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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1881)
THE HESPERIAN STUDENT. has spent in their preparation. When others were engaged in frivolous sports he was hard sit work. Few students value highly enough the importance of steady application. Faithful and earnest work lm made more names honoml and re pectcd than nature by lavishing her gift. It is reported of the Duke of Wellington ihat he said the battle of Waterloo was won on the plny-groumL of Eaton. As lMy and man his mind was ever busy with miliUiry schemes. When the great opportunity was oflfefed him. when the hopes and fears of impatient and agitated Europe centered upon him, the study and preparation of years made him equal to the occasion made him the hero of the age. No untutored soldier, no novice conquered such a man as Napoleon. The ( lives of great men teach us the value of industrious habits. Their fame came to them because it was earned. The flighty geniuses are not the onus who sustain 3 nation's honor or make her glory fast and enduring. The hard worker has ever been u-warded. Industry brings her victories. Tlne who bear Ibis in mind, may some da hope to attain the middle rounds, if nut the top of the ladder. three good daily papers? It would be quite an accommodation to the students. It would supply a want that is keenly felt. NKWfii'Ai'EKS arc sought alter by all, the old and young alike, and students are no t xcfpiion to the gvuciul rule. They, too, j like to know what is going on in the world. We have no hesitation in saying that the American people read papers too much. True, one cannot obtain a surplus ol true knowledge. That is just the point. Mote than half of the reading matter of the modern political paper (and it is the one generally lead) is uot of a tiaturc to warrant appioval. It is light. Involous, weakening in its tendencies. To read such is not to gain information i become better posted. It is to render the mind incapable of exerting itself to n full extent. It is to deaden energy itself. All regret that the public taste is - low as to demand that nuwsuapcrs fill iJjeir columns with such. The newspaper ) but the reflex of popular sentiment. The public is to blame if it is not what it thould be. Willi all Its defects, the newspaper is tety essential to our progieas and educa tion. By it we are informed concerning tlic active, busy present; by it we are made citizens of to-day , and not of a week, fortnight or month past. Students like everybody else desire to keep posted. They can only do this by reading the good or essential part of a newspaper. This takes little of their time, provided the paper ib bandy. Few students are able to take a daily. So, whenever they debire the news they are compelled to go to the public reading room of the city. Would it not be well for Hie University leading room V he furnished with two or Tiiekk are few good debaters in the University Why this is so, we do not know. Most of the members slight their socic3' work, especially tlic debate. Two or three hours ptcparatiou they consider sufllcicut, and as a result their arguments are scarcely woith listening to. We are not a very firm believer in extent pornue ous speaking. When a persou has stud, ied over a subject much, read a great ileal about it, and then speaks upon it without notes or manuscript, some say, "What a fine extemporaneous speech!" It was not extemporaneous. It had been thought of, the principal points had been revolved over and over in the speaker's mind, in short, be had mastered his sub ject. To understand a subject thoroughly is, when called upon, to be able to speak knowingly, accurately and fluently upon It. No man ever grew eloquent over a subject he knew nothing about. Prepara tion is as essential in debate as in any thing else. Another bad habit is that so many debaters constantly refer to their notes, thus losing the attention of the audience. To read a debate is bad enough, but to stumble along over notes is worse. To cany conviction one must talk to the audience, uot the paper he has in his hand or the one on th table. It is a good plan for a new debater to write out what he has to say, and commit it. Tliis much he is then sure to have. If the op posing ones made an assertion he thinks he can refute, be can do it either before or after he makes his prepared speech. The secret of the success of many who are considered our best debaters is, that thej commit what ihey have to say if not the words, thejthoughls at least. Tins Democrat seems to take a deep in terest in the welfare of the University and repeatedly calls upon the Chancellor to prohibit students from doing this or that. There are those who never forget the training of their childhood. As their fathers did, so do they. Were they the on I) kind of people, this world would make little advancement. Progress would be frowned down, and the dark clouds of superstition and ignorance that so long enveloped the human race could never have rolled away. Years ago, the more iron-clad rules a teacher could lay down and enforce, the better he discharged his duty. Public opinion forget that boys and girls grew to be the men and women of the land. Tyranny sat in the teacher's chair and the rod was his chief adviser. Does not the Democrat rejoice that those times are past! or docs it condemn the enlightenment of the age that now recog nizes the ftudents as a part of humanity that is to be developed into useful, practi cal and educated citizens? The Student does uot hold that the University students are perfect in their actions, nor has it any desire to champion their wrong doings. What is wrong is wrong. The plea, however, that so many make, that it is not right for students to do that which it is right for others to do' it holds to be nonsense. Surely, the young men and women, taken as a class, that attend the University, know why they are here. But because they are students, this can be no good reason why rules should be laid down to ostracize them from soci ety. Wer e such rules, however, produc tive of good, all would accept them, accept them because they were for the. best. The reports of colleges that have adopted such plans are not of a nature to lead one to think that they result in good. The gov eminent is best that appears to govern least. Rules that impeach a student's manhood, and, of course, constantly broken, never yet made a University pros per. Let other institutions, if they choose, shackle their students with regulations telling them how they shall conduct themselves, when and how they shall ap pear in society, circumscribe them in every possible way, but it is not what the Nebraska University desires. First student, at one of our principal boarding clubs: "Say, are those biscuits fresh?" Second student: "No! those arc Soph imore buscuits. They were fresh last year." Why are some of the University girls liice cadet rifles? Because they would at tract no attention at all if it were not for for their bangs. And this by a military student, f oo ! In the prepantory department one- of the professors had occasion to ask the rule for the use of the hyphen. Writing on the black-board "birds-nest," he pointed to the hyphen and asked the class, "What is that for?" After a short pause a bril liant product from the Lincoln' high school answeied, "Please, sir, for the bird to roost on '" An old man was fishing on Sunday morning, just before church time, when the curate saw him, and inquired in ddl cet tones: " My man, don't you bear those heaven ly chimcB?" "Eh?" " Don't you hear those heavenly chimes calling you?" Beg pardon, sir; but I really can't hear what you say for those infernal belts." a
