THE HESPERIAN STUDENT
advanced work. The almighty dollar Is
larger in their eyes than the lasting good
of their pupils. Wo hop:' this is not true
of any of our under graduates or alumni
that may be teacher.;, but, did they do
their work better, did they properly
guide and stimulate the mental energies
of the youth they meet, whether in the
school room or in the town, surely mere
would come to enjoy the advantages of a
school that for six years instruction
charges but five dollars.
Now, if never befote, is the traditional
Sophomore with all his turbulence and
wicked and ridiculous " cusscdness" gen
erally, outdone bj a couple of Juniors at
Princeton, who were so regardless of all
prudence, law or even common decency
as to lead a crowd of " innocent " Fresh
men through the streets oT the town howl
ing and binashing all the street lamps and
making themselves nuisances generally.
We quote from the Independent in calling
them " innocent " Freshmen, and are
rather inclined to quarrel with the adjec
live. However, thoy receive their just
deserts, whether so very innocent or not,
mid that too at the bauds of the munici
pal authorities. The mayor had them
arrested nml they were fined by the justice
of the peace and severely lectured also,
'and warned that a lepotition of the oH'onse
would not receive any such leniency. A
little more of this kind or justice .vould '
bpmlily remove the glamour from all
midnight carousing on the part of students
and make it as disgraceful and as much
an act of rowdyism for a collegian to tear
up sidewalks, walk off with gates and
smash windows as it is for an ordinary
citizen. The nonsense and dangerous
practices of college secret societies ought
to have been treated long ago in just this
way. Sooner or later college authorities
will have to let the state cr municipal
law take in hand all such' cases, and col
lego rowdyism and hazing will never be
fully stopped until this is done.
Tub Student, as it has taken occasion
to state before, Is not a believer in the
usefulness of the preparatory department.
It is of the opinion that the High School
of Lincoln should bear the same relation
to our University that the High School of
Ann Arbor bears to Michigan University'
viz: a preparatory dcpaitment. If it did
the interest of both could be served uest.
The High Salmi would be built up. H
would contain older, and consequent l.
butter, students than it docs now. By the
present antagonistic system the Uuivor
sity enters the market as it were, and bids
for the children, of the High School,
scarcely started in their icons, with minds
not suftlciently developed to do the work
that a college ought to requiie. Nor is
tills the worst feature of the presiMit ays
tern. When a professor of the High
School begins to requiio his pupils to do
hard and thorough work, or, when they
fail entirely in their examinations, they
show their disapproval of his teaching by
leaving his classes and entering the Uni
versity. Worthy additions, no doubt 1
Such students bring neither srtcugth nor
respect to an institution, but they do
weaken its powers and humble its dig
nity. Can it be that such should he the
case? Docs not not the University crip,
pie itself by accepting such students? Its
purpose is not to do the work of the com-
moil school. The time and energy that
professors spend with the sub-freslimau
classes is lost to that work which properly
belongs to them. By a very little
trouble, and no extra expense, arrange
incuts could be made so that the High
School of Lincoln could tit students (or
the freshman class in any one of thu three
courses of the University. In other words
the High School could, and ought to be
made the preparatory department of the
University. Why cannot it be done?
cise litis must be so, as the college p.ner
rather than the columns of the daily or
weekly press is the especial property of
tho student and accessible to him when
scarcity of space, policy or some other
equally feasible excuse might forbid him
the latter.
One of the good tilings which the new
Board of Malingers did at their last meet
ing, which was also their first, was to
provide a table or desk for the Hesperian
ofllcc. upon which arc to be kept the ex
changes received from week to week. The
Student cannot remember that those
exchanges have ever before this time been
placed whom the subscribers as well as
the editors of our college paper could
have access to them. It is time that all
should have the opportunity to see and
examine for themselves the pii ers o(
other colleges, to which, all things being
considered, the Student may be favorably
compared. Some of these college papers
are quite enjoyable and from a literary
point of view are a credit to the institu
lions from which ihcy come. The
sphere of college journalism, to judge
by the exchanges, is as boundless as that
of the daily press, and all questions of
the dny, whether of politics science,
religion, or morality, are mingled with
translations from musty authors, theories
upon ancient languages and philosophies
quotations from Horace and the Koran,
original poems and pungent locals and
these last, In papers like the Student, with
advertisements. College papers are the
medium through which the students of
tho different colleges express their opin
ions upon tho questions of vital impor
tance to them, make their complaints of
unjust and unpopular rules and restric
lions, and set forth thpir own ideas and
thoughts upon tilings in general. In
short, the colloge paper is usually just
what the students make it and is the index
When one comes to think of it there
arc really very few who are correct spel
lers always and everywhere and who, in
their daily conversation, are not guilty
again and again of the grossest violations
of English Grammar. When a student
signifies his intention of entering tho
class in Elocution and spells it " Elecu
shun," one feels like suggesting to him
tho ptoprioty of purchasing a spelling
book. Candidates for tho "Komcstry"
class arc evidently in need ot the drill
alVordcd by the district school and the old-
fnshionicd spelling bee. Even Prof. How
ard would scarcely recognize tlie"Ansliunt
History " class, though lie may a certain,
member of it unless the young man
adopts a different system of orthography.
In the opinion of the etudent children
and young people generally are not the
good spellers they used to be. Tho now
methods of teaching, the enlarged courses
of study, tho many branches now em
braced in tho common school system
which were formerly supposed to belong
especially to the academies and colleges,
necessarily prevents the time being given
to the "three It's" and to spelling, to
which of old they were entitled. And
speaking of spelling we are reminded of
that commonest of all mistakes in gram
mar, a mistake which even well educated
people make, which we hear from the
pulpit, the lecture platform and the prof
essor's chair, the mistake of using don't
for doesn't. Some phrases, through gen
eral use, gradually become to be recog
nized as allowable, and into the English
language have thus been adopted children
of a foreign birth naturalized by custom,
precedence and their frequent appearance,
in the woiks of standard authors. But no
amount of custom or use by writers and
speakers of all sorts will ever justify set
flagrant an abuse of all grammatical rules,
us ho don't, and it don't. The absurdity
of thu whole matter appears plain when,
the abbreviated form is dropped and one
attempts to say ho do not, or it do not.
And yet if one docs not believe that seven
persons out of every ten say don't for
doesn't, try the experiment of listening
cm chilly to the conversations one hears
mid keep an accurate account and tho re
sult is simply disgraceful. We have been
more unlortuiiato than most people in tho
acquaintance with tho world in general,
if it bo not found that we have made a
very reasonable estimate that seven per
sons out of every tnn almost invariably
of tlmir culture, wit, wisdom, loyally and
enterprise. By the very nature of the say don't for doesn't.
