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About The Hesperian / (Lincoln, Neb.) 1885-1899 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1892)
' Nfc) 1 W TTTE IT ES PER TAN.' l, t - ion." Is the one lone landmaik of former clays the ticc on J the first page of 'he Palo Alto? fs this tree, the almost sacred landmark of the past, still rcmcmbeied for the piescnt and will it continue to he rcmeinbeicd in the futuie by the cditois of the Palo Alto? Or is this landmaiU of the past foi gottcn, or is it merely oveishadowed by the gient land mnik elected for the benefit ol uture ages? ALUMNI AND FORMER STUDENTS, Editor Alumni Department, Ilr.sri'.KlAN: The discussion in your paper about the advisability of the uuiveisity continuing a member of the N. C. O. A. I have read with considerable interest. A leading editorial on this subject in a late number 1 have i cad with amusement and won der. The amusement was caused by the dense ignorance of facts displayed; the wonder of, seeing such a snapshot aitiele in Tin: IIksit.uian. I icfet to the editotial insisting that the uuiveisity oratois wmle their state contest orations befnie bieakfast, and committed thorn while eating, or at .some Mhor absurd time. Now, unless my memon fails me, Piofossor Wainer, your fust repiesentative, worked .is long as nine months on his ora tion.The reputation that he enjoys, and the position he holds, aie a sufficient guarantee that his oration was not of the befoie-breakfast sort. On the contraiy it was piobably a finer ointion than any that has ever been produced in this state, by a college student. If he did wiite it before bieakfast and commit it while eating, I wish some of the lest of you would go and do likewise. The undersigned had the misfoituiu (soiiously) to be your second icpresentative in the memoiable Crete contest. He woiked at least nine months on his speech. Mi. Fogar'y your third representative worked,, to the writers positive knowledge, tliiec months on his, and more for all the writer knows to the contiary. Mr. Chappell your fouith and last representative worked on his speech for ovei twelve months. So much foi the befoie-breakfast business. College oratory can never acquire the dignity of a business like pursuit. Oiatory is not puisued calmy and quietly like history, botany, or cnginceiing. Its main purpose seems to be to affoid some one an opportunity for displaying himself amid applause and blue lights and to waul off consumption by furnishing vigorous lung c.xcerciso to the students in gencial. This you will not believe. Hut they of us who have been theic are united in this opinion. Why did not Mi. Kogaity and the writer enter a second lime? It was admitted without qualification that they could have cairied the day had they tried again. Simply because the gloiy and loveliness of inter collegiate oiatory hail passed away as far as they weie con cerned. They had learned by cpeiienee how bupeificial and insincere college oratory at bottom is. This is lninly the way the public feels. The cuUuied poitiou of the public thioughout the state classes intercollegi ate oratoiy with tin-hoin lootings, statue paintings, foot ball games and other "periodical outbicaks of general cussed ness." We, out here in the state, don't care a continental whcthei the univeisitj loses 01 wins. What we dodeploic into see the uuiveisity with its imputation for earnest business like woik having anything to do with the insiuceie, unbiKtiuess like foolishness of intei collegiate oraloiical contests. Theie is tonsuloiablc fun, the wiiter admits, in going olf somewheieon a tiain, tooting yoiu horns, and yelling your university yell and rattle-brained clnss, yells. Hut such a pieceeduie should be ch.uacteiistie of foot ball games, and not of oiatoi). Between the two theie is a gieat diffeience. Foot-ball comes undei the domain of spoit. People look upon it as spoil. It flffects only the spotting sid.e of uuiveisity life. Oiatory comes under the domain of business just as do history, chem istry or botany. It effects the educational reputation of the uuiveisity, the faculty, the curriculum, the thoioughness of the work done. That students and public 'class both together must be piejudicial all mound. The wiiter fails to see how it can be any thing else. The less you believe, or think you believe that college oratory is piolitable, sincere, and business like when in your hearts you know it is not, the sooner will this intcr-eollegiatc-oratorical-contest foolishness die its pre destined death. This business pi esonts another phase: Most ofyouheaid the inter-state contest two yeais ago. In, addition the writer heaid the inter-state contest of thiee yeais ago. One who heais much of this cannot but be stiuek with the great similar ity in all college orations. How they icck with convention alities! Nine out of ten refer in some way to the American eagle, and the stars and stripes, (whoop) the Mayflower, the Kiench Revolution, Egypt, as Chinch would put it, cut a pietty wide swaith. In college oratory as in something else, I forget what, nil loads seem to lead to Rome. If there ever was a college oratei who meant what he said in his oration, the writer will gladly pay his railroad expenses for the pleas ure of seeing him. The orator may have meant in an arti ficial momentary way what he said. Put to mean it in a sin ceie, Unions, permanent way, with your whole soul,' is a veiy diffeient thing. It is only the lattei sort that counts, and to have anything to do with the othci pvioleehnie variety in the wi iter's opinion do not pay. Why all of you instinctively admit this. Let a boy make a speech on business in your debating club, your athletic 01 riusiT.uiAN meetings, 01 in fact anywheie, and make it with the oiatoi ical contest style of articulaiion and gesture, and ou would laugh him down in short older. You always do it. Yet the same ridiculous mannerisms applied to "oratory" arc looked upon as the pink of perfection. How there can be any sense in cultivating a style of speaking, for the sole pur pose of gaining a little cheap glory, when tle same style applied to serious business affairs makes them ridiculous, Jhe wiitei, in his obtuscness, fails to see. The wiiter in conclusion, also fails to see how anyone of a sound mind can advise the university to have anything more to do with this oratorical-contest foolishness. It tends to make the university ridiculous. It has by your own tacit cvery-day admission no practical benefits. You yourselves do not look upon it as a sci ions matter. The writer who has been there can testify fiom experience that it docs not pay in any sense whatever. He knows that three of the four university repre sentatives would advise you to quit. The writer suppose nay expects that a laige number of inconsistencies will be shown up in this by some razor-edged intellect. Very sincerely, t (li:o. W. Da.wt.rs. A icccnt lcllei fiom "Ilaron" Stoughton now at Haivaid divinity school may lie of interest. There seems to be a slight vein of homesickness in some portions ol it. He does not think theie is much enthusiasm at the divinity school nor energy enough in the people of Cambridge to build sidewalks. Hut one thing that all will be glad to hear is that our univer sity beais a most excellent reputation among the post grad uates of Ilaivard. "I woiked all acatio.i on a topic' for the Ilebietv litcia luic class. I jist finished it to-night, though I shall have to add my bibliography yet. My subject is the first six chap ters of Joshua. I have to sepaiate them into the various doc uments, of the patching together of which the nanative is made. It is veiy badly mixed, up a,n,il I, hay? not cleaned, up any, of comse,"