THE HESPERIAN STUDENT.
I
THE HESPERIAN STUDENT.
Published semi-monthly by tlio Btudonts of tho
Nebraska State University.
Wednesday, February 1, 1882.
EDITORS IN CHIEF,
May B. Faiiifield. N. Z. Snell.
Local Editoh, Clem Chase.
A BSOCIATE EllITOlt AVlLL O. JONES,
Uosiness Manaoeu, IJ. F. Mahsiiall.
THUMB OF HUBSCIUrTION.
1 copy pur collofio year gl.OO.
1 " one half year .60.
Single copy .05.
ItATKH OF AIlVEItTIHIKH.
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All articles for publlcntiin should bo addressed
Editor llEsrEitiAN Student, State University,
Lincoln, Nebraska. All subscriptions and busl
ncss communications, with tho address, should
be sent to B. F. MARSHALL . SubscriptioiiB col
lecte'd invariably in advance Advertisements
collected monthly.
JgiVitorUil,
The two societies of the University now
have an enrollment of nearly one hundred
and twenty-five. One hundjed students
or more belong to no literary organization.
This state of affairs should not exist. We
have material enough for two more socio,
tics at least.
The Student believes that tho campus
should receive more attention from the
Regents. True, the funds available are
limited and the demands for lid from Ihe
many departments of the University are
numerous, but a small sum should be
appropriated eacli year for tho grounds.
Good walks, morn flowers and shrubs, and
trees of a better class than the rank cot
ton wood are among the things most
desired at present. The cost will be in.
significant when compared with tho ben
cflts to be derived. Can not something be
done, and soon ?
Ouu etiquette tells us that there is such
a thing as politeness; and that the oxer.
ci?e of it shows refinement. A person
may ask a very slight favor of another but
do it in such a manner as to give offenso
and have the request denied. Imperious
ness even to inferiors Is not commendable.
The evenly balanced temper that knows
neither tho excess of haughtiness nor tho
servility of flattery please even when it
has a disagreeable task to perform. Polite
ness and respect never did harm to any
one, while the want of one or both has
often made an enemy when different treat
ment would have made a friend. Official
rank gives to one authority, it is true; but
in organizations whoso objects are self
culture and literary excellence, commands
only iudicato a spirit not yet subdued by
experience, or an inborn desire to tramplo
on tho rights of others.
The Regents at their last meeting elected
Prof. Thompson to tho chair of Didactics.
This is a new departure. Gradually tho
University is increasing its facilities and
silently and surely taking its place as ono
of the best and leading colleges in tho
West. Tlic graduate of a half.dozen years
would hardly recognize his alma mater.
Tho University of to-day is no more like
the University of '72 or '73 than is tho
child of fourteen like tho man of thirty.
The schools this side of Michigan, bettor
than our own, arc few. Our course of
study is not a visionary one merely on
paper but it is carried out in full. The
Student announces with pleasure any
change or addition that places the Univer
sity on a broader basis, thus giving a
wider scope to the work of students.
Many who tho future intend to teach yill
gladly avail thcmsolvcs of the opportunity
of Prof. Thompson's instruction.
The Regents luivo come and gone and
so far as tho report of their meetings have
been mado public, nothing was said or
done with regard to the prolonged absence
of one of tho college profcs&ors, and wo
are to go on, probably, as best wo may
without him. Students who have come
here, it may be, with special reference to
their studies in the natural sciences aro
to be relegated again to tho tutorship of
busy students who neither possess nor
claim to possess any special fitness for tho
work assigned to them, or to professors
who give these new duties what time they
can sparo from their own legitimate and
well-understood departments. It is a
shame that is so. Tho people of Nebraska
through their Regents do not hire a man
as Professor in the University that lie may
spend week after week of tho school year
in digging around for stones and fossils
of a by-goiio age, or locating coal-beds
which never pay to work, or finding oil
wells whose supply is as uncertain as tho
winds that blow, or attending trials whoso
subpoenas aro unlimited as to time and
useless as to fame. Presumably they em
ploy him to teach the students of the Uni
versity and give thorn all tho help ho can
and the benefit of an experience ripened
by years of study and a thorough knowl
edge of his department.
benefactor to mankind, arc so extravagant
that ono is led to bolicvo tho eulogizer
hinisolf hath little of this world's goods
and this is his only recommendation to
tho notice of tho world. Tho Student
does not bolicvo that genius is tho son of
J poverty nor mediocrity the son of wealth.
it readily grants that the trials and hard
ships attending tho advancement of a
poor youth havo often developed him,
brought his faculties into their utmost
play and mado him far superior to his lei.
lows. Hut why was it so? Ikcnusosuch an
ono was gifted with a strong determination
and will power. Born rich or poor he
would havo been a noted man. To such
an one adversity and poverty is a blessing,
as it stimulates and excites to action.
Walter Scott is an admirable example of
this class. What would havo crushed the
life of hope out of a man with less deter,
mination than Scott, was to him, only
the more of an Incentive to action.
As wo arc given different power, so aro
our characters shaped and moulded by
different influences. And tho statement
that poverty makes one, provided by one
all is meant, is false. Tho timid and vis.
ionary Keats stood not in need of stern
and rigid poverty; nor did Poo. They
needed kind words and sympathizing
friends. Some require that tho path of
life bo strewn with flowers if tlioy accom
plish any good or noble results. For such
riches arc a blessing, not a curse. There
are low general laws tlr.it apply to all
mankind. That which is true of ono
clu3s is not always true of another. If
tills bo borne in mind, few will make tho
unqualified assertion that poverty is a
blessing alike to all.
We often hear it preached, and it is
ever before us in print, that tho sons of
poor men becomo the great statesmen,
financiers, poets and novelists; that we
look to them for the solution of all our
difficult problems. Tho praise heaped
upon a man, born poor, who becomes a
A new departure, and commendable as
well as new, wo notice on the programme
of one of the societies. It is the scheme
for a prize debate, preceding which aro to
bo three preliminary debates open to all
tho society, at least the first ono is free
to all who register their names with tho
secretary. Competent judges will give
these speeches their careful attention and
tho best of tho debaters at ihe first pre
liminary dobato will bo given an oppor
tunity of cutting down their numbers at
the second preliminary debate. Finally
tho six best debaters who aro left after the
third trial are to hold a prizo dobato tho
first of Juno. Tho best debater at this Inst
contest, we suppose, may justly consider
himself the champion debater of the soci
ety. This prize debute will bo of great
advantage to tho society, or more properly
speaking, it can and ought to bo mado of
great benefit to all concerned. To be log
ical, methodical in the arrangement of
ouo's ulcus and concise and clear in put
ting them before one's hearers or readers,
to bo impressive in manner and eloquent
in speech, is to be a powerful ally or oppo-
fttl
