82
THE NEBRASKAN
Worthington academy?" "Arc you a Cot
ncritc?" Ye gods !
The matter could be taken in hand by the
student-body with a committee to select
something appropriate and not too expens
ive. If the students as a whole do not care
to undertake the thing, two or three enter
prising individuals might make a suitable
selection and start a button shop. We think
they would have a good trade and make
money. If the buttons were only here and
in sight the students would buy them. This
is a fine chance for some "Napoleon of Fin-
given purely as a reward for the best work
would be a splendid thing for the students.
It will probably be a diflicult thing to
establish a chapter here at least at present.
But we can got to work. It may take us live
years as it has K. S. U but the personal
honor and prestige will far exceed any labor
expended. Let us make a start, and even if
we can't get the benefits at once and for our
selves, the blessings of "unborn Seniors"
ought to be amp'e reward.
One or two of our exchanges are veritable
ance" to show his college spirit and at the caamjty howlers nothing about their Uni-
same time pay up his bacK ooara anci versity ;s right; simGnis and faculty are
laundry bill. alike going to perdition. We don't believe
that is the proper way to bring about a re
Down at the State University of Kansas form, partly because such professional fault
there is a chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa finding, such cynical pessimism soon falls, by
fraternity. Why not try to get one at the jts own weight, into disrepute ; partly because
U. ofN.? To many of our students the a college journal is not always an infallible
very sight of Greek letters, outside of a text criterion and moral guide, even though it be
book, is odious, but the Phi Beta Kappa s0 considered bv its editors.
possesses none of the dangerous and demor
alizing features usually ascribed, in western
colleges, to the common ordinar' "frat." It
is a purely honorary society. Members are
However, the college journal is the proper
medium for kindly administered rebukes
when they seem to be needed. Therefore
we shall occasionally warble forth a gentle
chosen each year from the Senior Class, the complaint about what we see or hear. Be it
selection being based almost entirely on understood, though, that it is always an
scholarship. About ten are chosen from amicable, why-not-tonight-dear-brother sort
each graduating class. K. S. U. has the Qf a complaint; a friendly remonstrance,
only chapter west of the Mississippi and had never a malignant howl ; a criticism made
to work hard for five years to get it. wi,n infinite pain to ourselves and ouly bear
To beMdentified for life with the Phi Beta able because in the interests of humanity in
Kappa,to feel oneself a part of an organiza- general and N. S. U. students in particular,
tion that Lowell and Holmes and Emerson With this brief and pacific introduction
have made famous and of which they were we wish to call attention to a couple of
themselves a part, is surely worth trying for. things not exactly as they should be only
The method of choosing candidates would two. The first and worst is the order at
in itself stimulate Seniors and prospective chapel exercises. Aside from reverential
Seniors to making the very best possible motives, which ought to be sufficiently strong
effort to do good work. Now that the meth- in themselves, there is a very urgent reason
od ofclose, individual markings in exam- why we should try individually to keep quiet,
inations has been abolished and very We ought to consider and respect those
properly, we think much of the competitive around us. You may be an infidel of the
spirit for high rank has b.en lost. Such an worst type, but that doesn't entitle you to
honor as a Phi Beta Kappa membership, the privilege of disturbing the devotions of a
given at the end of the college course and dozen students all about you. They
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