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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (March 15, 1883)
1 mill IWIII llillHII I Hill I I IIH Illlll III III infifllWin'TTIOMI atiUHMIIUMIIIIIH'IIIMMMMI llHimimilWIBI I i I , iiMMIIMWMMftlteHM THE HESPERIAN STUDENT. wft,WIWWWWMWW,'"l ; ! ' lllgFr V a V s be than of a woman wrestling to encase the pillow in its snow white slip, while the obstinate pillow hangs from her teeth. Would that we could find the yankce. Tnii Studknt knows nothing about it, but would respectfully ask leave to wonder if it would not be better for the classes in elocution to spend more time on voice culture, and less on gesticulation and eye rolling. Those who have seen our societies in past years and at the present time say that the delivery of the students is much better than of old; but on the other hand those who attend the exhibitions in the opera house still complain of difficulty in hearing many of the productions. Surely sufficient training of the right kind would enable any of our students to make them selves heard to the farthest corner of the building provided of course that they have sound lungs and arc dressed properly. In so far as a speech is not heard it is a failure, and all must have noticed that a well trained voice will often prejudice an audience in the speaker's favor as much perhaps,as all other things together. A wave of commotion passed over Harvard college not long since, on account or the suspension of a member of the Sophmore class. The cause was that he handed in an essay which was almost an exact imi tation of one written by a classmate. It seems he read his friend's essay the day before and uncon sciously reproduced a great part of it in his own. This shouldjbe a practical lesson to students of more colleges than one, and we regret to say that a few students in our own University might learn it with profit. Would not the faculty sometimes be justified in deciding that certain essays too much resemble the encyclopedia, or savored too much of the North American Review? Above all things let us be what we are and speak what we think. Let origi nality and individuality be the aim of all who write, for it is this way alone that the true end of college essay writing can be attained. The true object is not the grecatest number of facts or dates that can be placed up on one page nor the amount of fine illustrations and beautiful expressions that are called together, but rather the discipline that is received the mental training. Some of ths students of York Seminary exercised . their surplus energy, not long since, by entering the college building after night and disarranging things in a manner rather unbecoming the students of such an institution. The next morning the chapel chairs were found stacked in a heap like fuel for a bonfire, the pendulum was gone from the clock, while stoves, soot, and joints of pipe were scattered promiscuously about the building. Had this occurred in the Uni versity, the Omaha papers and their echoes through out the state, would have painted it in dark colors and held it forth to the people of the state as an ex ample of the evil influence and great immorality of the school. Hut the students here are not in the habit of playing such disorderly capers, so these news papers mustcojitent themselves with constant grumb ling and faultfinding which has no deeper foundation than their own hatred. Many of the youth of Ne braska who desire an education read these malicious articles, and, having no better means of information, accept them as just, and go to inferior schools or to the colleges of other states. We believe we can truly say, that in good behavior, respect for authority, and steady work, the students of the University are not to be ecxelled by those of any school in the land. Let them continue their worthy conduct, and these fault-finders will receive their just reward in public opinion, and the citizens of the state will see that their University, far from being what its enemies would portray it, is worthy of their heartiest ap proval and patronage. In reading the lives of self-made men it usually seems as though their troubles arose almost entirely from cir cumstances outside themselves. So soon-as they ob tain a chance to get an education they are all right. Now in this state any young man who has'received a common-school education and can use his time in whatever way he wills, can take the regular Univers ity course, that is there are no circumstances outside of himself which can prevent him from doing so. But just here he encounters difficulties which the pop ular biographers of self-made men generally forget to mention, namely, the difficulties that arise from one's lack of ability. The student has been told that this or that great man worked on a farm, taught school in order to get time to study, did janitor work to pay his tuition, boarded himself on fifty cents a week, and at last graduated with the highest honors. Now the stu dent goes through all the preliminary hardships, but by some strange freak of fortune his class standing is not such as lie would wisn. m tne accounts winch lie iuu icau iutyUMgguiig yuuiiianviip aiujcuucu, auu it never occured to him that these accounts told of uniform success only because no one cares to write the history of a failure Had Demosthenes been un able to overcome the impediment in his speech, we should have never heard of his heroic endeavors. Even with a successfnl man the part of his history that would be most useful to those who would follow in his footsteps, can not well be told. What biogra pher would condescend to say that on such an even ing his hero felt lazy, but overcame his laziness; that at another time he found it difficult to keep his mind upon his studies and to prevent it from wandering Tpr? i;5S9fS5w
