THE NEBRASKAN
daily drawn closer and closer together. All
men have the benefit of all markets ; the buy
ing and selling of the entire universe is on
the breakfast table of the humblest citizen.
One may leave Omaha at the close of a busy
day, be in Chicago in time for the work of
the next day, leave that city late in the after
noon, reach St. Paul in time for an early
breakfast, and leaving there late in the day,
breakfast at home again on the morrow. The
distance travelled is half across the conti
nent ; business has been transacted in three
of the great cities of the west ; and not an
hour of the business day has been lost. The
nimbleness of mind that has made this possible
has been pressed into service by equally
nimble minds in the business world. The
race between the two is constant, intense, and
straight to the finish. We live an age in a
day. Life never meant so much before.
Never were there such opportunities offered
to creative genius, to administrative skill and
executive ability.
In the midst of all this, only the alert and
read' mind can hold its own and play a
creditable part. Without this characteristic
a man sooner or later goes to the wall. It
may seem a hard fate ; it may seem cruel and
unjust ; but he goes all the same, and there is
no help for him. In all higher work the
world must have quick service, accurate ser
vice, and valuable service ; or it will have
none. It is not safe for a man to undertake
to "hang on" behind the nineteenth century.
This alertness, this preparation for intense
life, can be more readily secured in a well
conducted University than anywhere else in
the same length of time. True, it means
hard work and patient work and unsparing
vork on the part of both instructors and
instructed ; but this is precisely what ought
to be the life in any higher institution
worthy of the support and confidence of the
' State. Students should not forget this. To
acquire now the habit of loitering, of mov
ing slowly, of wasting odds and ends of time,
' of putting off till tomorrow what ought to
have. been done- yesterday, of deferring con
stantly instead of accomplishing vigorously
all this is to lose the very aim of University
life, and to go out into the world prepared
simply to lose life itself. Remember Matthew
Arnold's lines :
"Tho onergyof lifo maybe
Kept in after tho grave, but not begun;
Ho who flagged not iu tho earthly strifo,
From strength to strength advancing only ho,
His soul well knit, and all his battles won,
Mounts and he hardly to otornal life."
The Alumni Association will depart some
what from former customs in their reunion
this year. The annual address will be given
in the University chapel Tuesday evening,
June 6, the speaker being Prof. H. W. Cald
well. The social reunion will be held
Wednesday afternoon in Grant Memorial
hall, immediately following Commencement
exercises at the Lansing. Luncheon will be
first served and then will follow an after-dinner
programme, which it is designed to make
both interesting and amusing, and out of the
usual run of such programs. It is intended
to make the reception of the Senior class
into membership in the Association of more
importance and elaborateness than has here
tofore attached to it.
The following is a part of the Tprogram
for the Inter-State Oratorical Contest to be
held May 4 at Columbus, Ohio: "The
Greatness of Personality," M. J. Jones,
Wooster, Ohio ; "Cavour," A. H. Hopkins,
Lake Forest, 111 ; "Philosophy of Reform,"
W. C. Coleman, State Normal, Kansas;
"Webster and the Constitution," F. A. Heizer,
Parson's College, la. ; "The Judgments of
History," J. H. Kimball, Beloit, Wis. ; "The
Poet's Mission," F. W. Woods, Colorado
College, Colorado Springs ; "Patriotism and
Brotherhood," T. E. Wing, University of
Nebraska, Lincoln. The Indiana orator is
Mr. Hadley of De Pauw, but we don't
know the title of his oration. We have heard
nothing of the State Contests in Minnesota
and Missouri- as yet.