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About The Hesperian / (Lincoln, Neb.) 1885-1899 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 19, 1893)
THE HESPEKIAN 9 o lovo, it ib pleasing to traco over the days of this illustrious genius and lose onosolf in quiet visions of ftincy and inspirations that arise in thoso peacoful surroundings. My littlo guide waB waiting for mo when I etimo down stairs and togothor wo rotracod our stopB through tho green lanes of Shot tory, across tho smiling fields and meadows, through tho turn stilo and into tho villago of Stratford, whore wo mot many childron just coming homo from school. On leaving my littlo friend ho wrote in my note book in a largo round and clear hand, his name and address as follows: George Garner, aged 10 years, guide to Anno Hathaway cottage. Ho waved his hand to me as I stepped in to tho coach and waB soon lost to view by a bond of tho road as wo crossed tho old Clop ton bridge, with its fourtoon stone arches, spanning tho beautiful Avon. COLLEGE STORIES. Some people think that college stories are among tho things whose room is bettor than their company. They would like to see tho space that these occupy, filled with news, with notes on athletics, with full-longth re ports of contest orations. They tell us that the English department should give practice in writing of this sort, but that a college pa per has no place for a story, unless, indeed, it bo of "props" and of "programs" and of "scratching tho slato," something, in fact, so distinctly local as to bo indisputably un litorary. Now tho object of tho English department is not, as I c'onstruo it, to publish students' work, however meritorious, or however in teresting. The student does his work for no oye but the instructor's. It is not read aloud, except as an example or as a warning. It is not, except for purposes of grading, brought into comparison with the work of others. It is returned corrected with com ment, advice and suggestions, and there the jnission of tho English department ends. Just hero is tho place where tho college paper is noodod. It gives a dofinito goal to tho student's literary ambition. Ho may now submit his work to tho student public, and hero a good story is sure to find appre ciative readers, and appreciation is tho grandest stimulus. Besides this work is not out of place. Collogo papers aro not merely to tell of students and student life; they aro rather to speak from Btudents, to express tho inmost spirit of student life, and this, I trust, is not unlitorary. Suppose the work is im mature. There is sometimes in immature things a force and a fire that maturity too ofton subdues. Besides, our students are not childron, even if they aro stiil called "boys" and "girls." They aro men and women some of them old enough to do work with power in it. Tho University lacks that spirit of appre ciation, of culture, of sympathetic expecta tion that makes literature possible. And towards attaining this spirit, I know of no means better than tho college literary paper. Wo give our orators opportunity to gesticu late, wo go out to see our foot-ball players defeated, and spend our money for it, too, but some of us aro quite unwilling to en courage this higher ambition of college life, this desire to put one's best self on paper. This must be changed. It is safe to say that it will bo changed. Tho columns of The Hesperian have contained good stories, some of tho best stories that I have ever read in any college paper, but these are all tho work of a few writers. It is for the students at largo to show that they appreci ate tho opportunity. Lot us have stories, and more stories, and make them so good that tho critics, while they abuse them, will bo anxious to road them. Herbert Bates., Joseph Garneau, jr., commissioner general, shipped tho entire furniture of tho Nebraska World's Fair building to the Interior Dec orative Co., to bo sold out as souvenirs. Crandall, tho gasoline stove repairer, 1345 0 street.
