14 JANUARY 1928, Page 25

From Harrow to Princeton

MR. JOHN BENN, son of the well-known publisher, when he left Harrow proceeded to the University of Princeton in the United States instead of to Oxford or Cambridge. As a scheme in the nature of an inverted Rhodes scholarship has now been established, by which several English students can go to American Universities, it is interesting to hear of the experiences of Mr. Berm, who, since he went in 1922, may be regarded as something of a pioneer in the movement.

He has written a clear little book on his experiences. Mr. Benn evidently enjoyed himself very much indeed in America ; he seems to have had a natural taste for everything American, and to have appreciated to the full all the curious, and to us novel, practices of American Universities. He has an informa- tive chapter, for example, on "the freshman," and the experiences which await the first-year undergraduates at an American University. He makes us understand the system, so different from our own, by which the University is split up, not into colleges containing men of each grade of seniority1 but into classes each exclusively composed of contemporaries. There is a 1925, a 1926, a 1927 class, each of which hangs together in the University. Elaborate preparations are made for what is called " hazing " the freshman class. This consists, Mr. Benn tells us, of this kind of activity :— "The chief event of freshman initiation, however, was the 'Flour Picture.' This was announced to take place one Monday afternoon at the beginning of term, and we were warned to wear old clothes. Following a meeting of the class, we marched in procession to the place announced. As we got near, the bombard- ment by our seniors started, and we rushed on the steps of the building where the photograph was to be taken. Flour and water formed the bulk of the ammunition, but eggs and treacle as well helped to liven things up ! Meanwhile, a fearful scrum took place round the steps, and we all fought to get nearer the back, to escape the first line of fire. A hose directed on us from the roof added to the excitement. Since flour and water are the principal ingredients of paste, we were in a dreadful mess after twenty minutes' bombardment. Finally we were formed into a group and photo- graphed. The Flour Picture' is one of my cherished possessions ; but my regret is that I (lid not return for a second year at Princeton, and so inissed_rny chance to help in the initiation of the succeeding class. It took some time to remove all traces of the afternoon. and my clothes were only fit for the dustbin."

Mr. Benn devotes another chapter to the important subject of American football, which he tells us looms very large in the life of an American University. "To say the least," Mr. Benn writes, "the attitude towards the game expressed by the undergraduate journal was puzzling to my English notions. 'Non-attendance at the mass meeting to-night on the part of an individual,' it stated, 'may be taken, ipso facto, as proof that that individual has no interest whatever in the outcome of the game on Saturday.' No student would dare, it seems, to ignore this admonition, and the assembled students at the football matches must indeed be a remarkable sight. I shall never forget a first impression of 50,000 people, shouting themselves hoarse to the order of Cheer-leaders,' and then dancing round the football field in wild procession at the end of the game. The various cheers, peculiar to each University, are indicated by names suggestive of their character. Thus the Princeton leaders—as many as half a dozen being in action at once during an important game—call out through their megaphones : 'One "Locomotive" for Princeton ' : and the spectators respond, ' Hooray ! 'Ray! 'Ray Tiger Tiger ! Tiger Sis I Sis ! Sis ! Boom ! Boom I Ah ! Princeton Princeton I Princeton ' " However, Mr. Berm appeared to enjoy the football matches also.

But Mr. Berm does not neglect the academic side of the University's activities. He writes informatively on the systems of study and their contrast with English methods. He also has a good section on the workaday democratic character of most of the American colleges, even of Princeton itself, where many of the under- graduates live by working in their vacations and some by working in their spare time during term, as journalists, cabmen, and even waiters. It is this sturdy determination of American youth to earn its own living and to succeed by its own efforts, so like the younger England of the Elizabethans, which we need to remember in our own country to-day. Are we growing " soft " and conventional ? We do not think so, but we feel that a breath of that strenuous spirit so noticeable at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale might blow with advantage through our older Universities. We recommend the book as giving a clear and critical impression of what life in an American University is really like.