iWl
The Nebraskan
Vol. I.
Lincoln, Nebraska, February, 1893.
No. 5.
Tme Nebraskan.
T - . . -f ,ni
A Monthly Paper, Issued at the University of Nebraska.
thoritative dictionary. Wake up, good peo
ple, and keep abreast of the times.
SUBSCRIPTION, ONE YEAR, $1.00.
Entered as second-class mail matter.
RAiiiMi E. Johnson Editor-in-Chief
II. G. WniTMOitK Business Manager
The Representative College Paper.
(Editorial.
This is your valentine.
Charter Day comes but once a year and all
should prepare to celebrate. February 15th
is the date.
A world revers a truly great statesman.
Ever' civilized nation has recognized the
noble work carried on bv Blaine, Gladstone
and Bismark. The death of America's fore
most leader leaves a vacant chair in the
world's university that will be hard to fill.
The Hesperian takes exception to our style
of versification. We wish they would pass
a real, honest, unbiased judgment upon their
own poetic "productions" of recent date and
publish the verdict in their next issue. If
they will guarantee a sober, intelligent opin
ion we will predict a scathing invective.
We admire the enlightenment of whoever
wrote a recent editorial in our "esteemed con
temporary" complaining because Webster's
Unabridged is not in the Library. Everyone
who does or knows much of anything in a
literary line has discovered that the Century,
which we have in the library, is the only au-
We need a teacher of elocution in this uni
versity and "need it bad," too. Our contests
show clearly the need of systematic instruc
tion in the fundamental principles of oratory.
Then when anything like a contest comes
along, a little special training by the in
structor will enable an' student in school to
make a presentable appearance before an au
dience. In the local contest just held the orators,
almost without exception, spent from ten to
twenty-five dollars apiece for private lessons .
from outside teachers. Two-thirds of this
instruction was on primary principles such as
how to breathe, how to develop sustaining
power, enunciation, pronunciation ; neces
sarily on these because none of the contest
ants knew the first principles of elementary
elocution. This is too bad. For seven stu
dents to pay one dollar per hour to enunciate
their words, how to stand on a platform, and
how to make the simplest most fundamental
gestures, seems extravagant when one in
structor at ten or twelve hundred dollars a
year might instruct two hundred students
as easily as seven. It would, at least, be
cheaper for the students.
We are not complaining of our present
department of Rhetoric and Oratory. We
want a bigger department though, with a
stronger accent on the Oratory. Of course
there is great difficulty in getting a profes
sional elocutionist who has all the desirable
qualities without any of the undesirable ones.
We don't want a cheap ranter who can make
agony to order. We do want an instructor
in elocution and oratory who shall devote his
time exclusively to thtse two things. The
regents ought to provide one.
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