2 THE HESP ERIAN. .
The students of the university have long felt the
need of more liberal instruction in oratory. The de
velopment of the university during the past few
years has been so rapid that all the departments of
study could not be amply provided for at once. Each
mustawait its turn. The dream of the university orator
of the past has now become a reality. This year a
course in oratory is offered. The number of students
that are taking advantage of this course has amply
justified the faculty for their action. The young ora
tor mav now develop his oratorical qualities to a
higher degree. He may display his eloquence in a
more oratorical style. Those who wish to compete
in the university oratorical contest should take ad
vantage of the instruction given in this course. Our
future oratorical contests may be made to be more
oratorical than they have usually been. With s.uch
instruction as is being given in the oratorical depart
ment at present there is no reason why the university
may not redeem its past reputation in oratorical
contests.
The establishment of this course inaugurates a
more liberal system of education than has heretofore
been practiced m this institution. The student is
given an opportunity to elect studies to a greater de
gree than in any of the other courses. This system
is to be commended. The elective system has been
steadily gaining ground. It has been proven to be
the best s)'stem. May the time soon come when the
courses of study in this university will be largely, if
not entirely, elective.
The literary course claims to be a study of the
intellectual productions of men of genius. It claims
too much. Literature does not cover all that ground
it must be supplemented by art-study.
One post may clothe his thoughts in words, an
other in form or in color. We are deficient in cul
ture if we only recognize and value that thought when
clothed in words, A study of intellectual produc
tions which confines itself to books is too limited)
for authors and artists have always been peers. Dn
Holmes says "Society is a strong solution of books."
Society should have equally in solution great con
struction, monumental graphic and representative
thoughts outside of books.
The classical course occupies itself with both the
literature and history of one of the gieatest perhaps
the greatest artistic period of all time; the import
ance of a parallel study of art history ts obvious.
If "to love beauty is to see the light," art history
ought to be, not an elective, but required.
Theke is scarcely a culture-study not one we
think which can be pursued even a little way with
out leading up to, traversing or running parallel with
the history of the monuments of nations. Is it enough
to study the quarrels of nations, the war-footing, bat
tles, intrigues, military power, conquests, political
developments?
History puts more stress now on he arts of peace,
reciprocities rather than reprisals, home-life, religion,
national characteristics and enthusiasms, and these
have been expressed and the others commemorated in
the building, in the art of peoples.
Students of history now-a-days specialize and
make exhaustive research their aim; they must real
ize that a mere catalogue of the world's monuments
and works of art is almost worthless. If anything de
serves special study does not what remains to us of
the expressions, material and visible, of a peoples'
ideals. A great man has said: "I desire to be judged
by the best I have thought and done, by the highest
water mark I have reached."
Peoples and nations should also be so judged but
an appreciative knowledge of their art-achievement
necessary qualification. ,
"Hen Abou" in ihe New York Press has something to
say of a couple of our most respected people, and others in
the county will be interested also. He says: ''One of ihe
wealthiest and most substantial citizens of Minneapolis is Mr.
R. B. Langdon, who is engaged in the grain and railroad
business. I met him here yesterday, when he repeated the
assurance that is constantly coming from the west, that the
crops promise to be the largest in years, and that his politi
cal belief is that if Mr. Blaine's health is good next year he
will be the nominee of the republican party aithout opposi
tion. Then he told me an interesting story about the new
president of the University of Nebraska, Prof. J. H. Canfield,
saying: "He is a son of a former Brooklyn clergyman, now
living in Vermont and is a graduate of Williams College. I
think he was born in New Yoik, and is about forty years of
age. When he left college he was recommended to me for
work, and I engaged him without seeing him, as a sort of
clerk and bookkeeper in a new business I was starting in an
Iowa town. There was really not much for him to do un
til I got doxvn there, which was a couple of weeks alter he
did, but when 1 arrived there I found him out in the railroad
yarp helping to unload lumber for the buildings I was putting
up. He had taken his pari with the laboiers every day dur
ing the two weeks, and with his black hair and tan flora the
sun he looked almost like an Italian. I liktd ihe lad's grit,
and gave him better work. Then he studied law, became a
professor at the University of Kansas. He will turn out
some gooa men lrom ine students under him 1 am sure.' in
his prime the Rev. Dr. Eli H. Canfield, D. D., who was rec
tor of a leading Episcopal church in Brooklyn, was consid
ered among the mo.t eloquent clergymen in this country,
and at one time was in line of promotion to a bishopric. His
oldest son was sent to Williams College for an education,
and nhen he came out studied civil engineering. He laugh
ingly said to his father one day, after he had decided to go
west and grow up with the country: 'Now, father, I am going
to strike out for myself, and before I get through I am going
to let you know that I have benefited by the education you
have given me. I am going to show you some day when you
will be known as James H. Canfiield's father.' Time passed
and young Canfield, alter various vicissitudes, had become
TiroieSbOr Ol the University of ICansasal I.nwrinri wliri Xlrv.
Dr. Canfield, grown old and broken down in health, paid
him a visit. Everybody in Lawrence knew the genial and
talented 1'rofcssor Canfield, ind the leading paper of the
to a announced in its personal columns that Professor Can
field's father wan paying him a visit. Rev. Dr. Canfield is
now living in retirement in Vermont, where he told recently
how the Professor, with boyish glee, rushed in on him at
Lawrence with this paper, and, dancing all around him re
called his prophecy. Professor Canfield is the scholar who
was recently elevated to the chancellorship of the University
ofNcbraska, and Dr. Canfield is quite content to be called
Chancellor Canfield's father." Bcnnintfcn Banner