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About The Hesperian / (Lincoln, Neb.) 1885-1899 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 1894)
T II E II ESP E R I A N. behaved. When a person has practised ploughing hip way through the crowds in the hall here for several weeks he is better edu cated than he knows. He can keep his temper in a crowd which is about the height of culture anyway. "The lamb is willing to lie down with the lion, but not inside of it." So wrote Chan cellor Crook of the Wesleyan in response to some sort of proposition for hitching the little Wesleyan cart on to our big band wagon and then going on with the music. Well, whatever the head and paws of the the lion think about the matter, it is certain that the bone and sinew send back word for once that they don't want that lamb. They feel better off without it They know their strength, but it isn't quite up to such a lamb yet. It is true, however, that students and other people are possessed with the idea that the university is a huge swallowing machine, that the city of Lincoln was only created to furnish material for its growth, that the uni versity is the world and the rest of the sur rounding country is only suburbs to be in corporated as soon as possible. It is good to learn once in a while that the suburbs ob ject, that our corner of the earth is not the only one, and that we ourselves are not the only people in the university. In this case of course, it would be greatly to the benefit of the little lamb if it would incorporate its strength with the lion's but it doubtless don't see the matter that way. It is really amusing to see how innocent and unsuspecting some of our dear professors are. They get so wrapped up in their work that they do not see how Tom is reciting his Latin grammar with the grammar wide open before him, how Dick is writing his French verb on the board with the useful assistance of his French grammar, how Harry is passing his Shakespeare examination with the help of Rolfe's copious notes. Ponying is not at all a lost art; it flourishes to a degree unmen tionable. They do say there are proud seniors' who are adepts in the art, who will get the blue ribboned documents vouching for their scholarship and their good character just like those who have worked for theirs. Carlyle would have been a sourer cynic than- he was, considerable less of a believer in "the just thing, the true thing" if he had spent, a year here. And if he had been an editor on this paper he surely would have made it morally hot for a great many people. As for us we merely drop a suggestion. There is not-a single person who "ponies" who is not known to some one else who is not addicted to the vice, and who is not most thoroughly des pised by that .person. Ponying is almost as despicable as stealing a Thanksgiving mince pie and like the pie it is sure to bring its own punishment. It takes, sometimes a grain of courage to say "I do nof know." It takes oceans of gall to pony. And it is strange that some people prefer the gall. It is a great pity that that thunder-bolt notice on the bulletin board, concerning the dropping of special students, didn't mean what some of us fervently hoped it would. It didn't mean that some of the dear girls who come here to study French and gym. and boys were to pick up their book-baskets and go. Not at all. All it meant was that the rules of the august faculty were to be observed, that the "special permission" was to be obtainen, and then all would be straight. Just a little red tape, that was all. If there is one person in the university who could be spared better than another it is the boy, prep or senior, who has a way of put ting his great big feet across an adjacent chair in the library. There is not much chance for him to exercise his talent but he never misses an opportunity. He is endur able when he places his feet modestly on the lower rung of the chair. But when he aspires t to rise in the world and commences opper ations by stepping up to the second rung and then takes possession of the seat, nothing but a polite note from the executive office telling (him that his mama wants him at home fits his case. A boy's feet are ordinarily no -objects of beauty and the more they are kept where they are not conspicuous, the better. The Univertity Debating Association seem to have about as definite an idea of what it wants as did the boys who prayed for a king.
