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About The Hesperian / (Lincoln, Neb.) 1885-1899 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 1898)
THE: HESPERIAN THE JJESPERJAK The National Convention is an unusual event. It amounts to an escape valve for our ambitious political embryos. It will serve both to gratify by success and to embitter by defeat "Let him that standeth take heed lest be fall." ward the coming contest and the general in terest evinced on the outcome. Last year hardly a single debater favored oratory, this year it is difficult to find a debater who does not favor it. We shall not only meet S. U. 1. on our own grounds in base ball but also in tennis. Mr. Burgertfs success in arranging a tennis meet at about the same time as the ball game, is to be commended. Nothing can be lost by giv ing the game of tennis its fitting place in athletics. - in view of the fact that our contemporary i i its advertisements in both the '9S Sombrero and the last Y. M. C. A. handbook refers so proudly to itself as the 'ray" the following is s.ilf explanatory: "Hag, n. a slang term for a common or low newspaper" Webster's Encyclopedio Dictionary. It is. determined tliat Iowa and Nebraska will meet in joint debate. The acceptance of our challenge, while not under the best con ditions, is a matter of gratification. The fact that the f. U. 1. Debating League turned the debate over to their Law Society will justify us in placing our part in the hands of one of our clubs here. We will surety not be justi fied in making it a University matter as against a club. The debate should be assigned to one ijfjour clubs under such limitations and restrictions as are deemed proper. This method would match club against club and not the University against a single department of S. U. I. The article appearing in the ltu of last week under the caption of "Plain Facts in the Matter." which it is claimed had execu tive inspiration, contained partial truths. But the partial truths were told in such a way as to make the article as a whole a gross misrepresentation. The article begins by de nying the rumors alloat," Before the writer finishes he proves the very thing he started out to deny. In the first place the Business Manager of the Hesperian never 'concluded that an injustice would be done etc." He did however do that which he was in no sense bound to do. that is, leave the matter in ques tion to the discretion of tin executive. He was in no way bound to do this as the Uni versity had subscribed for a certain number of papers. It was not an a dvcrtising con tract. The Hesperian was not "employed" as an advertising circular. It was never even suggested that the Hesperian was to be denied the dignit' of a college paper. It is not altogether probable that it ever will be denied this privilege. It i not much more probable that an occasion for such denial will ever present itself. The talk that oratory is dead in the Univer sity is a thing of the past. A hearty, healthy interest in it is manifest. Moreover that in terest is increasing in strength and intensity each day. As a body, we have finally come to realize that oratory is a very efficient aid to debate and that grace in the art of speaking is acquired rather in the delivery of a finished oration, than in the clashing confusion of any exciting debate. One indication of the revival in oratory is the uniform friendly feeling to- Charter Day is once more upon us. That da-, dear to every University man's heart . bringing with it the memories of well-nigh forty years gone, is with us once again. The natal-day of the University, the monument to the wisdom of the fathers, the commemoration-day of the Founders, it is at once the holy-daj of the past and the hope-day of the future. Gathered around it is a history as interesting as that of our own Nebraska; in deed, the founding, the growth, the expand ing of the University but serves to typify the evolution of state. The unbroken prairies have become the fer tile fields of the commonwealth: the unpopu lated territory has become the state, teeming with frugal and industrious people; the once "barren expanse of waste has been converted into the store-house of the nation. Planted out upon the prairie, with scant