THE HESPERIAN STUDENT.
1
The Union Society have decided to leave their
doors open hereafter, the experiment of locking them
at 8:15 having been tried for but four nights.
The Student (following the example of other ed
itors) desires only to point out the fact which by
this time a blind man can see, that it requires a good
deal of "grit" to keep a door locked m the face of
those who wish to visit one's society. In literary, as
in other matters, competition is the life of business,
but while the rivalry between our societies produces
many good results, it has heretofore led to a laxity of
discipline which has been far from beneficial. We
wish that one of the societies would be far sighted
enough to see that whichever shall first begin the
practice of promptly collecting fines will be able
to take the lead in thorough, systematic work.
When Frank Leslie, the well known publisher died,
he requested that his wife would assume his name
and carry on the business as though nothing had
happened. The concern had become greatly invol
ved but Mrs. Leslie undertook the task without hesi
tation. She borrowed $40,000 of another woman to
satisfy the creditors, had her name changed to Frank
Leslie, assumed so far as one could the immediate
direction of the whole establishment whose corres
pondents and artists are found in every portion of
the globe, and in short conducted the business,
not, perhaps, like a man, but like a strong, broad
minded woman, who knew what things were essen
tial to success and had made up her mind to succeed.
All honor to American womanhood, and to the public
sentiment which decrees that, even women shall
have a right to perform any useful task which they
can perform successfully.
This is the last issue of the paper that will appear
before the regents meet, and although we don't sup
pose that any of them ever look at our college pa
per, we yet would like to reiterate that we must have
a chancellor, and we will not have a "stick." A
good chancellor is the one thing needful for this
school. We have now considerable money, we have
an excellent faculty, and every one connected with the
institution except the regents and a few boys in the
preparatory department seem inclined to work. Do
exert yourselves, gentlemen, and see if you can find
some one who has other recommendations than that
he wants a job and will work cheap. This thing of
of getting along with a cheap chancellor or with
none at all is not exaotly saving at the spigot and
losing at the bung-hole, but closely resembles sav
ing at the bung-hole when the whole bottom of the
barrel is knocked out.
With the exception of the voluntary work done in
the societies, there are at present no public rhetori
cals in the University until the student graduates.
We understand that our Professor of English Litera
ture hopes to introduce a system by means of which
"one who writes a good thing may get credit for it."
Sometime in the way of prizes will be offered for
literary excellence, and every thing that seems prac
ticable will be done to stimulate the ambition of the
students to attain to broad ideas, and the best possi
ble command of language. Profesor Sherman thinks
that incidentally his plans will give an answer to the
vexed question as to what shall be done with our Char
ter Day. On this day besides the awarding of prizes,
the delivery of a good oration or two and the reading
of some of the best essays that the students can pro
duce, he thinks it would be well to have enacted
some Latin or Greek play. If, however, there are
not enough-advanced classical students to execute
such a plan successfully, an original English play
might take its place or some standard or original
drama in French or German. We hope these de
signs will be executed, and are sure thatwe can prom
ise Professor Sherman the co-operation of the stu
dents to the full extent of their abilities.
President Elliot of Harvard thinks that the only
essential of culture is the ability to use the mother
tongue forcibly and correctly. A writer in the Con
tributor's Club of the Atlantic Monthly in
commenting upon this idea says that news
paper men have, on the average, more control over
the language in which they write than college gradu
ates. It is true that journalists acquire the habit of
writing rapidly and with partial correctness so that
they can throw off a column ofnarration or descrip
tion in a space so short as to seem amazing to those
not acustomed to such rapid work, yet their produc
tions as a general thing have no more individuality
about them than so many croquet balls. As the rays
of light reflected from any object pass through the
lens of a camera and form a photograph of the ob
ject, so the sights and occurrences of each day pass
through the brain of the model reporter, and all in
black and white on the pages of next morning's pa
per. With the student, however, the case is differ
ent. He does not describe some late incident
which is of its self interesting, but is obliged to evolve
from his inner consciousness ideas supposed to be
his own; nor is he expected to make hap-hazard
statements clear cut because flippant and superfic
ial which are read with a smile and forgotten in a
moment. All these things he does, doubtless, but
they are not what he is supposed to do, and even an
attempt at something better will naturally lessen the
speed of his composition, and will cause his produc
tion to be less common-place or what you will. A