THE HESPERIAN STUDENT.
;
I
, Three of our grnduntcs this year have completed
the Agricultural Course. The discipline afforded by
this course can not be as thorough as that in the
othcis, simply because the best methods of teaching
the various studies comprised in it have not been
determined by centuries of experience. Many of
the sciences studied by the agricultural students are
so young that it is hardly safe to call them sciences
at all, and the theories upon which they are based
arc sometimes proven to be false, even while the stu
dent is learning them . There may however be rea
sons why, for certain purposes, this course is better
than the others and we are glad that three more grad
uates of the agricultural course have been added to
to our alumni. These young men are now fitted for
the work from which many of us have come and to
which we will, perhaps, slink back after failing in law,
or medicine, or politics, or any of the overcrowded
professions.
As our students go home most of them expect to
begin work, and we hope they will find the old say
ing true that "a change of work is as good as a rest."
Some of them hardly expect to come back next year,
because they will not have the necessary funds. We
would say for the encouragement of all such that many
boys have come to Lincoln at the beginning of the
school year with but twenty-five or thirty dollars and
have managed to earn enough to pay their expenses
until the following June. A stranger can hardly do
this, but let all who desire to come remember that
they will not be strangers very long. If not pressed
for time we believe as a general thing that it would be
better for students to stay out a year, and so have
more tims to devote to their school work while here.
But delays are dangerous, and though those who are
working their own way may not be able to do as
thorough work in their classes as they could wish, it
is yet infinitely better than not coming to school
at all.
In the rush of over work that falls to the lot of
many of us during the last two weeks of the college
year, the consummate selfishness of some people comes
forth into very disgusting prominence. We once
knew a fellow that was one of the editors on a
college paper and he said that in such a time of hurry
his colleague cooly informed him that he must write
all the editorials, because the said colleague was going
to graduate, and didn't have time to do such things
"But," we asked, "weren't you busy loo?" "Oh, yes,"
he replied, "of course I was, yet the work had to be
done and so I did it. But it has been my private
opinion ever since that that other editor was a snide."
We told him that he should not use the word "snide,"
but he said that it was expressive, and under the cir
cumstances he claimed the right of using the strongest
language at his command. Another lesson, and a
more agreeable one, may be learned from these same
days of hurry, which is that there are many persons
who are ready to do their whole part, and more than
their part if necessary. Whenever we think of such
persons we long to shake hands with them. May the
number of them who attend this school "multicrease1
"muchly."
Our two literary societies have probably done better
work this year than ever before. The reason for this
is that they have been more nearly upon an equal
footing, and the competition between them has been
closer. During the fall term the Palladians were
crippled by having an aguish secretary, while the
Unions worked their best aud undoubtedly took the
lead. For the last two terms the work of the socie
ties has been such that any one who should assert
that either was ahead might be charged with unfair
ness. In the way of fitting up their halls, the Unions
purchased a cotton-flanel lamberquin and a Brussels
carpet; while the Palladians indulged in a brass chan
delier and some gilt-edged curtains. To raise money
the Unions tried the old, old "scheme" of an oyster
supper, and the Palladians attempted the rather out
landish one of a minstrel show neither plan was
very successful. In the way of new plans for literary
work the Palladian had a conversational debate and
a lot of two minute speeches, and the Unions had a
quotation match, while various special programmes
in both societies have relieved the monotony of the
regular work. Two of this years graduates have
founded in the Palladian society an oratorical prize,
and the same society expects to have a library well
under way next fall. Whether or not these plans
are to produce good results must depend on the
manner in which they are executed. The Palladi
ans started an auxiliary debating club last year, which
met with closed doors; the boys of the club have
convened regularly this year, and this and a like orga
nization begun by the Unions last fall have done much
to improve the societies. A spasmodic attempt was
recently made by both societies to secure greater
punctuality and better order on Friday nights, for
the results of which see last issue. With such an
amount of enterprise, it is certain that if the societies
do not shirk the hard routine work for which they
were organized, they will do more to educate the stu
dents that take part in them than any two professors
in the institution.
"The mouth of tko Amazon," said a professor of geog
raphy iu a Chicago female seminary, "is the biggest
mouth iu the world present company always excepted.
Ex,