THE HESPERIAN.
UNIVERSITY of NEBRASKA.
Vol. XIV.
LINCOLN, NEB., MARCH i, 1886.
No. X.
CURRENT REMARK.
There is at least one thing needed in Lincoln; that is paved
streets. It seems as if our streets could be paved as easily as
any in the world. They are graded nicely and are compara
tively level. Perhaps we long for graded streets more now
that it is muddy, than we otherwise would, but we certainly
ought to have at least some of the principal ones fixed, so
that the mud would not be more than a font deep.
The custom of sending valentines is dropping off very rap
idly these years. It used to be a pretty thing, this sending
valentines to our friends, and it is too bad that it is going.
The disuse of the custom can be traced to the comic penny
pictures which are so common now-a-days. Of course nice
ones can be procured now, and arc, but the great majority
are those senseless things that some fool thinks appropriate
for some other fool, and so sends it to him. Such practices
have killed the older and better idea of St. Valentine's Day.
Washington's birthday was not observed by the University,
coming as it does so close to our own birthday, but the city
schools were closed and the day otherwise observed as is
should be. A few people think that we are eettinc to have
too many holidays, and that with one or two exceptions
they should be done away with. But fortunately the great
mass of people, both employers and employed, recognize hol
idays as beneficial and welcome them, and it is a poor stick
who will not give his employees a rest on legal holidays when
his business is such that he can without great loss.
We have had a holiday, and we liked it. It seems a little
strange that students think they are getting ahead of the fac
ulty whenever they get a day oil. Some students miss recita
tions and delude themselves by thinking they arc "working"
the Professor. Of cource this is wrong, but there is no use of
saying so, for the same idea will continue as long as colleges
exist. It is human nature to shun work of any kind, and stu
dents, contrary to public opinion, arc human. So they will
keep right on thinking that holidays and recitations missed
are so much lost by the faculty and so much gained by the
students. "What fools we mortals be."
The old question of whether the class valedictorian is. ever
again heard of bobs up serenely. This time it is The
Blackburnian which vigorously combats the charge. It strikes
us that it is unnecessary to agonize over the subject. There
will always be persons who make it their especial business to
pick flaws in our educational system. Such people have al
ways existed and the before-mentioned charge has slwrays been
their knock-down argument. Nevertheless it is all bosh.
Grit and pluck and brains will always lead in or out of college.
The fellow who deserves the honors of his class has qual
ities which will bring him to the front in business life.
to coerce the firm by threats of a strike, as so many have done.
However the shops were closed before they could strike, to
save them the trouble, as the firm stated. And now hundreds
of them arc out of employment. Of course it is hard for
crowds of men to be dependent on one or two, but if the
crowds had good sense they would sec from the experience of
others, that threats and strikes arc of more damage to them
than to their employers. For so long as a firm has money it
can get laborers; and, while it may cause them embarrassment
and perhaps even failure, it is sure to be ruinous to the stri
kers themselves.
It will probably not surprise anyone if we say that the skat
ing rink rage is no more, for everybody knows it. This might
have been predicted from the first. We arc an enthusiastic
people, and go in for a thing with all our might while it is
new, but by the very nature of our enthusiasm we ensure the
end. It is only those amusements that have a steady growth
that last, not the ones that turn the heads of people till it
seems as if their senses arc gone for good. These never
last. Roller skating is over, and no one mourns. Those who
opposed it and believed that the influence of the rinks was
bad are glad that their attraction is ended; those who skated
have had enough. So the rage is being left behind us in our
onward march, and no one is sorry.
Every season Lincoln is favored with some good plays.
Barrett, Keene, Maggie Mitchell and the like were here and
drew fair houses, not large. So Lincoln people have an op
portunity to see good acting, and some improve it. But it
takes such attractions as Bison William to draw a crowd . It
is only these blood-curdling things, or something less worthy
behind the footlights, that draw such a crowd that the Opera
House will not hold it all. This shows, cither that the greater
number of our citizens do not care for anything good in the
line of acting, or that none but the poorer care for any.
Theaters are run to make money, and as long as genuine ac
tors will not be patronized, we cannot complain when the
lower and more harmful ones arc palmed off on us.
The shutting down of the McCormick machine shops was a
great blpw tp the sp-cajlcd guardians oflaboi. They thought
Again the country is favored with the interesting discussion
of the Fitz-John Porter question. The arguments are being
rehashed, pro and con; friends and foes are becoming excited;
and the valuable(?) time of Congress is being wasted. It is
to be hoped that the bill will carry; for whether he ought to
be punished or not, whether he was and is a traitor or not, life
is too short to waste months of each year in discussion of the
question. Indications arc that he will be reinstated, if not
this time, some other year, for as long as he lives, this ques
tion will be brought up, until it carries; and if he should die
the question might be brought up by some enthusiastic friend.
The one thing illustrated by the case is the tendency of Amer
ican custom to allow a person convicted of anything trial after
trial till he is acquitted. If enough trials are granted this will
always be the outcome, because the facts and circumstances
grow cold, and we are apt so say that perhaps he was rjot so
far wrong as we or our fathers thpughtat tho time, ' '