HESPERIAN STUDENT.
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA.
Vol. X.
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, APRIL 15, 1882
No. 14.
rgfJisccllHucaus J$n(inn.
Hooks are now so cheap Hint it is no
longer n question what we can afford to
buy, but rather what we can take limit to
road. Half a century ago, or less, there
might have been good reasons why a
pci son was ignorant of the writings of
most of our best authors. Now he must
be lioor indeed who cannot have at li is
command good books, in fact the very
best. True, they may not be bound in
ialf or morocco and have gilt edges, but
the mutter is all there, and thai is all thai
h necossaiy.
The educational endowments of lliis
State comprise common school land,
2,4-13,1-18 acres, subject to sale and lease,
Hie (capital proceeds being lunded), and
income only used. Agiicultural college
lands, 89,452 acres: University IiimI,
45,210 acies; Normal School hunts,
12,800 acres, and the school fund in
money which now amounts to $1,294,137.
The revenue applied to common school
purposes for the year 1880 amounted to
!fl,108,017.23.
If students who are studying languages
would, when they look up a word, learn
all of the ways in which it is used in
short, add it to their vocabulary- soon
they would have little trouble in transla
ting their Liuin.'G reek, German or French.
Usually, however, the student only looks
for the meaning of a word for the partic.
lar connection in which it is used. The
next day he may meet the same word with
a slightly different meaning and he has no
idea of its use or derivation. Il is u
entirely new word to him. It seems like
folly for any one to spend five or six years
n a language and then not be able to
translate n single page without the aid of
a grammar and a lexicon. But it is
owing to the manner in which each day's
lesson is learned. Was each word mas
tered so that it would bo recognized
wherever seen, classical graduates could
translate uny page of Latin or Greek as
readily us thoy do now a page that they
translated while at college.
Frequently some revolting murder or
horrible crime startles a community.
When the culprit is questioned, often it
is found that the desire to commit the act
was engendered by reading some yellow
covered blood and thunder pamphlet of
the day such trash cannot be dignified
by the name of novel. The fame and
notoriety of some outlaws or desperate
characters allure him to commit tho
deeds that, as he supposes, made them
great. The youth of our cities need no
stimulant to nerve them to lives of sin and
crime. They have within them germs
that ought not to be nourished by the
history of such a man as Jesse James.
Those newspapers that so lavishly and
intempenttely narrate the fearful deeds of
the dead outlaw kn w not, or at least
heed not, the responsibility that rests upon
them. Morally they stand conviced of
guilt. By trying to throw the mantle of
the hero and greatness around him, they
encourage cranky and desperate, char
acters to follow his calling.
In the practical conjugation of life's
chief verbs, no mood is so unpleasant to
most scholars as the imperative. In the
school loom, in the home, in society and
in the work-shop, verbs conjugated in
this mood rouse only opposition, wilful
ness, hate and lcbellion. Strikes, insur
rcctions and mobs are the natural results
Truants from school, runaway boys from
homo are Hie supplement to such a gram
mar. Kindness, gentle and cheery words,
open hearts ami doors as though with
magic keys. It tokes so little time and
trouble to be polite and kind. So many
pleasant words and acts follow as the
result of our own gentleness, that ve
wonder sometimes why wo are not all
gentlemen and gentlewomen, and that
old-fashioned word "gentlewomen" should
be rescued from the ignominious position
into which it was forced by its use and
abuse as applied only to those of noble
birth in England. To be a gentlewoman
or man in the highest and best use of
either word, we should make nv object
of our education. Culture and knowledge,
talent, wealth ami place are all adorned
by perfect manners and without manners
culture is, or ought to be, Impossible, and
wisdom and talent go without those pleas
lint colorings which so heighten
and intensify the effect. Position and
influence, without them, arc ridiculed
and lose largely of that potent Influence
which they otherwise would possess.
The Journal of a late issue has an
editorial on spelling reform. The word
"colonel" is taken as a representative of a
class of words whose spelling is not in
agreement with the pronunciation. The
Journal says, "The explanation of this
case, like perhaps the most of those ap
parent orthographical eccentricities in
our toi.gue, is that once 'colonel' was pro
uouueed just as it is spelled, but that the
habit of the busy Anglo Saxon has made
universal of clipping down his words and
saving time in speech, has reduced it to
'kernel.'" Now, spelling reformers de
sire that English words, like German, be
spelled as pronounced. The Journal
accounts for this difference by the fact, or
theory, "that the German language Had
taken a permanent form before Germany
had a literature. But this was not the
case in France and England. It is very
possible that when the French became a
written language, and scholars com
menced to spell its words, the spelling
corresponded to its pronunciation, and
that the deviation now arises from the
universal degeneracy of pronunciation
and not from 11113' original fault in those
who made tho orthography. Next to the
French literature, the English is Hie old
est in modem European tongues, and the
deviation comes from the smo source,
though it is not so wide, because univer
sal education tends to pi event the vulgar
izing of old words into clipped nndmutil
ated forms." This is a very ingenious
theory and accounts for nil tho facts in the
case. Lot It then bo accepted as true.
What effect does this hove on the Journal'
conclusion that a change in our spelling
to conform to pronounciation would
"merely bedevil and destroy the mother
tongue?" Does it not destroy it alto
gelher? Surely tho English language has
ns "permanent a form" now a9 the German
had when "tho scholars commenced to
spell its words." And as "universal
education tends to prevent tho vulgarizing
of old words into clipped and mutilated
forms," why would it not be a good plan
to spell words now as they are pro
nounced ? If ever a language was settled,
our's surely is.
irk
