Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Hesperian / (Lincoln, Neb.) 1885-1899 | View Entire Issue (March 10, 1894)
THE HESPERIAN into a sliRpoloss mass. It is the samo bully instinct a little rofined. Ho seemed very enthusiastic about Univorsitv matters, but it Seomod rather boyish and minaturo in a man of his ago. It was not a largo kind of enthusiasm, that could tako in principles and beliefs, it was a potty traditionary sort of enthusiasm that' was confined to a few people and incidents. He is liberal to all University enterprises, but it seems to bo rather to perpetuate his own name and famo among the students. Ho has no particular business except hanging around the Univer sity in order that people may ask who ho is and bo told what fine marks ho used to get in his classes. Ho has ability enough, but lie just seemed to quit growing when ho graduated. Ho has never got past the blue ribbon, sheepskin, "vos salutamus" stage. He is a University graduate, and that's all ho over will bo in this world or that to come. Sho sits in the back row in tho chapel, talking to a boy. She makes every effort to entertain him and seems to succeed. At last his class boll rings and ho goes out. She smiles and waits patiently for the next youth who enters. So she continues until chapel time, after chapel she goes out into the hall and converses until dinner, goes homo, dines, and hurries back to the scene of her duties. The afternoon she spends in chapel, until drill time. Then flees to the armory and smiles sweetly down from tho gallery. The next day her routine is tho samo, save that she does not have to attend drill. She carries a few books, but sho never opens thorn. Those who haunt the back row of the chapel toil not, neither do they spin. Tho first term she takes 3rill, chapel and gymnasium and a little French. Tho second semester her instructors tell her it will not be necessary for her to tako French any more, and sho is glad, for she found her work getting very heavy. The class bolls ring and the classes come and go, but that bell does not IrGublo her bland serenity nor thrill her soul with terror. She is like tho high gods who dwell at ease beyond reach of sunlight or shadow. Sho has nothing to hope, nothing to fear. Sho can flunk no flatter, profs, and instructors have lost their power ovor her. Sho has been released from an evil spell. She no longer trembles when sho meets her French prof. "When one skips class occasionally it is-not pleasant to meet ono's prof., but when life is one long delicious skip, it is different. Sho oven feols rather superior to hor French prof, now, sho has got so far beyond French, she rather pities him. Sho is a sort of "Childe Roland who is boyond tho power of fate. It was at tho Junior promenade. Ho had . never danced in a largo crowd before, aud certainly to be initiated in that terrible strug gle was an ordeal. Ho was young and strong and full of hope, and ho was a thor ough, trusting churchman or ho would never have lived through it. Ho was scarcely in side the hall when ho was introduced to a young lady and recklessly asked her for a waltz, just to hear himself do it. To his utter amazement sho handed him her pro gram and pointed to the third waltz which was vacant. "With trembling hand ho wrote his initials, vaguely remembering Faust's compact and wondering that the pencil did not ignite Lewis-Morrison fashion in his hand. Then he hurried off overcome by dread of the awful thing ho had done. He folt sure he could not dance, he knew ho could not. He looked about and saw the hundreds of people he knew who would see him make a fool of himself. Hia boots were new and tight and it was tho first time he had ever worn a dress suit, and it seemed to him that everyone was looking at "him. He pitied the-girl, he wondered if he would fall down with hor, he hoped not. He wandered about, the nervous dread growing worse and worse as the dances went by and the third waltz grew nearer. Ho longed to slip away, but every way ho turned ho met her eyes. He wished ho was a girl, then ho could go to his mamma, though at that particular danco the mammas danced more than their m
