8
THE HESPERIAN
plnnntion, prosontod to his audionco scones
that wcro so revolting as to almost, niako his
hoarors cry out with indignation at such at
rocities. Ho throw on tho sercon a series of
pictures showing exiles lying in state after
having committed suicide on account of tho
hardships thoy were enduring in their con
vict homo. Next after those came the pic
ture of tho dead Russian Czar, Alexander
II. What a contrast! The first wcro re
volting sights, but enlisted our sympathy,
Tho Czar lay in all tho pomp and magnifi
cenco that is always accorded to the lifoless
body of a ruler. How different whoro tho
feelings of the audience towards tho dead
body of tho Czar from their feelings of sym
pathy for the poor dead exiles. Certainly
such a despotic government connot last long
when there is so much feeling against it in
tho world at largo. The pictures of indi
vidual exiles that were thrown upon tho
screen, and the remarks of tho lecturer,
showed that mo3t of the originals were in
telligent sympathetic beings engaged in al
most every occupation ; some were min
isters of the gospel, some poets, others
school teachers, and others were in other
occupations. The pictures showed that most
of them had splendid intellectual features,
thus throwing tho lie into the teeth of tho
officials, who said the exiles were fanatic, an
archistic, ignorant beings who deserved no
pleasures in life, and, we may add, that they
certainly received none. Mr. Kennan's des
cription of how ho and others obtained and
smuggled a little girl out of the prisons of
Siberia so she might join her poet father in
Albany, New York, who had just escaped
from his prison home in Russia, was vivid,
and the success of his plan was applauded
to tho echo. Tho little girl's mother had
committed suicide in a Russian prison, and
tho father in New York was almost wild
with grief at the thought of his little girl
being shut up in a Russian prison. His joy
on again meeting his little daughter and that
too in a country where such a thing as exile
by "administrative process" is unheard of,
and where freedom is ideal as compared
with freedom in Russia, can bettor bo imaji
ined than doscribod. Wo might give num
erous examples liko this ono, for tho locture
was tilled with thorn, but spaco forbids. Wo
wero sorry not to sco a largor audionco at
tho locturo in ordor that it might havo been
a greator succoss financially and because wo
are sorry that so many missed hearing such
an intellectual treat. It was unfortunate
that Mr. Konnan on account of sickness had
to cancol his previous ongagomont, for, con
sidering the advance sale of tickets, the
audionco would havo been much larger.
We hopo Mr. Konnan will visit Lincoln in
tho near future
Language Study.
MR. LEIIMElt's THKORY CONSIDERED.
Tho spirited article of Mr. Lehmer in the
Hesperian of March 15, touching language
study deserves moro than a passing glance,
not for accuracy, common sense, or sound
logic, but for tho lack of these. Coming
from ono who has had at least a formal in
troduction to tho classics, tho ideas expressed
by Mr. Lehmer command moro attention
than thoy otherwise would, and an inquiry
into their soundness is, perhaps, not out of
ordor.
Tho lirst half of tho article referred to is
based upon tho assumption that tho object of
studying a language in tho University of
Nebraska should be to speak it. There
seems, however, no good reason to accept
this view. According to Dr. Edgren, whose
recognized scholarship and many years in
language work entitle his words to great con
sideration, class work in German should aim
at facility in reading that language. To
sjeah it, said he, one must go beyond the
opportunities afforded by tho class room.
Ho must hear and know that tongue, by asso
ciating with Germans. It is only in a puerile
way that students can learn from class work
to babble a few foreign words. If this bi
true of modern languages, how much truer it
is of the ancient! Tho latter havo no place
in our country as spoken languages. The