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7
THE HESPERIAN STUDENT.
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gusting method of constructive suicide as yet invented.
On second thought however we will say nothing of
the kind because there is a certain class of persons
who never look into a college paper except to find
fault with the institution and students from which it
comes. We have known a man to hear of a little
type stealing amoug the students here and get so ex
cited that he would vow that if in the legislature he
should work to cut off all appropriations from the
school; yet as he cooled off a little and remembered
scrapes where "distance lent enchantment" he would
tell with great gusto of tending masons all night as
they walled up the entrance to the hall of an opposi
tion society. Another began by denouncing the stu
dents who took part in our "coffin scrape" and
wound up with a glowing description of a calf that he
and his comrades had fastened in a professor's chair.
As however it is everybody's business to find fault
with anything pertaining to the state we can hardly
complain. It does some people good to grumble and
as grumblers are generally good for little else we
ought to be philosophical and allow them to make
the most of their "one talent."
Tiik Student dislikes to reiterate any of its "ill
humored growls," but we really feel compelled to say
something more ' on the subject of our still cold
chapel. Morning after morning the scene is reen
acted, shivering, sneezing and coughing students
overcoats and cloaks worn during the exercises, which
are then too often hurried through or abridged
in order that the occupants of the uncomfortable
room need not remain in it a moment longer than nec
essary. Were it not for the fact that the attendance is
compulsory, it is not probable that nearly as many
as now do, would enter the room on some of these
cold mornings, for we venture the assertion that less
than half of those who regularly attend are comfort
able enough to feel strictly devotional.
It hardly seems necessary that this should be so.
If the fault is with the windows can nothing be done
to make them tight? If with the stoves, is not the
University able to put in a few more? What is the
defect, and why it it not remedied? If any reader
of the Student who thinks we are a chronic grumbler,
will call in on us any average winter morning at the
chapel, we think he can be convinced that in this in
stance we are not simply trying to hear ourselves talk.
We know thatjt is a subject of common complaint.
The near approach of the Legislative session in
this city stirs anew the fears of some timid ones con
cerning the University and the probability of pro
curing a sufficiently generous appropriation to enable
the regents to carry, on the institution with credit.
It does not seem to the Student that any such fears
are necessary. It is true that due to other and un
sual influences the coming Legislature is composed
to a large extent of new members, of men more or
less unacquainted with legislative honors and duties,
elected on the anti-monopoly issue that was so earn
estly canvassed duriug the late state campaign.
To suppose because these new members are not
professional politicians, that they will be ignorant
or careless enough to deny or disregard the claims of
the University, is to suppose that they are either fools
or fanatics, and this the Student does not believe.
It is much more probable that ihey are intelligent
representative men of the constituencies they rep
resent, and while the issue on which they were
elected will properly receive their first attention, they
will be fully able and willing to attend to the whole
duty of a legislator. The only danger we stand in
is, in our opinion, that the careful study of oui claims
may be crowded out of place by the many other
questions that will come before the Legislature this
winter, as for instance, the election of a United
States Senator, the provision for a railroad com
mission, and the appropriation for the completion of
the new Capitol building. This danger may be
easily averted if those who are interested in the ca
reer of the University will do their duty, and keep
the question of our appropriation before the mem
bers of that body.
For nearly two years the Student has expressed
itself in favor of the abolition of the Preparatory De
partment of the University. There is no reason for its
being retained except that high schools throughout
the state do not arrange their courses in such a way
as to prepare their graduates for our Freshman class,
and all that is lacking to bring about such an arrange
ment is thewillingness of the state superintendent and
the regents to cooperate for that purpose. In Mich
igan, every high school in the state is so graded as to
prepare its graduates for entrance to the State Univer
sity, and its certificates of standing are accepted by
the Faculty of that institution on a par with the grade
given by their own entrance examinations. There a
mutual uuderstanding and confidence exists between
the University and the common schools, and as a con
sequence Michigan possesses the best educational sys
tem in the West. That a similar system could easily
be carried out here with the very best results is incap
able of successful dispute. Even thus early in the
history of Nebraska, we do not think it an exaggera
tion to say that there are a hundred schools in the
state that could render a student fully capable to en
ter the Freshman class of this University in any of
the courses. Not only would this method allow young
and crude minds to devote ample time to the complete
mastery of the lower branches, but the advantages re-
