaces one finds in New York, 
 but one which provided everything we could 
 
72 The Voyage of 
 
 want, and here is a list of the things we could 
 eat : 
 
 Blue Point Oysters, Malapeque Oysters 45,^ Cock- 
 tail 50; Cotuit Oysters 50, Bread and Butter 
 10. 
 
 Crabflakes Cocktail 60, Shrimps Cocktail 60, Lob- 
 ster Cocktail 75, Oyster Stew 30, with cream 
 40. 
 
 HoRS D'CEuvre: Romanoff Caviar on Ice 1.25, 
 Grape Fruit 30, Celery 35, Salted Almonds 
 30, Chow Chow 30, Bengal Chutney 30, Dill 
 Pickles 20, French Sardines in oil 50, Olives 
 30, Stuffed Celery 50, Chili Sauce 10, Chutney 
 15, Grape Fruit Supreme 60, Anchovies in 
 Oil 60. 
 
 Soup: Consomme Japonais 30, Creme of Chicken 
 3^, Potage Milanais 30, Hot or cold Con- 
 somme, clear 30, garnished 35, Chicken Broth 
 clear 30, with chicken and rice 35, Celery 
 Broth 30, Clam Broth 30, Mock Turtle 35, 
 Puree of Split Pea 30, Mongole Soup 30, 
 Onion Soup au Gratin 35, Onion Soup in 
 cream 33. 
 
 All strained soups in cups. 
 
 Fish : Boiled Fresh Codfish, egg sauce 70, Lob- 
 ster and Finnan Haddie Newbourg 90, Boiled 
 Jumbo Whitefish hoteliere 70, Fried Green 
 Smelts with bacon, tartare 70, (15 Minutes), 
 
 * The figures indicate cents. 
 
A. Vice-Chancellor 73 
 
 Planked Whitefish with cucumbers 75, Cold 
 Lobster mayonnaise 80-1.50. 
 
 Specials: Lamb Chops saute champvallon 85, 
 Breaded milk-fed Chicken Maryland 1.25, 
 Braised Premium Ham mashed Sweet Pota- 
 toes 90, Boiled Lamb Steak Foyot 1.15, Calf 
 head en Tortue 80, Cold Sliced Capon and 
 Tongue Asparagus Tips i.oo, Omelette Celes- 
 tine 65. 
 
 Roasts : Roast Lamb Mint Sauce 85, Roast Tur- 
 key Cranberry Sauce 1.10, Roast Ribs of Beef 
 au Jus 75. 
 
 Vegetables : Cauliflower Mousseline 35, Potato 
 Marquis 30, New Bermuda Potato in cream 
 30, Boiled 15, Baked Potato 25, Mashed Pota- 
 toes 20, Creamed Potatoes 30, Beets in butter 
 30, Succotash 30, Stewed Tomatoes 35, French 
 fried 25, California asparagus 35. 
 
 Cold Cuts: Roast Lamb 80, Chicken (Half) 
 1.00, Sliced Capon argentine 90, Lamb tongue 
 60, Beef tongue 70, Sliced Turkey 90. 
 
 Salads: Shrimp 80, Tomatoes 35, Lobster i.oo, 
 Fruit 60, Chicken 60, Hearts of Lettuce 35, 
 Lettuce and Tomato 40, Cucumber 35, Water- 
 cress 30, Russian dressing 15, Mayonnaise 
 dressing 15, Roquefort dressing 30. 
 
 Ice Cream and Ices: Strawberry Ice Cream 30, 
 Orange Water Ice 25, Neapolitaine 35, Choco- 
 lat Parfait 35, Coffee Ice Cream 30, Vanilla 
 30, Chocolate 30, Cafe Parfait 35, Lemon 
 Water Ice 35. 
 
74 The Voyage of 
 
 Fruits and Preserves: Honey Dew Melon 35, 
 Grape Fruit 30, Banana 15, Assorted Fruits 
 50, Red Currant Jelly 35, Bar-le-Duc 40, Can- 
 ton Ginger 30, Orange 30. 
 
 Cheese: Richelieu 20, McLaren's imperial 20, 
 Neufchatel 20, Canadian 20, Camembert 30, 
 Roquefort 40, Swiss 30, Ingersoll cream 20. 
 
 Coffee: Coffee with cream, small pot for one 20, 
 large pot 40, Demi-Tasse 10, with cream 15, 
 Ice Coffee 20, Cocoa, Chocolate 25, Ice Tea 
 with cream 20, Horlick's Malted Milk 20, 
 Milk per bottle 10. 
 
 Dishes not on menu will be served by request. 
 
 "All persons in ordering food ought to consider the 
 needs of Great Britain and the Allies for 
 wheat, beef, bacon and food, and that the 
 Canada Food Board desires the public to do 
 everything in their power to make these com- 
 modities available for export by eating as lit- 
 tle as possible of them, and my making use of 
 substitutes and avoiding waste." 
 
 Tuesday, November 5th 
 
 We went to bed this morning before 
 1 A.M. and got up at 6.30 to start for 
 Niagara. We had, as ever, perfect weather 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 75 
 
 and many picturesque views of streams, 
 lakes, and woods. Hitherto I have always 
 visited Niagara from the American side and 
 this is, I think, the better way. Coming first 
 to the Canadian side the views are less im- 
 pressive. 
 
 The falls are much as they were and do 
 not seem to have changed in the last two- 
 and-thirty years. The Victoria Park on the 
 Canadian side, the park on the American 
 side and on Goat Island and the new hotels 
 have, however, vastly improved the amenity 
 of the "section." On the other hand, the 
 factories, power houses, etc., which desecrate 
 the cliffs between the Falls and the Rapids, 
 grow in number and in horror. 
 
 We left in the late afternoon for Windsor 
 and here we had to leave our Canadian pri- 
 vate car. Those of us, however, who had 
 comfortable beds could not tear ourselves 
 from the Canadian soil and remained in the 
 car. The rest of us continued in the train 
 
76 The Voyage of 
 
 which embarked on a ferry, the ferry 
 crossed the Detroit River and at 2 a.m. we 
 were at rest in one of the most comfortable 
 of the many comfortable hotels we lodged 
 at during our tour. 
 
 Wednesday, November 6th 
 
 Some of our party got up early and 
 visited Mr. Ford's works. I did not. After 
 all, they did not see the works, but heard 
 quite a lot about them from one of the chief 
 managers. The works are on a large scale 
 and the workmen receive a minimum of £i 
 a day. In addition to this their morals are 
 carefully scrutinized. A woman cannot give 
 her husband a black eye without Mr. Ford 
 being 'phoned up, and he at once adjusts the 
 domestic difference. The number of work- 
 men is about 50,000 and the daily pay-bill 
 amounts to at least £50,000. 
 
 Mr. Ford is now out to win the war and 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 77 
 
 has quite voluntarily and unostentatiously 
 cut down his own income to what must be 
 an almost starvation rate for a multi-mil- 
 lionaire; I forget to how many hundred thou- 
 sand pounds he reduced his annual income. 
 
 Mid-day we left for Ann Arbor and here 
 we spent a delightful four-and-twenty hours. 
 One of the most inspiring sights we had seen 
 was the march past of some two or three 
 thousand students in khaki and in sailors' kit. 
 They were simply splendid as they moved to 
 the tune of the Michigan march familiar to 
 our ears through Sousa's Band. Ann Arbor 
 is the oldest and most renowned of the 
 State Universities in the Middle West, and 
 it was with peculiar pleasure and pride that 
 we received at the hands of the genial and 
 friendly President the distinction of Honor- 
 ary Degrees. The ceremony was simple and 
 very dignified. We were each presented in 
 short, but graceful, speeches by the Profes- 
 
78 The Voyage of 
 
 sor of Philosophy spoken in English. Latin 
 would have saved many of our blushes. 
 
 I was interested to learn that the Univer- 
 sity employs five "whole-time" doctors to 
 look after the health of the students. For 
 the payment of $5 a year each student re- 
 ceives free medical attendance, free medicine 
 and free treatment at one of the University 
 hospitals. Ann Arbor has a very large medi- 
 cal school. 
 
 Thursday, November 7th 
 
 We are living altogether too fast and 
 I doubt whether we can stand the strain, so 
 many things happen and all at once. The 
 barber told me this morning that Ohio had 
 gone wet or dry, I forget which, but as we 
 go all round, but not into, Ohio it does not 
 much matter. These constant and sudden 
 changes in the humidity of large tracts of 
 land must of course affect the conditions of 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 79 
 
 a large section of the population, but in what 
 way is a matter of dispute. Russia went dry 
 about three years ago, but the Muscovite mil- 
 lennium still tarries. 
 
 Then they say Mr. Ford is not elected 
 Senator; yet he had a lot in his favour — 
 unlimited and moral workmen, innumerable 
 motor-cars, and he is, they tell me, a republi- 
 can on a democratic ticket; "carrying water 
 on both shoulders," as they say here. In our 
 country such arguments would have proved 
 irresistible. 
 
 A son has been bom to the chauffeur of 
 our host. He is radiant and quite unrespon- 
 sive to talks of armistice. To him, if he 
 clearly understands what it is, an armistice 
 seems a long way off and very intangible, 
 whilst he can see and hear, and if his wife 
 will let him, touch his little babe. 
 
 Then as a climax, "Peace" was declared 
 at about 1.30 p.m. Ann Arbor is a small 
 place and took the news calmly. The corner 
 
8o The Voyage of 
 
 boy, almost an extinct mammal, continued to 
 decorate his comer undismayed. But it was 
 otherwise on the train. Passengers from 
 Detroit told us that all work had ceased, all 
 the factories had emptied, all the whistles 
 and hooters were whistling and hooting, and 
 all the flags were flying. The news seemed 
 so overwhelming that it interfered with rea- 
 son. Of course, Peace couldn't and didn't 
 come like this, but the only one on the train 
 who showed a reasonable appreciation of 
 events was the elderly conductor who said to 
 me in an inimitable drawl : "Yes, sir, we're 
 celebrating the news of Peace on every sec- 
 tion of this line, hut it ain't confirmed^ 
 
 At Kalamazoo we were joined by three 
 beautifully dressed ladies. On hearing the 
 news they had hurried into their most 
 splendid creations and their most ravishing 
 toques and were on their way to join in the 
 peace celebration in Chicago, which they 
 opined would be on a great scale. When 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 8 1 
 
 some kindly Professors boarded the train and 
 told us that the news was, to say the least, 
 premature, we gently broke it to the ladies. 
 They showed no disappointment and little 
 surprise, indeed they laughed merrily. So 
 great is the moral effect of really beautiful 
 clothes and so sustaining is the consciousness 
 of being the best dressed women in the 
 crowd ! It affords a striking example of the 
 triumph of matter over mind. 
 
 The kindness of our hosts — and to us the 
 whole nation seem to be our hosts — is inex- 
 haustible. Everywhere we go we are expect- 
 ed and helped through. The very custom 
 houses open their doors for us and the Reve- 
 nue officers won't even glance at our luggage. 
 The railway authorities had sent to our train 
 to help us on our way to Chicago a very able 
 and really interesting young official who was 
 courtesy itself. He told us that but a few 
 years ago he had been in an orchestra where 
 he played the drum. I am unfortunately 
 
82 The Voyage of 
 
 immune to music, but it sticks in my mind 
 that Dan Godfrey once told me that he who 
 plays the drum must have a great sense for, 
 and appreciation of, "time." This quality 
 may account for the rapid career of our 
 friend in the Railway World. I hope he 
 will in time rise to be President of the Line. 
 I am sure he would be a good one. 
 
 We arrived in Chicago in a deluge of 
 rain and saw what remained of the celebra- 
 tion. We were soon housed in the luxurious 
 and comfortable University Club and "so 
 to bed." 
 
 Friday, November 8th 
 
 We spent to-day at the University of 
 Chicago. This is one of the youngest, one 
 of the most original of the United States 
 Universities. Youth accounts for much of 
 this originality. President Harper — he was 
 President of Chicago when first I visited it 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 83 
 
 — accounted for more. Youth is also respon- 
 sible for the fact that though at other centres 
 there may be single edifices more stately and , 
 more beautiful than any at Chicago, it is, as 
 regards its buildings, one of the most com- 
 plete and most uniform of all American Uni- 
 versities. Like the Unities of the Drama, as 
 expounded by Mr. Curdle to Nicholas Nick- 
 leby, it combines "a completeness — a kind 
 of universal dovetailedness with regard to 
 place and time — a sort of general oneness, if 
 I may be allowed to use so strong an expres- 
 sion." 
 
 The President of the University is away 
 in Persia and it is interesting to note that en 
 route he went chasing all the way from Lon- 
 don up the Scapa Flow to ask the Admiral of 
 the Grand Fleet and his wife, nee Marshall 
 Field's daughter, to sign a legal document 
 empowering the University to purchase a 
 small alley-way which somehow stood in the 
 way of the extension of the already ample 
 
84 The Voyage of 
 
 University campus. In his absence we were 
 hospitably entertained by his wife and the 
 acting President. 
 
 We had a helpful conference during the 
 afternoon with the Faculty in the Ida Noyes 
 Building, the home of the lady students, but 
 it is not fair to expect a lot of newcomers to 
 confer in a room decorated, as this was, with 
 the most charming of modern frescoes. We 
 couldn't help looking at all the graceful and 
 gorgeous young creatures depicted in them 
 and we were, I fear, more interested in them 
 than in the exchange of Professors and Stu- 
 dents. Why can't we exchange frescoes'? 
 Later we dined in the Hall of the same in- 
 stitution and all made speeches. 
 
 Saturday, November 9th 
 
 To-day we journeyed through the 
 corn-fields and over the coal-iields to 
 Champagne-Urbana to visit the great Illi- 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 85 
 
 nois State University — one of the biggest 
 and most rapidly growing of these institu- 
 tions under State control. Stretching through 
 some forty-six of the forty-eight States, 
 with an aggregate of 1 75,000 students, these 
 State-aided Institutions are a power in the 
 land. Their trustees are nominated by the 
 Governor or the Mayor or are elected at 
 the same time and by the same electoral 
 body as the State legislature, and so little do 
 they fear the interference of the politician 
 that the President of one of the best-known 
 of them said to us "they would feel kind 
 of lonesome without it." After visiting the 
 well-known horticultural branch of the Uni- 
 versity we were welcomed by addresses and 
 other recitations, and tried to make suitable 
 replies to some two or three thousand stu- 
 dents and professors from a background of 
 four fair ladies representing respectively the 
 United States, Illinois, Great Britain and 
 
86 The Voyage of 
 
 Canada. In the evening we returned to 
 Chicago. 
 
 WTiilst we were away the Boy had been 
 to a football match between Michigan and 
 Chicago — Michigan won — and came back 
 full of College yells. 
 
 Sunday, November loth 
 
 We went a long drive along the 
 North Shore and then visited the Academy 
 of Fine Art. Amongst many priceless pos- 
 sessions is a whole room filled with Monets ! 
 
 Monday, November nth 
 
 *Teace hath murdered Sleep." 
 Hardly had we dozed off than we were 
 awakened at 2 a.m. by a most infernal din. 
 "Peace," as they will call an armistice, 
 seemed to have been declared again. We 
 were naturally sceptical, but being sceptical 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 87 
 
 in bed whilst a million and a half were cred- 
 ulous outside doesn't bring sleep. 
 
 The noise was overwhelming. All that 
 night and all next day and most of the next 
 night the hooters hooted, the whistles whis- 
 tled, the syrens syrened, brass utensils 
 brayed, tin-trumpets trumpeted, the people 
 yelled, the motors rushed about with tin-can 
 accompaniments, boys banged bones, grown- 
 up men frantically beat iron telegraph posts 
 with crow-bars ; every conceivable instrument 
 was beaten, brayed or blown, but the hooters 
 were the worst. They seemed to have an un- 
 canny quality about them and as they 
 .moaned and boomed and shrieked they 
 seemed to come into your room and you felt 
 as though you could touch them. The pa- 
 rading people were excited, but good-natured 
 and friendly. An elderly divine who took 
 part in these nocturnal celebrations told us 
 next morning that quite respectable ladies 
 had put feathers down his neck; he added 
 
88 The Voyage of 
 
 that after a time "one got quite used to it." 
 In the morning this noise increased. 
 Thousands of lorries and motors pervaded 
 the city packed with children and women, 
 the latter by now beginning to look like Sis- 
 ters of Mercy after a bump-supper. A pecu- 
 liar manifestation of the enthusiasm of the 
 people was the casting forth from every win- 
 dow innumerable scraps of paper — I believe 
 the Telephone Directories suffered most — 
 which blackened the skies and whitened the 
 ground. It cost the City of New York 
 $85,000 to clear up their paper litter after 
 their dress-rehearsal last Thursday ! 
 
 To-day we visited the North Western 
 University. Like many others, it has certain 
 of its Departments in the City, such as the 
 Medical, the Commercial, the Dental, and 
 the Legal. We had time only to visit the 
 last two and found them well equipped and 
 well staffed. There is even in the last- 
 named a replica of a Law Court, and here 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 89 
 
 the students try cases. I don't know whether 
 I am more afraid of dentists or of lawyers; 
 I suppose one is a physical and the other a 
 moral fear, but I was glad to find myself on 
 the way to Evanston, some twelve miles 
 north of Chicago, where the main buildings 
 of the North Western State University are 
 situate. Our progress was impeded by pa- 
 rades; all the schools, all the organized So- 
 cieties paraded and all made as much noise 
 as they could. Finally, however, we arrived 
 at the Campus, beautifully placed on the 
 shores of the lake. We found here the same 
 freshness of view, and belief in the future, 
 the same numerous staff and adequate equip- 
 ment that we had found elsewhere ; but there 
 seems always some novel and original feature 
 in each new institution we visit, and at the 
 North Western University we found a large 
 building entirely devoted to Oratory. Any 
 future Mission to this country, before em- 
 barking on its career of speeches, might well 
 
90 The Voyage of 
 
 take a short course of Orator)^ at Evanston. 
 After a comforting lunch at the charming 
 University Club, which was somewhat pro- 
 longed by all of us making speeches, we re- 
 turned to Chicago. 
 
 We dined this evening with the Associa- 
 tion of the Presidents of State Universities. 
 I was so tired that, like the late Lord Hart- 
 ington, I nearly fell asleep during my own 
 speech and I could not help dozing off again 
 and again during those of my colleagues. 
 Each time I lost consciousness I had a strange 
 nightmare and it recurred again and again. 
 I dreamed that I had heard it all before. 
 
 Tuesday, November 12th 
 
 It is difficult to recount the proceed- 
 ings of last night, so I take refuge in an ex- 
 cerpt from the sober columns of the Tribune: 
 
 Delirium and license disputed the rule of 
 Chicago's streets last night. The mad revel of 
 the day approached an orgy last night. 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 91 
 
 The wild celebration that had raged since the 
 darkness of the early morning hours of Monday 
 ended in hysteria in the early morning hours of 
 Tuesday. Before midnight good natured rowdy- 
 ism had become general.^ 
 
 The members of the University Club 
 where we were lodged, whose hospitality is 
 boundless, gave us a sumptuous lunch in their 
 great dining-room which is a replica of Cros- 
 by Hall seen under a magnifying lens. The 
 speeches were few, but good. 
 
 In the afternoon we attended a meeting 
 of the Presidents of State Universities and 
 amongst other good things heard a masterly 
 and witty address from the President of 
 Berkeley University. 
 
 Wednesday, November 13th 
 
 We left before eight in the morning 
 for Madison which is the capital of Wiscon- 
 sin and the seat of one of the best-known and 
 
 ^Chicago Daily Tribune, 12. xi. 18. 
 
92 The Voyage of 
 
 most celebrated of the State Universities of 
 the Middle West. The University is set on a 
 hill and a mile to the north on another hill 
 the world-famed Capitol is set. The latter is 
 built of a white granite, resembling marble. 
 "The white Vermont (?) marble used at 
 Washington and elsewhere is a granite of 
 medium grain ; the constitutents of which are 
 normal in so far that they are quartz, mica 
 and feldspar. Generally, one or more of 
 these constituents (most often the mica) are 
 coloured — in this case all are colourless: the 
 mica being quite colourless — probably mus- 
 covite." The building is cruciform and 
 crowned by a dome as noble as that of St. 
 Paul's would be if the latter were cleaned; it 
 is also a trifle higher. 
 
 Many of the professors hold executive 
 positions under the Government and this 
 happy combination of knowledge with state- 
 craft seems to promote the welfare both of 
 the commonwealth and of the University. 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 93 
 
 The weather was perfect, the sun blazing 
 hot and the air as crisp as Switzerland's. We 
 went an enchanting drive along the shores of 
 the two lakes, Mendota and Monona, which 
 flank the two hills; their waters are as blue 
 as those of the Grotto at Capri. We then 
 attended a conference, important and heart- 
 ening, but it hindered me from seeing all but 
 the tail of a most brilliant sunset. The Boy 
 saw it all and I was jealous. 
 
 We had a banquet with speeches in the 
 evening in the spacious dining-room of the 
 Madison Club where we are being housed. 
 It is a delightful home and never have any 
 of us revelled so much in perfect quiet and 
 perfect views. 
 
 Thursday, November 14th 
 
 The Boy and I visited a few of the 
 many Departments of the University, the 
 Zoological, Botanical and Geological Labora- 
 
94 The Voyage of 
 
 tories, and those of the Institutes of Plant 
 Physiology and Plant Pathology. At Madi- 
 son I saw the results of certain experiments 
 which seemed to prove the inheritance of 
 acquired characters, so often doubted. The 
 experiments are not completed and, of 
 course, there may be some flaw in the de- 
 ductions, but to me they seemed conclusive, 
 at any rate for the four generations which 
 up till now form the basis of the experiment. 
 After a delightful lunch at the Club we vis- 
 ited some of the many Departments of the 
 College of Agriculture. After dining with 
 the President of the University, we left for 
 Minneapolis. 
 
 They do not pay in this country — or in 
 any other — their Professors or their Univer- 
 sity Presidents enough. Perhaps it is be- 
 cause there are so many of them. At Uni- 
 versities not perceptibly larger than Cam- 
 bridge the teaching staff is bigger than our 
 whole Electoral Roll. The stipends of the 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 95 
 
 teachers are as low as, in some cases even 
 lower than, in Great Britain, and yet in nor- 
 mal times the expense of living is higher. 
 Well it is the old, old story: "The cheapest 
 thing going to-day," says the Satirist, ''is 
 education." '1 pay my cook," said Crates, 
 "four pounds a year; but a philosopher can 
 be hired for about sixpence and a tutor for 
 three half-pence." "So to-day," writes Eras- 
 mus, "a man stands aghast at the thought of 
 paying for his boy's education a sum which 
 would buy a foal or hire a farm-servant." 
 "Frugality I it is another name for madness!" 
 
 Friday, November 15th 
 
 At 10.30 A.M. we were received at 
 the Minnesota State University, Minneapo- 
 lis, at a Convocation held in the Armoury, 
 no other building being large enough to seat 
 the thousands who had come to welcome us. 
 There were addresses, and three of us made 
 
96 The Voyage of 
 
 speeches which were listened to with the ut- 
 most patience and sympathy, but the ''note" 
 of the ceremony was the music supplied by 
 the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. This 
 was really magnificent. 
 
 The Boy and I stayed with the President 
 of the University and his family, who, like 
 all our hosts, were most kind in seeing that 
 we had some sorely needed rest. In the late 
 afternoon we had a very "nourishing" dis- 
 cussion with the Faculty and the executive 
 officers and made a few short speeches after 
 dining with them in the Ladies' Building. 
 
 Saturday, November i6th 
 
 I visited the Zoological Department 
 and found amongst its many admirable 
 features an aquarium half as large as that of 
 the Marine Biological Association at Plym- 
 outh, a "beavery" where young beavers 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 97 
 
 were building dams, and a Cinematograph 
 Theatre fully equipped. The teachers make 
 their own "movie" films. After a most pleas- 
 ant luncheon with many of the Professors, 
 the Boy went to a Wisconsin v. Minnesota 
 football match. I did not, my attitude to- 
 wards athletics being that of the Rhodes 
 scholar whose certificate from his home Uni- 
 versity testified that "whilst he excelled in 
 none he was sympathetic towards all." 
 
 In the evening a reception took place in 
 our honour at the University President's 
 House. We were introduced to, and shook 
 hands with, some twelve hundred guests. 
 This took some hours and the net result was 
 that whilst our reason reeled, we seemed to 
 have given pleasure to a great crowd of kind- 
 ly folk; at any rate they were polite enough 
 to say so. 
 
98 The Voyage of 
 
 Sunday, November 17th 
 
 In the morning I visited a famous 
 private Art Collection with some wonderful 
 Chinese curios and some fine pictures rather 
 weakened by a number of quite mediocre 
 paintings. 
 
 This city, though slightly south of Ottawa 
 and Montreal and very slightly east of Des 
 Moines, — it is on the 45° parallel, — is the 
 most northerly and, until we reach Houston, 
 Texas, the most westerly point of our jour- 
 ney. We now turn south and "nightly pitch 
 our moving tent a day's march nearer home." 
 
 This afternoon I came across a couple of 
 letters written by two Rulers on the same 
 subject, but in different tones: 
 
 A New York Times correspondent sends from 
 Paris the text of a letter written by the Kaiser to 
 a German woman who has lost nine sons in the 
 war. It is interesting, because of its contrast to the 
 letter of President Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby during 
 the American Civil War. The two letters follow: 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 
 
 99 
 
 THE KAISER'S LETTER 
 
 Mis Majesty the Kaiser 
 hears that you have sacri- 
 ficed nine sons in defence 
 of the Fatherland in the 
 present war. His Majesty 
 is immensely gratified at 
 the fact, and in recognition 
 is pleased to send you his 
 photograph, with frame 
 and autograph signature. 
 
 LINCOLN'S LETTER 
 
 Dear Madam: I have 
 been shown in the files of 
 the War Department a 
 statement of the Adjutant 
 General of Massachusetts 
 that you are the mother of 
 five sons who have died 
 gloriously on the field of 
 battle. I feel how weak 
 and fruitless must be any 
 words of mine which should 
 attempt to beguile you from 
 the grief of a loss so over- 
 whelming. But I cannot 
 refrain from tendering to 
 you the consolation that 
 may be found in the thanks 
 of the Republic they died 
 to save. I pray that our 
 Heavenly Father may as- 
 suage the anguish of your 
 bereavement and leave you 
 only the cherished memory 
 of the loved and lost, and 
 the solemn pride that must 
 be yours to have laid so 
 costly a sacrifice upon the 
 altar of freedom»- 
 
 In the evening we boarded the train for 
 Des Moines, Iowa. The first two or three 
 hours were somewhat disturbed by the train 
 developing a sort of rhythmic, mechanical 
 hiccough on a large scale, but in time it found 
 relief and we sleep. 
 
100 The Voyage of 
 
 Monday, November i8th 
 
 We were rather apprehensive about 
 visiting Iowa, as some lowans we had 
 met in Minneapolis were so devoted to lib- 
 erty that they seemed anxious to add to their 
 own stock by taking it away from everyone 
 else. However, Iowa turned out to be all 
 right. 
 
 The object of our going to Des Moines 
 was to visit the State College of Agriculture 
 and Mechanic Arts at Ames, some thirty- 
 five miles north of the Capital City. Here 
 we split up into parties and I found it im- 
 possible to visit more than the Veterinary 
 School and the Entomological Department. 
 In the latter I went through part of a well- 
 known Collection of Mites and here I met 
 with the first instance I had ever come 
 across of a pathogenic organism conveyed to 
 a plant (the beetroot) by the bite of an in- 
 sect (a Leaf-hopper, Eutettix tenella Baker). 
 
A Vice-Chancellor loi 
 
 This "is the first plant disease definitely de- 
 termined to be entirely dependent upon a 
 specific insect for transmission." Like the 
 Yellow-fever pathogenic organism, and ap- 
 parently that which causes the modern influ- 
 enza and many other of our troubles, that of 
 the "Curly-leaf-disease" of Beets is ultra- 
 microscopic. The insect only conveys the 
 disease if it has fed upon a diseased beet, but 
 a single bite of an infected leaf-hopper will 
 infect the whole plant, and the disease only 
 occurs in the beet when bitten by this one 
 species of insect, and it takes two weeks after 
 the puncture to develop. Further, the insect 
 is not capable of conveying the disease at 
 once, it must have an incubation period with- 
 in the body of the insect of at least twenty- 
 four hours, often forty-eight. Thus this dis- 
 ease runs a course very similar to that of 
 insect-borne protozoal diseases in animals. 
 A somewhat similar history is now being 
 worked out in a potato disease. These re- 
 
102 The Voyage of 
 
 searches at Ames Agricultural College, Iowa, 
 open up an entirely new field in plant pa- 
 thology and will in all probability prove of 
 the greatest economic value to the agricul- 
 turist. 
 
 The members of the Des Moines Club put 
 us up during our stay in the Capital City and 
 in the evening gave us one of the best din- 
 ners we had received in this land of dinners. 
 We left them feeling as the tablets say in 
 our re-decorated churches, "enlarged, re- 
 stored and beautified," and making our way 
 to the train, left for St. Louis. 
 
 Tuesday, November 19th 
 
 The Chancellor and the authorities of 
 the University, dedicated to the memory of 
 that great Englishman, George Washington, 
 at St. Louis, were most considerate and, 
 though placing themselves wholly at our dis- 
 posal, left much of the time to ourselves. 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 103 
 
 Washington University is finely situate on 
 rising ground with spacious views, some five 
 miles from the city. It is approached through 
 a fine park, the site of the World's Fair in 
 1904. The entrance is both beautiful and 
 imposing, a broad series of low steps leading 
 up to the central gateway. All the buildings 
 were planned by one architect, all are built of 
 the same red granite — a local stone — and in 
 the same style, so that here, even as much as 
 at Chicago, the Campus has a unified charm 
 rare in Western Universities. The Faculty 
 gave us a sumptuous dinner, and although we 
 said we would not make speeches, but would 
 only just say "a word or two," at the end the 
 Chancellor said he trembled to think what 
 would have happened if we had made 
 speeches. 
 
 Wednesday, November 20th 
 
 We spent the morning at the Medical 
 School and Hospital. These two institu- 
 
104 The Voyage of 
 
 tions are practically one, and only some four 
 years old. Everything is of the best and 
 only to be equalled by such modern temples 
 of healing as that of the University of Cin- 
 cinnati, where, curiously enough, the Mayor 
 of the town appoints the members of the 
 Board of Regents. Such a complete hospital 
 with a medical school at its disposal, or such 
 a complete medical school with a hospital at 
 its disposal — one does not quite know which 
 way to put it — is unknown with us. Every 
 patient can be analysed, measured, rayed, 
 tested, in fact inspected with all the latest 
 appliances of science, and the medical stu- 
 dent is trained in all these processes; but 
 when he becomes the practising doctor in 
 some small town or remote village, what can 
 he do in this way even though (and this is 
 never the case) his patient could afford such 
 refined treatment? Well, he must just do 
 the best he can and must not envy the more 
 fortunate folk at St. Louis. 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 105 
 
 We are beginning to come across the prob- 
 lem of the coloured people. At Chicago 
 black and white lie in the same wards, but 
 at St. Louis these patients do not mingle be- 
 yond the out-patient department, and far- 
 ther south they do not mingle at all. 
 
 The black troops have fought gallantly. 
 The Germans have complained about our 
 lighting with coloured troops, but they have 
 done far worse, they have been fighting 
 with German troops. The other day a darkie 
 soldier tried to break out of a camp in the 
 South to see his folk, and after a lengthy 
 dispute with the sentry, who told him he 
 would be shot if he persisted, he replied, 
 "Boss, t'ain' no sort o' use you stan'in' dere, 
 'cause I gwine out. I got a maw in Hebben 
 an' I got a pa in Hell an' a sister in Mem- 
 phis, an' I gwine see one of 'em dis night." 
 
 Later in the day we visited the Missouri 
 Botanical Garden, presented and endowed 
 by an Englishman, Mr. Henry Shaw, who 
 
io6 The Voyage of 
 
 had made a large fortune in hardware. The 
 gardens cover an area of 125 acres, and 
 there are grown some 11,000 species of 
 plants. The hot-houses are very fine, espe- 
 cially those devoted to heaths, orchids, 
 cycads, palms and pineapples and the flora of 
 the desert. One house was full of a Chrys- 
 anthemum show, the most interesting plant 
 in which was the ur-chrysanthemum (C. 
 indicum Linn. — ^partim — or C. mori folium 
 Ram.), from which all modem forms are 
 derived. It has an exceedingly beautiful 
 though small blossom, and one could not but 
 regret that the horticulturists had not left the 
 lovely blossom alone, instead of breeding it 
 into many-coloured monsters, which so singu- 
 larly mimic their own paper imitations. 
 
 In the evening we left for Lexington, 
 Kentucky. 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 107 
 Thursday, November 21st 
 
 Everywhere had we been received 
 well and more than well, but at Lexington 
 there was a warm-heartedness about our 
 hosts which made us feel at once inhabitants 
 of "My old Kentucky home." We motored 
 out some twenty miles to the Shaker 
 Village, where we fed on the dishes of the 
 South, and very good dishes too, in a stately 
 house with well-proportioned rooms, with a 
 fine hall and ample staircase, and the date 
 1817 over the lintel of the front door. On 
 the road we passed, what we had not passed 
 before, the homes of country gentlemen who 
 live in them, and do not merely sleep a 
 "week-end" in them. Here they breed race- 
 horses and race them, and raise tobacco and 
 smoke it; in fact, Lexington is both a social 
 and a trading centre. This possibly accounts 
 for the excellence of the first-rate hotel where 
 we were housed. 
 
io8 The Voyage of 
 
 On returning we saw something of the 
 University buildings, and inspected the Stu- 
 dents' Army Training Corps, now all eager 
 to get out of khaki. At dinner we were 
 cheered by nigger minstrelsy and by a mini- 
 mum of speeches. Afterwards we had a dis- 
 cussion with some of the Governors and 
 members of the Faculty. The value of these 
 discussions is always inversely proportional 
 to the size of the meeting. At Lexington the 
 meeting was small. 
 
 Friday, November 22nd 
 
 After a hurried visit to the University 
 Farm, where we were introduced to a hen 
 of unparalleled fecundity, and to the Schools 
 of Agriculture and Engineering, we left in 
 the morning for New Orleans, sorry to say 
 good-bye to Kentucky. 
 
 "The way of the transgressor is hard," 
 said the coal-merchant to me as we sat in the 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 109 
 
 minute smoking compartment of the observa- 
 tion car. "Last night," he continued, "I dis- 
 sipated some, and all this morning I've been 
 feeling mighty sick. Them folks that wrote 
 the old Bible were smart, Sir, they knew all 
 about human frailties, same as you and me." 
 
 I don't believe that I should have known 
 that he was a coal-merchant but that he in- 
 formed me that most folk liked to talk about 
 what they traded in, and he talked about 
 coal. He took a profound interest in a pile 
 of coal at one of the depots we halted at. 
 To me it seemed much the same as any other 
 coal-dump, and it only appealed to me as a 
 rather lavish display of what in my country 
 is a really rare mineral. The sight of a fun- 
 nel or chute for conveying the coal into the 
 trucks excited his enthusiasm. I suppose 
 there was some money-saving contrivance 
 in it which attracted him, but I confess, 
 whatever it was, it left me cold. 
 
 All the day and all the night we traversed 
 
no The Voyage of 
 
 Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, 
 until on — 
 
 Saturday, November 23rd 
 
 we pulled about noon into the depot 
 at New Orleans. Most of the morning we 
 had been crossing great arms of the sea, old 
 mouths of the Mississippi, but now known 
 as Lake Pontchartrain, or skirting inland 
 waterways, bayous. One wished we could 
 see a crocodile. 
 
 After all, there are only two species of 
 crocodile in North America, and one of these 
 is an alligator. We couldn't possibly see the 
 true crocodile (Crocodilus americanus Lau- 
 renti) as, though it extends from central 
 Mexico to Equador and the West Indian 
 Islands, in the States it lives only in the 
 waterways and the salt water marshes of the 
 southern tip of Florida. It is an agile, 
 vicious beast but no man-eater. More slen- 
 
A yice-Chancellor iii 
 
 der than the alligator and with a pointed 
 snout, it is much more active and swift in its 
 movements. Its colour changes as it ages, 
 but there is always more olive-green and gray 
 in its pigmentation than in that of the alliga- 
 tor. It was discovered only in 1875. "Oh! 
 What a • crocodilian year was that!" as 
 Francis Quarles exclaims in his "Emblems." 
 Quarks was a member of my College, 
 Christ's ! 
 
 The last-named (^Alligator mississippiensis 
 [Daudin]) has more yellow and black 
 patches and a broader head and snout. It 
 is usually said that its growth is slow, but 
 Ditmars' observations show that the growth 
 in length and in weight is comparatively 
 rapid. This alligator extends from North 
 Carolina to Florida and as far west as the 
 Rio Grande in Texas, frequenting the low 
 swamps and rivers of the coast. Un- 
 fortunately it is becoming extinct and the 
 discovery that its skin can be tanned and 
 
112 The Voyage of 
 
 made into leather for bags and purses is 
 hastening its disappearance. Two and a 
 half million were destroyed in the years 1880- 
 1894, chiefly for their skins. In the South 
 their eggs are also eaten, for, unfortunately 
 for the race, alligators lay very palatable 
 eggs and their nests are conspicuous and eas- 
 ily rifled. 
 
 Alone amongst reptiles the alligator roars. 
 Other reptiles hiss but the 'gator, as the 
 coloured folk call him, emits a bellow which 
 in the still night of the South carries a mile 
 or more. The voice of the young is as the 
 *'mooing" of a cow, but a big male, ten feet 
 or more in length, roars with a thunderous 
 and tremulous blast. He, at the same time, 
 emits from under his chin "fine steaming jets 
 of a powerful nasty smelling fluid" which 
 "float off into the heavy miasmatic atmo- 
 sphere of the bayou." The odour may be 
 carried for miles and to the negroes it always 
 signifies "a big oV 'gator." 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 113 
 
 On arriving at the Depot at New Orleans 
 we left immediately for Tulane University 
 and en route some of us must have fallen in 
 with a reporter. Hitherto I have shown a 
 certain reticence about the members of our 
 Commission, but now all is discovered! 
 
 The New Orleans Item has given us away, 
 given us away rather too generously. I 
 quote from its classic columns: 
 
 BRITISH [DUCATORS VISIT NEWCOMB 
 WITH DINWIDDIE 
 
 "TUBBING" IS PART Of BRITISHERS' PRELIMINARIES TOR 
 TOUR Of CITY 
 
 The British University Mission — which was 
 heralded as the British Education Mission, an er- 
 ror, as the members have to do only with college 
 and university work — arrived in New Orleans, 
 Saturday shortly after noon, and after a short stay 
 at the Griinewald for the "tubbing," which consti- 
 tutes as much of British formality as any of their 
 other national customs, were driven to Tulane Uni- 
 versity by Capt. Edith Haspel and Corporal Flower 
 
114 Th^ Voyage of 
 
 of the Emergency Motor Corps of the American 
 Red Cross. 
 
 "Oh, I say," said Sir H J , seeing the 
 
 Red Cross insignia on the cap of Captain Haspel, 
 "You're not going to take us to a hospital? 
 Whatr' 
 
 But it was to Newcomb that the party of British 
 educators went after a short stay at the hotel. Dr. 
 Dinwiddle of Tulane and Dr. Pierce Butler of 
 Newcomb met the party at the station and accom- 
 panied the five members of the mission to a lunch- 
 eon that had been arranged, prepared and served 
 by members of the domestic science class of New- 
 comb College. 
 
 "Chilly, Eh Wot?" 
 
 As the automobile sped up St. Charles avenue. 
 
 Reverend E W , Fellow and Tutor of 
 
 Queen's College, Oxford, Member of the Heb- 
 domadal History (sic), leaned close to Dr. J 
 
 J , Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, 
 
 Trinity College, Dublin, and said : 
 
 "It's beastly chilly. Eh Doctor?" 
 
 "Quite so, my dear Doctor, I had expected a 
 much milder climate, something like Capri, what?" 
 
 "Righto !" 
 
 Dr. Dinwiddle explained that this was severe 
 weather for the early winter, but the disappoint- 
 ment was evident in Dr. W 's face. It is the 
 
 winter, but the disappointment of the doctor's first 
 trip to America, and his impressions are varied. 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 115 
 
 "I rather expected to see life of a more tropical 
 nature," he said, "are there no fruits at this time of 
 year, no bananas ? I had expected to see monkeys, 
 and other tropical animals here — I am quite dis- 
 appointed, you know!" 
 
 Nenv Orleans Item. 
 25. xi. 18. 
 
 "SOLDIER LOSES BUTTON" 
 
 Sir A S ^ has with him a Secretary, a 
 
 young English soldier, blue-eyed, blond^ and big. 
 Shivers of excitement were noticed among the girls 
 of Newcomb when he appeared among the older 
 
 members of the Mission. But Lieut. N was 
 
 worried. "I'm in a deuce of a predicament," he 
 said, "I've lost a button from my uniform and it 
 makes me feel so undressed, you know " 
 
 "Suppose," said Dr. Dinwiddie, "that we have 
 one of the young ladies sew it on for you." 
 
 "I should be most pleased," said Lieut. N , 
 
 and presently he was led away in quest of a 
 needle, thread and a girP attached. 
 
 "Isn't it odd?" said Dr. S when Lieut. 
 
 N returned beaming with the glint of an in- 
 ternational romance in his blue eye, "I, too, have 
 lost a button !" 
 
 *The kindly Southerner often grants honours which 
 are quite unmerited. 
 
 ^ He has black hair and dark eyes but something must 
 be sacrificed to alliteration. 
 
 ®A friendly negress of mature charms. 
 
ii6 The Voyage of 
 
 We lunched as usual in the Ladies' 
 College, called after Miss H. S. Newcomb. 
 We saw something of the several depart- 
 ments, and in that of Household Economy 
 I had just time to copy from the black- 
 board some recipes for salads, oyster-cock- 
 tails, and other comforts before being hurried 
 along to chemistry. Whilst eating the ad- 
 mirable "gumbo," a sort of bouilleabaisse 
 but less fishy, prepared by the students, I 
 congratulated myself that I had done so. 
 We made a few speeches, and were especially 
 interested in one by the Dean of Newcomb 
 Hall, and one by the Professor of Engineer- 
 ing who was trained at Annapolis, and told 
 us of the part our Admiralty had played in 
 training the men who built up the American 
 Navy. 
 
 The Art School at Newcomb College is 
 outstanding. The Director is a gifted artist. 
 As in many other American Universities, 
 ceramics take a leading part in the art 
 
A y ice-Chancellor 117 
 
 students' course, but embroidery, church vest- 
 ments, metal work, and jewellery are also 
 studied, besides painting and modelling. A 
 student with a taste for any of the so-called 
 "Arts and Crafts" can pay her way through 
 College after her sophomore year and has 
 no difficulty in making a living after grad- 
 uating. Indeed, the Dean of Newcomb 
 College told us he could "place'' double the 
 number of graduates were the College twice 
 as big. 
 
 We are on the 30 parallel, well south of 
 the Canary Islands and of Cairo, yet it is 
 cold, bleak and, worst of all, wet. In spite 
 of this, I was able to see enough of the city 
 to prove in my eyes it is the most beautiful 
 of the many cities I have visited in the 
 United States during the last thirty-two 
 years. The wonderful avenues with grass 
 down the middle, and palms down the sides, 
 the luxurious gardens which form a setting 
 for the houses of the well-to-do, all open 
 
Ii8 The Voyage of 
 
 to the public gaze, make a whole which, 
 to one with a soul inclining as Lowell says 
 "to the southern slope," is irresistible. 
 
 We dined with the President of Tulane 
 and heard some charming negro melodies, 
 mostly of the revivalist sort. Just now 
 "negro-spirituals" are the fashion, especially 
 in the North. 
 
 Some of the experiences of the darkie at 
 the Front are striking. A bunch of corre- 
 spondents there came across a big black 
 Corporal suffering from the effects of high 
 explosives and asked what they could do to 
 help. "Well, suh, boss, I don' jess rightly 
 know whut ail me. Well, suh, yeh know, 
 dee sawnt us up yonder a little piece. We 
 wus dere fur two days wid dem big shells 
 jess bustin' up de town: and dee had tole 
 us to git under kiver when er shell come. 
 Well, suh, boss, I wus out dere, an' de 
 shells commence ter come an' I went fer to 
 git under kiver. Mos' all de houses wus 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 119 
 
 gone, blowed plumb down; but I seen one 
 dese here places whut de calls a Tavern — 
 you know, boss, dat means er saloon. Dey 
 wa'n't no folks in hit, but I jess made up 
 my min' I wus gwine git in dat house. An' 
 I reach out my han' fer de door knob. An' 
 jess when I gits ready to open de do' — Blim 
 — Blim — Blooy — ^liere come er shell an' jess 
 tuck dat saloon out uv my han'." 
 
 During the evening we had an informal 
 talk at the Round Table Club and here we 
 met many interesting and leading citizens of 
 New Orleans. The President of Tulane is 
 a man of few words, but has a remarkable 
 power of hitting a nail on the head. He 
 certainly made us think as he pointed out 
 certain snags in our way. 
 
 Sunday, November 24th 
 
 To-day was glorious, bright sunshine 
 and clear air. The Boy and I visited the 
 
120 The Voyage of 
 
 French quarter and found it picturesque but 
 decayed. It simply exuded romance and 
 obviously we must all read George Cable's 
 stories all over again. We attended a 
 service at the Cathedral and then sat in the 
 sun and were daguerreotyped, and had a 
 group of piccaninnies similarly treated. I 
 had thought this was a dead art, but it isn't 
 and it was delightful tc see the old daguer- 
 reotypist fishing our pictures on little metal 
 plates by means of a magnet out of a pail 
 with some solution in it. The little darkies 
 guessed we were French and then Italian, 
 and their powers of speculation being by now 
 exhausted, we told them that we were 
 English. Immediately they took the Boy to 
 be the Prince of Wales and guessed he was 
 mighty glad to be out of that battle and 
 assured us that they would have felt the same 
 in similar circumstances. We also visited 
 the fruit market, a riot of colour. 
 
 In the afternoon we attended a conference 
 
A y ice-Chancellor 121 
 
 in the Gold Room of our Hotel, the most 
 charming feature of which was the beautiful 
 singing of our lady hostesses. 
 
 In the evening we left in a private car 
 for Houston, Texas. 
 
 Monday, November 25th 
 
 My ''Cambridge Pocket Diary" re- 
 cords that to-day the "Inns of Court Michael- 
 mas (Dining) Term ends." Such a statement 
 makes one feel homesick. It is so essentially 
 English. Surely in no other country in the 
 world could such an event happen. Princi- 
 palities and powers are tottering, crowns 
 are crashing and the "Inns of Court Michael- 
 mas (Dining) Term ends" on the normal 
 date. 
 
 The weather adds to our nostalgia for it 
 is foggy, wet and cold, not at all the weather 
 for the Hispano-moresque buildings of the 
 Rice Institution (by Cram) which demand a 
 blazing sun and blue sky. 
 
122 [The Voyage of 
 
 They are indeed wonderful buildings and 
 recalled Browning's lines: 
 
 A sort of temple — perhaps a college, 
 
 — Like nothing I ever saw before 
 
 At home in England, to my knowledge. 
 
 Christmas Eve and Easter Day, 
 
 After a formal reception in the Faculty 
 Chamber we lunched with the Mayor and 
 Municipality at the huge Rice Hotel, which 
 would be conspicuous even in New York. 
 Houston is a comparatively new city but its 
 enterprise is boundless. In the afternoon I 
 gave a lecture to a crowded audience on 
 ''The Depths of the Sea." The hearers were 
 very patient and very appreciative. 
 
 We are staying in a most charming house, 
 one of the most comfortable I have ever been 
 in, and one feels absolutely at home but with 
 superadded comforts. The flowers alone 
 are a joy after days of flawless hotels and 
 trains. In the evening there was a reception 
 and here we met the Governor of the State 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 123 
 
 and many others with whom we had all too 
 little time to talk. 
 
 Tuesday, November 26th 
 
 Conferences and lectures took up 
 much of the day but their rigour was 
 mitigated by a luncheon give us by the 
 Chamber of Commerce. I always like talking 
 to business men; somehow they seem more 
 easily pleased than their academic brothers. 
 The food controller of Texas gave a stimu- 
 lating address on the success of the efforts 
 made in this respect in the State, and some 
 striking statistics of the food shortage which 
 still obtains throughout the Old World. 
 A well-attended smoking concert at the 
 roomy University Club, with more short 
 addresses, closed a somewhat strenuous day. 
 
 Wednesday, November 27th 
 
 All the morning we held a series of 
 discussions and conferences on a "League 
 
124 The yoyage of 
 
 of Nations," a "Federation of Churches," 
 a "League of Learning." No one will 
 clearly define what the suggested "League 
 of Nations" is to be, and no one will tell 
 us if the Central Powers of Europe are to 
 be leaguers or not. After all, no one knows 
 whether there will be many nations in 
 what was Russia or many in what was 
 Germany, so the discussion is a little pre- 
 mature. Still, a good many find the phrase, 
 as the old lady found the word Mesopo- 
 tamia, helpful and soothing. 
 
 We lunched at the invitation of the City 
 Board . of Education at the South End 
 Junior High School. The Republic of 
 Texas (1836-48) split off from the mother 
 country Mexico for many reasons; one, and 
 this is surely unique amongst rebelling 
 States, was that the Central Government 
 did not supply the people with sufficient 
 public schools. This deficiency is now made 
 good, but generous as the tax-payer is to 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 125 
 
 education, it is difficult to keep pace with 
 the growth of the people and the deep-rooted 
 determination to educate their children. The 
 school where we found ourselves was a fine 
 building standing in spacious grounds. In- 
 side were wide corridors, ample staircases, 
 well-proportioned class-rooms, a magnificent 
 gymnasium and swimming bath. The care 
 of the body is only second, perhaps not 
 always second, to the care of the mind in 
 American schools and colleges. 
 
 Thursday, November 28th 
 
 Thanksgiving Day. 
 And very real thanksgivings were given 
 on this most memorable day. A spirit of 
 rest and relief was in the land. We have 
 been over here just fifty days, we have visited 
 about fifty Universities, we have travelled 
 some five thousand miles, and have met some 
 fifty thousand professors, or so it seemed tc 
 
126 The Voyage of 
 
 me, and we were tired and rather New- 
 World-wom. Hence we accepted the kind 
 invitation of our more than kind host and 
 took a couple of days off. We were rewarded 
 and our proceeding was sanctioned by the 
 weather, for we had a typical Texan day, a 
 warm sun, a cool but not cold day, and a 
 cloudless blue sky. 
 
 The officers of the 57th Regiment invited 
 me to a dinner and dance they were giving 
 to the General in command. It was an 
 admirably managed affair. The meal was 
 served on long tables set around the ball- 
 room and between each course the young 
 people danced to the music of the regimental 
 band. I felt quite like an ancient Roman. 
 
 Sydney Smith used to say that the highest 
 form of human happiness was "eating pate- 
 de-foie gras to the sound of trumpets." I 
 have never tried this, but I feel convinced 
 that eating pineapple-salad to the dance 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 127 
 
 music of the 57th Regiment's band makes a 
 very good second. 
 
 Friday, November 29th 
 
 After fixing up our tickets for the 
 journey to Boston I had time to visit the 
 hospital at the Logan Camp. The wards 
 are "open air" and the abundance of mos- 
 quito wiring was evidence of a trouble from 
 which we at home are almost free. The 
 kitchen, with every conceivable device to 
 save labour, was spotlessly clean and owing 
 to a native skill in cooking and an abundance 
 of most varied foods, the patients are better 
 fed than with us. 
 
 We felt sorry to leave Houston. Our 
 hosts were kind beyond measure. They all 
 conspired to make us feel we were not guests 
 but members and popular members of the 
 family, and they fully succeeded. We were 
 sorry to leave "the darkies," they were so 
 willing to help and so anxious to oblige. 
 
128 The Voyage of 
 
 As they told our hostess, they knew at once 
 we were English because they could not 
 understand a single word we said. Their 
 smile and general cheerfulness deserve many 
 marks. Their philosophy ought to teach us 
 a lesson. One who was asked why negroes 
 never commit suicide replied, "Well, Boss, 
 it's jes' lik' dis — White man sit down an' 
 worries about his troubles till he jes' goes 
 an' shoots hisself. Niggah sit down and 
 worries about his troubles an' jes' nachally 
 fall asleep." Surely the better way. 
 
 Saturday, November 30th 
 
 St. Andrew's Day. 
 We traversed half of Texas in the night, 
 and part of Louisiana; at New Orleans we 
 changed trains and Depots early in the morn- 
 ing and then we traversed Mississippi. Until. 
 we had left Mobile we were never far from 
 the Gulf, and we were passing through 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 129 
 
 scenery like that of the everglades of Florida. 
 We saw innumerable sluggish waterways, 
 turbid, almost stagnant, streams with low 
 muddy banks, the flat land clothed with a 
 tangle of sub-tropical vegetation, the trees, 
 never large, bearded with streamy lichens, 
 "Spanish-moss" as the term goes, stood out 
 of a matted impenetrable undergrowth still 
 green but so tired-looking I Except for the 
 buzzards, which are ubiquitous, we saw little 
 or no bird life. 
 
 Alabama provided us with such a sunset 
 as I have never before seen, not even in 
 South Africa or in Egypt. A vast continent 
 of molten gold, with opal lakes and inlets 
 of the sea, and here and there black patches 
 like cities set on their shores. No words can 
 describe it. Some one placed "in a golden 
 chair" had splashed "at a ten-league canvas 
 with brushes of comets' hair." It lasted fully 
 an hour, but only the Boy and the Knight 
 and I watched it. Its glory was concealed 
 
130 The Voyage of 
 
 from our fellow-travellers who for most part 
 slumbered and slept. 
 
 Sunday, December 1st 
 
 On a Pullman car one learns much 
 about the legislation of the several States. 
 The varying injunctions are printed on the 
 bills-of-fare and suggest fertile subjects of 
 conversation with one's fellow-travellers. 
 For instance, it is forbidden in Tennessee 
 and in Indiana to sell cigarettes. Apparently 
 one may buy them and the tobacco shops are 
 open and flourish, but their sale is forbidden. 
 We kept east of Tennessee and were quite a 
 long way off Indiana. In Georgia the Legis- 
 lature has forbidden all tipping, but we only 
 passed through a comer of Georgia and the 
 kindly railway authorities, ever mindful of 
 the welfare of their dining-car waiters, had 
 so arranged the time-table that we passed 
 through this comer between meals. 
 
 When I first arrived in New York, thirty- 
 
A yice-Chancellor 131 
 
 two years ago, I put up at the Windsor 
 Hotel, long since burned down. Tipping 
 was not very prevalent in those days. There 
 was a kind of attitude of a people "too 
 proud" to tip, though I have never actually 
 met anyone who refused to take one. Still, 
 you didn't tip the men who looked after your 
 hat whilst you were dining. These were very 
 wonderful men. They gave you no check, 
 and as you left the dining-room they prided 
 themselves on handing you back the right 
 hat. Coming out just before me a gentle- 
 man received a hat which made him exclaim : 
 "That's not my hat!" "I don't know whether 
 it's your hat or not," said the hat man, "it's 
 the hat you g've me !" Nowadays you very 
 soon spend the cost of your hat in gratifying 
 the hat-guardians if you lunch or dine in 
 restaurants or hotels at all frequently. 
 
 You now receive a check but the checking 
 is not so accurate as the batmen of the 
 'eighties. Coming away the other day after 
 
132 The Voyage of 
 
 lunch one heard a fellow-luncher saying to 
 his companion, "What on earth did you give 
 that fellow ten dollars for?" "Well, look at 
 that coat he has given me," was the response, 
 as the happy tipper exhibited a five-hundred 
 dollar fur-lined coat. 
 
 All through Georgia and the two Carolinas 
 the cotton crops were awaiting picking. 
 What with one thing and another the harvest 
 down south lasts half the year. We passed 
 a number of modern cotton factories en- 
 gaged, as the conductor told us, in the manu- 
 facture of "domestics." At Lynchburg, Va., 
 we bought some persimmons, but eating per- 
 simmons is to "snatch a fearful joy" and we 
 soon desisted. 
 
 Monday, December 2nd 
 
 Owing to engine trouble we were late 
 in reaching Washington; however we did 
 get there between 2 and 3 a.m., and found 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 133 
 
 the city, on the eve of the President's fare- 
 well address, fast asleep. During the morn- 
 ing we went shopping, saw some old friends 
 and some Senators. No matter where they 
 come from, Senators seem to acquire a certain 
 "facies" as zoologists term it, something 
 between that of a popular preacher and an 
 important tragedian. They are readily rec- 
 ognised by a systematist. 
 
 We visited the enormous grounds of the 
 Bureau of Standards, covered with countless 
 laboratories in which every conceivable 
 article used by the Government is tested and 
 analysed. We also saw the well-equipped 
 Zoological Gardens, open free to all, main- 
 tained "by the people and for the people." 
 
 In the evening we left for Boston, our 
 fourth consecutive night on the cars. 
 
 Tuesday, December 3rd 
 
 We were put up again in our old 
 home at Cambridge by the ever hospitable 
 
134 The Voyage of 
 
 President of Harvard and his kindly wife, 
 and were delighted to find there was for one 
 day nothing particular to do, and in the 
 words of the poet we "did it very well." 
 
 Wednesday, December 4th 
 
 This morning we attended the twen- 
 tieth Annual Meeting of the "Association 
 of American Universities" which consists of 
 the Presidents and certain of the Deans of 
 the several Universities. It is perhaps the 
 most important educational body we met, 
 and the discussions in which we took part 
 were on a high level. In the evening we 
 were hospitably entertained at the Harvard 
 Club. 
 
 The witty and good-humoured "sparring" 
 between the Presidents of two of the oldest 
 American Universities called to my mind in 
 an inverted sort of way a conversation 
 between two wealthy New Yorkers, both of 
 
A yice-Chancellor 135 
 
 whom were wedded to wives with social am- 
 bitions. "Is your wife entertaining this 
 season?" said one to the other, about Christ- 
 mas time; "Not very," was the sad reply. 
 
 Thursday, December 5th 
 
 Neither the Boy nor I have quite got 
 over our four days' continuous trip from 
 Texas to Massachusetts. He has been writ- 
 ing and reading most of the time and revel* 
 ling in certain rare early editions of Edgar 
 Allan Poe which he has found in the Harvard 
 University Library. I have felt so tired that 
 to-day I stopped in bed until tea-time. I feel 
 as Pinkerton did, "I want to lie on my back 
 in a garden and read Shakespeare and E. P. 
 Roe," only it's snowing outside. 
 
 This meeting of the "Association of Am- 
 erican Universities" is the last item of our 
 official programme and we rather character- 
 istically brought our Mission to an end by 
 
136 The Voyage of 
 
 cutting a Session of the Deans in the evening. 
 It was snowing heavily out-of-doors and we 
 stopped at home — for it is a home — turned 
 down the lights and told ghost stories. 
 
 This seems a suitable date to close this 
 diary. We shall have, by the time we reach 
 home, travelled about twice the diameter of 
 the earth, and everywhere we have met 
 friends, and nearly everywhere we had fine 
 weather, for the heavens smiled on our 
 Mission. 
 
 A highland minister, a mystic and a man 
 of blameless life, went out to the Front as 
 "padre" to a regiment largely recruited from 
 his district. He was one of those unhappy 
 mortals who believed that for him there was 
 no hope. Every now and then he could not 
 refrain from seeking human sympathy, and 
 one day, pouring out his troubles to a blue- 
 eyed subaltern, he ended his discourse by 
 saying, "I veritably believe I am the wicked- 
 est man in France." "Yes, Sir." said the 
 
A Vice-Chancellor 137 
 
 boy, "but you must remember what a deuce 
 of a good time you must have had." 
 
 I think we shall all go back to our country 
 remembering "what a deuce of a good time" 
 we have had. 
 
 And here, if I may quote the words of 
 the unknown author of the Maccabees: 
 
 And here will I make an end, 
 
 And if I have done well, and as is fitting the 
 story it is that which I desired, and if slenderly and 
 meanly, it is that which I could attain unto. . . . 
 And as wine mingled with water is pleasant and 
 delighteth the taste, even so speech, finely framed, 
 delighteth the ears of them that read the story. 
 
 And here shall be an end. 
 
University Education in 
 the United States 
 
University Education in 
 the United States 
 
 THE universities in America and 
 Canada have been built up on very 
 much the same plan, and what is 
 said in this article applies almost equally to 
 both the States and the Dominion. In their 
 constitution and staff they vary inter se as 
 much as do the universities of England, 
 Scotland, and Ireland. This is equally true 
 of their curricula and of their buildings. 
 
 Let us consider, in the first place, the 
 buildings. These are sometimes in the heart 
 of a big city, like Columbia University in 
 New York City, Chicago University, Yale in 
 New Haven, the University of Tulane in 
 New Orleans, Harvard in Cambridge, and 
 
 many others. Sometimes they are in small 
 141 
 
142 University Education in 
 
 towns hardly larger than villages, as in the 
 case of Princeton and the North-Westem 
 University at Evanston, Illinois, and the 
 University of Wisconsin at Madison. Some- 
 times the buildings are scattered over large 
 areas, and some of the departmental build- 
 ings may be separated from the main univer- 
 sity by many miles. At the North- Western 
 University just mentioned, the Schools of 
 Medicine and Law are situate in the heart of 
 Chicago, perhaps fifteen miles away from the 
 central institution. 
 
 As a rule the ground upon which the build- 
 ings are scattered is called the * 'campus," but 
 at Harvard it is known as the "yard," and a 
 Harvard man is as irritated by a stranger 
 calling his "yard" the "campus" as is a Cam- 
 bridge man when anyone applies to his 
 College "courts" the Oxford term "quads." 
 The size of the universities also differs great- 
 ly. There are some with seven, or even more, 
 thousand students. There are other institu- 
 
The United States 143 
 
 tions of university standing with only a few 
 hundreds. But no American is frightened by 
 size ; and some of the leading educationists in 
 the United States contemplate without a 
 qualm the growth of their institutions and 
 the number of their students until they reach 
 twenty or thirty, or even forty thousand. It 
 is not, however, easy to get at really definite 
 numbers, i.e., the number of students who 
 are actually reading for degrees. The Sum- 
 mer Courses, which are a great feature in 
 some universities, and do not exist at all in 
 others, swell these numbers; but the summer 
 visitor is seldom reading for a degree. 
 Indeed, I came across one lady who helped 
 in this direction by taking her "summer 
 course" of swimming in the really admirable 
 university swimming-baths in the heart of 
 one of the most heated cities of the Eastern 
 coast. 
 
 The older universities, such as Yale and 
 Harvard, have a certain pride of antiquity 
 
144 University Education in 
 
 and of race, and just as we are apt to say in 
 England, " He must be a Duke or he couldn't 
 afford to 'dress so shabbily,' " so they seem to 
 exhibit a certain indifference to appearances. 
 Some of their buildings are charming and 
 suitable, others struck one as wanting closing 
 *'for cleaning and 'repairs.' " They are scat- 
 tered about in great commercial cities, and 
 they almost necessarily lack unity of design. 
 Places like the University of Chicago and 
 the Washington University at St. Louis, or 
 the Rice Institute of Texas, have been built 
 at one time and by one architect, or at any 
 rate by one firm of architects, and they have 
 a unity in architecture and in proportion. 
 
 The Roman Catholic universities seem to 
 be particularly successful in selecting beauti- 
 ful sites, with wide vistas both of town and 
 country. They show an abiding faith, they 
 build for all time, and they will wait for 
 years to get the site they desire. Some of 
 the chapels and public rooms in these in- 
 
The United States 145 
 
 stitutlons are most charmingly decorated. 
 Some of the newly built universities, such 
 as Columbia, the Rice Institute in Texas 
 (for it is in effect a university), the Wash- 
 ington University at St. Louis, have very 
 noble approaches ; long spacious avenues, and 
 stately steps lead to their portals. Mechani- 
 cal locomotion is now so universal in America 
 that the authorities do not hesitate to "pitch 
 their tent" well out into the country, and 
 usually on a height with a commanding view. 
 The American is bold in his plans, and 
 buildings like the Massachusetts Technologi- 
 cal Institute or Harvard Medical School are 
 notable additions to the architecture of no- 
 table towns. As a rule within the buildings 
 the staircases and passages are wide and 
 spacious; elevators abound; and drinking 
 water is laid down which bubbles up at 
 frequent fountains. The dryness of the at- 
 mosphere in the rooms, which to the Euro- 
 pean seem very overheated, makes this pro- 
 
 10 
 
146 University Education in 
 
 vision necessary. A curious feature of Amer- 
 ican life is a distrust of the sun. The sun 
 in the United States is a national asset, but 
 even in the middle of the day the blinds will 
 be drawn half-way down the windows and 
 then the natural light of the heavens is sup- 
 plemented by artificial illumination. Even 
 if one left one's hotel room for half an hour, 
 one always found on returning the blinds 
 which one had drawn up were carefully and 
 accurately drawn half-way down again. The 
 lecture rooms are, as a rule, admirably 
 adapted for their purpose, and the larger 
 ones seem to possess almost perfect acoustic 
 properties. The sitting accommodation is 
 also a great improvement on the usual 
 benches or chairs of European institutions. 
 
 In the last thirty years great efforts have 
 been made to introduce artistic features into 
 the colleges, and even into some of the busi- 
 ness rooms, and especially is this the case in 
 some of the ladies' establishments. Their 
 
The United States 147 
 
 bigger halls are decorated with really fine 
 frescoes, or hung with noble pictures. The 
 university libraries are on a very large scale. 
 The books are easily and readily accessible. 
 Any book that one requires is found for one 
 in an astonishingly short time, but access to 
 the shelves, which is such an enormous con- 
 venience to the student in the University of 
 Cambridge, is not usually allowed. One 
 feature of the more modern libraries is that 
 each professor has a room assigned to him 
 within its walls. True, it is generally a small 
 room, but it enables him to meet his pupils 
 in the library, and to draw their attention to 
 literature "ancient and modern." The libra- 
 ries are open longer than with us — from 9 
 A.M. till 10 P.M. At a ladies' college we heard 
 that the library was open night and day, so 
 that if a student had a brilliant idea in the 
 middle of the night, she could fling on her 
 dressing-gown and flv down to the library to 
 verify her references before she forgot all 
 
148 University Education in 
 
 about it. Many of these libraries have 
 special collections of books which are periodi- 
 cally sent for short periods to country centres, 
 on somewhat the same system as the Local 
 Lectures Syndicate at Cambridge loans books 
 to local centres. A good example of such a 
 circulating library is found in the McGill 
 University at Montreal. 
 
 Some of the colleges occupy very large 
 areas, for instance at Vassar, at Poughkeepsie 
 on the Hudson, the campus contains more 
 acres than there are lady students in the 
 college, though there are many of them. This 
 is by no means an isolated case. Princeton 
 has lately bought up almost all the land 
 between itself and the main railway line, 
 and has recently excavated an artificial lake 
 three miles long and in places three-quarters 
 of a mile wide with money provided by Mr. 
 Carnegie. Many of the universities have 
 gigantic stadia, capable of seating forty to 
 sixty thousand onlookers, for athletics play 
 
The United States 149 
 
 a very considerable part in the life of an 
 American university. Talent is got hold of, 
 and in some cases, perhaps not directly, is 
 subsidised. Enormous crowds collect together 
 to watch inter-university tests, and feeling 
 runs very much higher than with us. Many 
 alumni travel thousands of miles to watch 
 these matches, and to add their voices to 
 their college yell, which is considered to have 
 a stimulating effect on the competing teams. 
 
 It should be understood that the Federal 
 Government does not control education in 
 the United States. To some extent it co- 
 ordinates the educational systems of the 
 different States, but the chief function of the 
 Bureau of Education seems to be to issue 
 reports — and very lengthy and able they 
 often are — on the education of the whole 
 country. At present it has little executive 
 power, and the power controlling education 
 
150 University Education in 
 
 in the United States is split up among forty- 
 eight self-governing Commonwealths, or 
 forty-nine if we include the District of 
 Columbia where alone the Federal Govern- 
 ment has control. Each State provides by 
 law elementary education at the public 
 expense. Children generally enter the school 
 at six or seven years of age and leave eight 
 years afterwards. Further, in each State 
 there are public secondary schools called high 
 schools, which continue the education of the 
 people for another four years ; and it is these 
 high schools that provide the bulk of the 
 material for the universities. There is a 
 recent and growing tendency for these schools 
 to specialise and to train their students in 
 "vocational" courses. Further, there are "nor- 
 mal schools" occupied with the training of 
 teachers. Alongside these public institutions 
 are numerous elementary schools, high 
 schools, normal-schools, and even colleges, 
 which are associated with various religious 
 
The United States 151 
 
 sects. For instance, the Roman Catholics 
 control the education of a million and a 
 half students, and these non-public institu- 
 tions are allowed perfect freedom by the laws 
 of every State. Such a multiplicity of 
 educational authorities necessarily implies 
 great variety in the standards exacted, which 
 is usually lower in the newer and Western 
 States than it is in the East. 
 
 One of the difficulties of understanding 
 the American universities arises from the use 
 of the word "college" for very widely differ- 
 ing institutions. Till the middle of the nine- 
 teenth century America did not use the larger 
 word "university," and was content with 
 "college." Universities practically did not 
 exist, or rather they existed, but were called* 
 colleges. The oldest of these was Harvard 
 College, founded in 1636 by John Harvard 
 of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, who ob- 
 tained immortality perhaps at a cheaper rate 
 than any other human being, for his endow- 
 
152 University Education in 
 
 ments only amounted to a few hundred 
 pounds and a few books. These colleges 
 were founded largely on the experience of 
 Cambridge, and many of the first teachers 
 came from East Anglia. At the beginning 
 they were content with teaching classics, 
 philosophy, and mathematics, and were in 
 the main a training centre for the Ministry. 
 Later other faculties arose. 
 
 Colleges developed into universities along 
 three lines of evolution. Whilst continuing 
 to teach the "liberal arts," some advanced 
 further and established special professional 
 schools of theology, law, and medicine. Thus 
 they became training grounds for professional 
 men. Further, there was a considerable de- 
 velopment in pure and applied science. The 
 establishment of the degree of B.Sc. corre- 
 sponded with the building up of schools of 
 engineering and other strictly professional 
 courses. But perhaps the principal change of 
 the last fifty years has been the foundation of 
 
The United States 153 
 
 numerous post-graduate schools, largely 
 moulded by German influence. The dedica- 
 tions of the Johns Hopkins University at 
 Baltimore in 1867 to post-graduate study, 
 and post-graduate study alone, gave an 
 immense impetus to the development of 
 higher learning and research. At the present 
 day undergraduates are admitted within its 
 walls, but this change does not meet with 
 universal approval in Baltimore. These post- 
 graduate schools provide courses leading to 
 the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. 
 
 The establishment of these special colleges 
 or schools within a college is more or less a 
 critical period of the metamorphosis of a 
 college into a university. Princeton, which 
 was only a college until comparatively 
 recently, is regarded as justified in assuming 
 the title of university, by the formation of 
 its magnificent post-graduate school under the 
 control of Dean West. With the growth of 
 these graduate schools new subjects were 
 
154 University Education in 
 
 introduced. Columbia University, for in- 
 stance, offers the B.A. degree in forty-five 
 different subjects, and other universities in 
 almost as many. 
 
 The word college is also used by a very 
 large number of institutions, some of them 
 of considerable size, but as a rule smaller than 
 the universities, but which play a large part 
 in the education of the country. Some of 
 these colleges still retain a close and restric- 
 tive connexion with some religious denomina- 
 tion, but the gilded unsectarianism of Mr. 
 Carnegie has done much to break this down. 
 Against this secularisation several of the 
 Quaker colleges around Philadelphia have 
 stood out, and characteristically have not 
 suffered in pocket. One of the few educa- 
 tional institutions in America which has an 
 English clientele is the Quaker college of 
 Haverford in Pennsylvania. Some of the 
 leading Quakers in England regularly send 
 
The United States 155 
 
 their sons to Haverford for their college 
 education. 
 
 In general the main difference between a 
 college and a university may be expressed by 
 saying that a college provides courses in the 
 sciences and liberal arts which lead to a first 
 degree, such as B.A. or B.Sc, whereas a 
 university comprises one such college, and 
 also several post-collegiate schools, the ad- 
 vanced studies of which lead to post-graduate 
 degrees in arts, sciences and professional 
 subjects. 
 
 But, as already indicated, another striking 
 difference between the college and the uni- 
 versity is that of size. Colleges usually 
 number from a hundred to five hundred, 
 whereas the university has many thousands 
 of students. Hence individual attention is 
 far more common in a college than in a uni- 
 versity, and th'S may possibly account for the 
 claim that the colleges have produced a 
 larger percentage of really eminent men and 
 
156 University Education in 
 
 prominent citizens in all walks of life than 
 have the universities. 
 
 Members of an American college are pas- 
 sionately devoted to the institution which has 
 nurtured them. They become almost fa- 
 natical champions and partisans of their col- 
 legiate homes, and generously attribute any 
 success they achieve in after life to the train- 
 ing which thej have received there. 
 
 In every State but one or two there are 
 now established State universities where the 
 education is said to be free — that is to say, 
 the State pays for the teaching. The ex- 
 penses of residence, clothes, food, books, 
 college, and travel subscriptions to the vari- 
 ous clubs, of course fall on the student. The 
 State legislatures control the expenditure of 
 the university, and at Madison the professors 
 of the State University of Wisconsin and 
 the State legislators inhabit the same charm- 
 ing little city to their mutual and reciprocal 
 advantage. 
 
The United States 157 
 
 Growth of the State universities, which 
 is marked in recent years, is not inimical to 
 other universities in the same State. Rather 
 it seems to benefit them by producing a 
 healthy rivalry. There is, of course, a 
 tendency in the State universities to specialise 
 in directions which will most help the pros- 
 perity and the well-being of the State in 
 which they are situate, and this is equally 
 true of the civic universities, such as Cin- 
 cinnati and others. The services of the staff 
 of both State, civic, and endowed universities 
 are very much more at the disposal of the 
 community, or at any rate are more called 
 upon than they would be in similar cases in 
 Europe. The Federal Government fre- 
 quently asks for and obtains the aid of the 
 college and university presidents for inter- 
 national work. They are for a time 
 "seconded" and sent on special missions, or 
 made for some years ambassadors at some 
 important capital. For instance, President 
 
158 University Education in 
 
 Angell, of the University of Michigan, was 
 once ambassador at Constantinople, and once 
 ambassador at Pekin, and he further served 
 as the head of a very important mission to 
 Great Britain. 
 
 The medical schools in connexion with the 
 universities, such as we have seen at Harvard, 
 in Cincinnati, and St. Louis, are the most 
 wonderfully equipped that I have come 
 across. What the young doctor does when 
 he returns to practise in his village or small 
 township, having been brought up in such 
 institutions, it is difficult to understand. In 
 the hospital he is trained in the very latest 
 phase of scientific investigaton and medical 
 technique ; at home these resources are denied 
 him, even if his patient could afford them. 
 
 In many of the universities each student 
 pays an annual tax of $5.00, which goes to 
 form a Students' Medical Insurance Fund 
 against disease or accidents. For this sum 
 medical advice is given free, nursing is 
 
The United States 159 
 
 supplied free, and housing in a nursing-home, 
 and special food for a limited period. Severe 
 and lengthy cases are charged extra. In one 
 of the State universities — Michigan — five 
 full-time doctors were occupied in attending 
 to the health and hygiene of the students, 
 male and female. 
 
 Physical culture is carried on much more 
 fully and universally than with us, and in 
 the "land grant" State universities army 
 training is in force throughout the student's 
 career. 
 
 Schools of journalism are common in 
 American universities, and some of them have 
 a very large number of pupils. It is very 
 common in the United States to meet men in 
 very substantial positions who started life as 
 journalists. Many of the reporters are 
 charmingly dressed young ladies, which adds 
 to the difficulties of evading an interview. 
 Horticulture is taught on a large scale at 
 some of the State universities, and classes in 
 
i6o University Education in 
 
 commerce are widely spread. Here account- 
 a' cy, commercial law, stenography, type- 
 writing, and a little history and French are 
 taught, and these vocational studies are 
 somewhat mitigated by the student having 
 to take some classic English author. One 
 friend of mine was at the University of Penn- 
 sylvania broadening his mind by reading the 
 classical works of Stevenson and of Kipling, 
 but, I regret to say, he did not think much 
 of either of them. At the North- Western 
 University there is a School of Oratory, the 
 products of which we had but little oppor- 
 tunity of testing. 
 
 At the American universities all cere- 
 monial functions are cafried out with great 
 solemnity and dignity. The students take 
 part in the proceedings and act as hosts to any 
 distinguished guests that may be giving 
 special lectures or receiving honorary degrees, 
 and there is none of that humorous, but to 
 the Public Orator trying, interruption of his 
 
The United States i6i 
 
 stately periods. The whole of the proceed- 
 ings are most carefully thought out and pre- 
 ordained. There is always a University 
 Marshal, generally one of the senior profes- 
 sors, who carries a baton and arranges the 
 procession. On these occasions the Univer- 
 sity Musical Club generally plays a conspicu? 
 ous part, and very often in the large towns 
 the civic musical societies lend their help. 
 
 American undergraduates are very demo- 
 cratic, but there is nothing very surprising 
 about that. It is common feature of all 
 universities, even of the oldest, such as 
 Bologna or Paris. What is surprising is the 
 autocratic nature of the government in all 
 their higher educational institutions, whereas 
 Oxford and Cambridge are so democratic that 
 little or no progress can be made. In Eng- 
 land every M.A. who keeps his name on the 
 boards of his college — and these "boards" 
 actually exist in the form of long planks with 
 the names inscribed in large letters — has a 
 
 11 
 
i62 University Education in 
 
 vote which he can use as he thinks fit. The 
 body of these M.A.'s, amounting to some 
 thousands, is the governing body of these 
 ancient universities. In America each college 
 has a President, though the title varies 
 slightly. For instance, there is a Chancellor 
 at the Washington University at St. Louis, 
 and a Provost at the University of Penn- 
 sylvania. Above the President stand the 
 Trustees or Regents, who practically control 
 the finances of the university. These trustees 
 are men of high standing either in the com- 
 mercial or political world. It is a great 
 honour to be a trustee of a university, and 
 however elected, the body is generally one of 
 great distinction, and it works hard. Many 
 of the lavish endowments which pour into 
 these institutions are due to the activities of 
 the trustees who are expected to provide the 
 necessary dollars. In the Eastern universities 
 the trustees generally co-opt new members. 
 In the State universities some at least are 
 
The United States 163 
 
 elected by the people and at the same time as 
 the legislature is chosen. It is a remarkable 
 and rather regrettable feature that the 
 Faculty is not represented on this governing 
 body, for in effect the latter really does 
 mould the policy of the institution over 
 which it presides. The link between the 
 trustees and the professors is the President. 
 Sometimes on a small body of trustees, one 
 multi-millionaire, by increasing or withdraw- 
 ing his financial support, can control the 
 whole policy of the college, and there are 
 cases where the interference of the trustees 
 has not worked for good in the interests of 
 the college. The president of a college is as 
 autocratic as the captain of a line or the 
 head boy of an English public school. He 
 can make or unmake careers, and has a very 
 large voice in the appointment, dismissal, 
 and pay of the professors. 
 
 In each faculty or department of the uni- 
 versity there is a Dean — not necessarily the 
 
164 University Education in 
 
 most senior of the professoriate — and the 
 deans play an important and conspicuous 
 part in the organization of their institution. 
 The deans have annual meetings, and appar- 
 ently spend a good deal of time in discussing 
 their presidents. None of the staff is paid 
 sufficiently. As everywhere else, and as it 
 has been for all time, education is the worst 
 paid of all human professions. "The cheapest 
 thing going to-day," says the Satirist, "is 
 education." "I pay my cook," said Crates 
 ironically, "four pounds a year; but a philos- 
 opher can be hired for about sixpence and 
 a tutor for three half-pence." "So to-day," 
 writes Erasmus, "a man stands aghast at the 
 thought of paying for his boy's education a 
 sum which would buy a foal or hire a farm 
 servant." "Frugality — it is another name for 
 madness I" After 400 years the madness of 
 Erasmus has not abated. The presidents 
 themselves are not adequately remunerated, 
 
The United States 165 
 
 and though some have entertainment allow- 
 ances, it would go hard with them if they 
 had not other sources of income than those 
 attached to their posts. 
 
 American universities are not hampered by 
 tradition. They are willing to try new 
 things, and if one experiment does not suc- 
 ceed they try another. For instance, Colum- 
 bia University is so attracted by the success 
 of the psychological tests used for entry into 
 the American Air Force that it is proposing 
 to give up its entrance examination, and to 
 replace it by mechanical tests, which it claims 
 will be able to show whether a boy is capable 
 of profiting by a university education. The 
 result of this experiment is likely to prove 
 interesting, and it may possibly be extended. 
 If it does show the capabilities of a boy who 
 undergoes it, and thus saves the expense and 
 worry of written and oral examinations, these 
 might be done away with. One foresees only 
 one danger in these physical tests. The Ameri- 
 
i66 University Education in 
 
 can youth is so alert and quick that he not 
 infrequently reacts before the stimulus is 
 applied. The historical first-year students of 
 the same university, which is never anything 
 if not up-to-date, will in future be required 
 to start history with a study of the Bolshevist 
 disorders in the twentieth century and other 
 present-day problems. Earlier periods will 
 be studied afterwards, with particular refer- 
 ence to their bearing upon the events of 
 to-day. 
 
 The average entrance age to an American 
 university is about the same as in England, 
 and the course is a little longer. Three to 
 four years are taken for the B.A. degree; 
 about three more for the M.A. There is a 
 tendency to increase the length^ of time 
 required for the professional degrees, such 
 as those in law and medicine. A candidate 
 who enters an American college or university 
 is expected to have spent four years at a 
 
The United States 167 
 
 High School, and admission is given to such 
 students as have obtained a given number of 
 "units." A "unit" roughly corresponds with a 
 quarter of a year's study in any subject at 
 one of these secondary schools, so that four 
 years' study should produce sixteen such 
 "units." A candidate has to produce evidence 
 at most colleges or universities that he has 
 completed fourteen or sixteen "units," and 
 institutions requiring less than fourteen 
 "units" are not regarded as in the first class. 
 Certain of the colleges and universities in the 
 Eastern States have co-ordinated their en- 
 trance qualifications under a College En- 
 trance Examination Board, somewhat similar 
 to that which exists in the northern univer- 
 sities of England. The standard of this 
 Board is high, and a student is generally 
 admitted by any of the Eastern universities 
 if he has passed the examination under the 
 control of the Board in the subjects required 
 
i68 University Education in 
 
 by the college for entrance. Other univer- 
 sities, especially in the West and Middle 
 West, and a few in the East, admit by cer- 
 tificate, this certificate being a statement from 
 the headmaster of the school testifying as to 
 the nature and amount of work done by the 
 applicant. Such a certificate, if considered 
 satisfactory, passes the candidate into the 
 higher institution without further inquiry. 
 The examination conducted by the Board is 
 very complex, but the wind is tempered to 
 the "foreign" lamb, and foreigners, of whom 
 there is a very large number being educated 
 in the United States, receive concessions if 
 they can show that they would really benefit 
 by an advanced education. 
 
 Within the university the first-year men 
 are "freshmen," the second-year men are 
 "sophomores," a word which has fallen into 
 desuetude in England. Third-year men are 
 "Juniors," and fourth-year men are "Sen- 
 
The United States 169 
 
 iors."^ There is a considerable and rather 
 sharp cleavage between men of different 
 years. For instance, in many of the luxurious 
 clubs which in American universities, to some 
 extent, replace the colleges of Oxford and 
 Cambridge, only "juniors" and "seniors" are 
 eligible for election. A freshman in an Eng- 
 lish university is apt to look upon a second- 
 year man as immeasurably older than him- 
 self, and far more experienced in the conduct 
 of life. The same is equally true in America. 
 There are certain initiatory ceremonies which 
 the freshman undergoes. These vary in 
 different universities, and any attempt to 
 interfere with them is futile, though they 
 are sometimes accompanied with a certain 
 measure of roughness. But they all tend to 
 weld the newcomers into a "class," and a class 
 
 ^ Years ago I was watching the undergraduates scan- 
 ning the lists of subjects and of lectures at Princeton for 
 the coming year. After a summary and an impressed in- 
 spection I heard a sophomore say to a freshman, "If 
 we don't look out this Woodrow W^ilson will turn our 
 Princeton into a darned educational institution!" 
 
1 70 University Education in 
 
 is a very important factor in American uni- 
 versity life. If you mention you are a grad- 
 uate in one of their institutions you are at 
 once asked, "What class?" and the class dates 
 from the year when you enter college. The 
 class hangs together throughout life. It has 
 a periodical re-union at its old university, 
 when it usually avails itself of the oppor- 
 tunity for dressing-up which is dear to all 
 mankind, but somewhat more suppressed on 
 the eastern than the western side of the At- 
 lantic. At one of these re-unions the class 
 of a certain year will all appear dressed as 
 cow-boys; next year the next class will be 
 dressed as Mexicans, and so on. 
 
 Gradually the freshmen sort themselves 
 into their various studies and into their 
 various clubs. There are fewer opportunities 
 in an American university for the great mass 
 of the students to engage in athletics, though 
 the picked men are made even more of than 
 with us. As there are no colleges such as 
 
The United States 171 
 
 those of Oxford and Cambridge, there are 
 no inter-collegiate competitions. There are, 
 however, athletic contests between different 
 classes. The rigour of the climate prevents 
 outdoor exercise during a considerable part 
 of the year. Unquestionably, one can play 
 in the open air on more days in England than 
 in the greater part of the States. This to 
 some extent explains the perfection of the 
 American indoor gymnasia. Even rowing is 
 practised indoors in large tanks, where the 
 boat is fixed, but the water travels. 
 
 Musical and Dramatic Clubs also abound, 
 and the plays they produce are most admir- 
 ably staged. It is far more frequent to meet 
 an American student with a banjo or man- 
 doline case under his arm than it is to meet 
 an English undergraduate with a similar 
 equipment. Their play and their music have 
 a large part in the unofficial education of the 
 young college men and maidens. In most 
 of the colleges there is a permanent outdoor 
 
172 University Education in 
 
 theatre, like that which Bradfield has made 
 familiar to us in England. 
 
 The "unit" system is continued throughout 
 the university course. One of the most strik- 
 ing differences between English and Ameri- 
 can universities is that in the latter there is 
 no honours course. At Oxford or Cambridge 
 a man reading for an B.A. degree can pass 
 Responsions and "Mods" or the "Previous," 
 and after that devote himself to an intensive 
 study of one subject for the whole of his three 
 years. In most of the American universities 
 a considerable number of subjects are taken, 
 and these are not followed very far, at any 
 rate not so far as in our honours course. 
 Another great difference is that there is no 
 one final examination which admits to the 
 B.A. degree. On the elective system so many 
 "units" a year are taken, and at the end of the 
 year the student is examined on each of these, 
 and these annual examinations count towards 
 the final degree. The only difference between 
 
The United States 173 
 
 the third-year examination and that of the 
 first or of the second year is that it is taken 
 in different subjects. Another difference 
 which is often deplored in the United States 
 is that the examinations are conducted only 
 by the teachers. External examiners are 
 unknown, so that the student is apt to get up 
 his teacher's lectures rather than the subject. 
 All the bigger universities have really 
 magnificent clubs, where sleeping accommo- 
 dation is provided as well as good libraries 
 and good dining-rooms. Some of these clubs, 
 such as the Harvard Club at Boston, are 
 very palatial, and most of the bigger Eastern 
 universities have stately club-houses in New 
 York. In many small towns, such as 
 Madison, where hotel accommodation is 
 limited, the University Clubs offer a culti- 
 vated and comfortable shelter for college 
 men. In others, such as Lexington in Ken- 
 tucky, the University Club is housed in part 
 of a really magnificent hotel. Many of the 
 
174 University Education in 
 
 students live in dormitories, or as we should 
 call them, cx)llege buildings; but meals are 
 not served there, and it is still the custom 
 for students to take their meals at various 
 dining-rooms, and many students live and 
 board in lodgings. Recently, however, enor- 
 mous dining halls, some of them of great 
 architectural dignity, have been springing 
 up, and common meals are served there some- 
 times to as many as a thousand or twelve 
 hundred students at a time. 
 
 Attendance at chapel varies in the differ- 
 ent institutions. At Yale it is enforced, but 
 enforced by an "inviolable tradition that an 
 institution of age and respectability hands 
 down from the past to its youngest sons.. 
 The order is not of the faculty or powers 
 above; far from it. It is the self-ordained 
 task of the undergraduate." 
 
 Those universities which have the oppor- 
 tunity at their doorstep, are very devoted to 
 rowing. Usually this is on a river, but at 
 
The United States I75 
 
 Princeton it takes place on the artificial lake 
 already referred to, and at Madison on the 
 charming lakes which encircle that very de- 
 lightful little city. Track athletics, as the 
 term runs, is also a favourite amusement, and 
 the severity of the winter affords oppor- 
 tunities for skating and ice-boat competitions 
 denied to the inhabitants of warmer coun- 
 tries. Football is a complete mystery to 
 anyone who has not made an intensive study 
 of American sports. There are all sorts of 
 secret cries and code letters, and the captain 
 directs the energies of his team by shouting 
 mysterious cyphers which mean nothing to 
 the outsider. 
 
 After graduation the alumnus seems to be 
 even more passionately devoted to his univer- 
 sity than he was while actually in residence 
 in it. Apart from the large clubs already 
 alluded to, there are innumerable associa- 
 tions, and in every town in America the mem- 
 bers of one university get to know one 
 
176 University Education in 
 
 another, and cling together like brothers. 
 The "class" system is a profound help in 
 financing the universities. One "class" will 
 put up a dormitory, another will erect a 
 new laboratory, and there is a strong spirit 
 in inter- "class" rivalry, which is a great help 
 to the financial management of their alma 
 mater. 
 
 There are a number of subjects taught in 
 American universities which are rarely found 
 in educational institutions on this side of 
 the Atlantic. Perhaps the commonest of 
 these is dentistry. Large and fully-equipped 
 dental colleges flourish in most of the en- 
 dowed and State universities, and to these 
 come men from all over the world. In the 
 very heart of North America you will find 
 students from Australia and South Africa, 
 especially in the dental schools, where the 
 professors take rank with those of other 
 faculties. Veterinary science is also much 
 followed, and in the agricultural schools, 
 
The United States 177 
 
 such as Ames in Iowa, they have an extremely 
 complete course and fine laboratories devoted 
 to the hygiene of the lower mammals. It 
 was at Ames we came across a new discovery 
 in vegetable pathology, which is likely to 
 open a new chapter in the history of plant 
 disease. One of the professors there has 
 definitely shown that the "curled leaf" which 
 yearly destroys so many million of beetroots 
 is due to some organism transmitted by an 
 insect; and although this organism is ultra- 
 microscopic and passes through the finest 
 filters, it evidently undergoes some trans- 
 formations, both in the body of the leaf and 
 in the tissues of the beetroot. It behaves, in 
 effect, very much like the invisible organism 
 conveyed by the mosquito, which sets up yel- 
 low fever in man. Similar experiments have 
 shown that similar causes produce a certain 
 disease in the potato. This is conveyed also 
 by an insect. 
 
 It would take too long to enter into the 
 
 12 
 
178 University Education in 
 
 subject of secret letter societies, which are 
 banned in some universities and welcomed in 
 others. There is a notion that the number of 
 "society men" in the colleges is decreasing, 
 but at Yale at any rate this is not so. Forty 
 years ago only some sixty per cent, of a 
 "class" belonged to any society. Five years 
 ago the percentage had risen to seventy-five. 
 The initiation into these secret societies is 
 kept profoundly dark, and although the 
 members of some of them have distinctive 
 pins or rings which they wear upon their 
 waistcoats, ties, or watch-chains, it is consid- 
 ered to be the height of ill-breeding to make 
 the faintest reference to them. Anyone in- 
 terested in the matter can obtain some in- 
 sight into it by reading the somewhat sombre 
 and certainly prolix "Salt," a novel which 
 covers the ground of both the "Loom of 
 Youth" and "Sinister Street," but set in an 
 American background. If "Salt" be a true 
 account pf wb^t happens in the admission of 
 
The United States 179 
 
 a member of a secret society to his society, 
 it would seem that our young American bar- 
 barians at play have learned something from 
 the Red Indians of the past. On the whole, 
 the students are by no means so noisy as they 
 were in years gone by; and as in the older 
 universities of our land, the traditional 
 "town and gown rows" have almost disap- 
 peared. 
 
 Many of the undergraduates earn their liv- 
 ing and pay their way whilst passing through 
 college. Some of the poorer — the Armenians 
 and the Greeks — manage to scrape together 
 enough to live on by pressing the clothes, and 
 sometimes cleaning the boots, of their more 
 financially-favoured fellow-students. Many 
 students make enough to see them through the 
 term by waiting at summer resorts in the va- 
 cations. Sir Michael Foster once told me 
 that, returning from a lecturing tour in Cali- 
 fornia, he was stopping the night in Seattle, 
 and was rather surprised when half-way 
 
i8o University Education in 
 
 through dinner the youth who was waiting 
 on him, and who seemed to become suddenly- 
 aware whom he was serving, seized his hand 
 and said, "Professor, I am very glad to make 
 your acquaintance ! Many and many are the 
 weary hours I have spent over your text- 
 book." The waiter in this case came from 
 one of the Eastern universities, and was pay- 
 ing his way^ through his course by waiting 
 during the summer in Seattle. Others take 
 care of some rich man's grounds, or stoke his 
 furnaces. There is a strenuous desire to get 
 a university degree, and men will sacrifice 
 half their time to make enough money to 
 spend the other half in preparing for their 
 examinations. Another class often become 
 secretaries or stenographers to the presidents 
 or professors, and there is not that shyness 
 in committing the conduct of the university 
 politics to the students that obtains with us. 
 Many obtain a livelihood by editing college 
 
The United States i8i 
 
 papers. Some of them not only edit the jour- 
 nals, but set the type and print them. 
 
 There are, at present, nearly five thousand 
 foreign students studying in American uni- 
 versities, and now that these institutions are 
 making good in so many ways, one cannot 
 but feel that the verse of Miss Mary Cole- 
 ridge will become truer in a wider and larger 
 sense : 
 
 "We were young, we were merry, we were very, 
 very wise 
 And the door stood open at our feast, 
 When there passed by a woman with the West in 
 her eyes, 
 And a man with his back to the East." 
 
 For a while the world will wend west- 
 ward. 
 
C 12 88