8
THE HESPERIAN
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disparagement, and in a spirit of mockery
dared you to battle."
"My gorge rises at it," thundered the
chief, "that I, tho most noted warrior of my
time, should bo -thus twitted by a stripling.
Behold how helpless ho is; not properly em
balmed like ourselves, but 'crammed.' He
is in my power, yet will I spare his life, for
life is at best but a burden to one who is
constantly striving in mathematics and con
stantly failing. And yet he shall not go un
scathed. Pass mo yon gleaming scimelar.
Ho shall lose by one fell blow that straggling
beard of which ho is so vain. Ho shall tor
ture us no more."
Each mocking voice in tho room took up
the cry, uHo shall torture us no more," and
tho dusky chief, with a hollow laugh, emote
the prostrate senior, first on one cheek and
then on tho other, and even as tho pride of tho
senior fell to the floor, tho first grey streaks
of the dawn looked in at the windows and all
was quiet.
"By my lovo of the Homeric Problem,"
quoth tho blonde Sophomore maiden, wedg
ing her gum deftly to tho under side of her
desk, "our grand and haughty senior has
dropped his side-boards." F. 0. P.
The athletic association is at last clear of
all indebtedness, and there is no reason why
athletics should not boom from now on. Tho
association received something like fifty dol
lars from the proceeds of the local oratorical
contest, and a little over fifty-five dollars
from tho mesmeric entertainment last
Wednesday evening. It was indeed a
happy thought to secure Professor Reynolds
to give us an entertainment. The time was
too short to advertise much, but that did not
matter, as tho student body turned out en
masse. Tho result of the whole thing is,
that tho base ball boys will have new suits.
This fact alone should cause every player to
take additional interest and do more and
better training. At present the outlook for
a successful base ball season could not be
better. "With plenty of good players, new
suits, and an abundance of practice, we are
bound to "knock the persimmon."
EXECUTIVE EXCERPTS.
ON THE PASSING OF "GREAT MEN."
Tho naive way in which so many students,
and other and older people, expressed their
astonishment and surprise at the personal
appearance of President Low, was both
amusing and instructive. It was amusing,
becauso it showed so clearly tho strong hold
which tradition has upon oven tho brightest
and best of people. It was instructive, be
cause it told with equal clearness of the
changed condition of affairs in this country;
and spoke so strongly for the increasing yet
often unrecognized democracy of America.
Time was, and not so very long ago,
when Great Men were rare enough to bo
easily noticeable, to secure a certain rever
ential following, and to bo always on the
pedestal in tho midst of a lower but admir
ing throng. They always occupied Prominent
Positions, they were always In the Public
Eye, they weie rather withdrawn from public
touch. The characteristics of greatness al
ways were aga, a certain carriage or gait or
dress (or all those combined) called "dignity,1'
and aloofness. Not that these constituted
tho only claims to "greatness," but that
these were always tho concomitants of
"greatness." The experience of tho little
girl who was disappointed because Mr.
Webster was not "as big as a church door,"
was not exceptional; and tho surprise of a
certain well known Nebraska attorney be
cause he discovered that the chancellor of
tho university was not "a somewhat decayed
clergyman, sixty-five years old, tall and
gaunt and dismal, with a flowing beard"
was only another illustration of the truth of
an old saying about "children of a larger
growth."
The very simple fact is that as soon as wo
began to left tho draperies and knock on the
pedestals of our idols, many of them were
found to be hollow and easily broken; and
others, though with heads of gold and
shoulders of brass, had feet of very common
clay. With tho advance in education and
intelligence which has como within tho past
twenty-five ysars to the entire people, tho