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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1883)
THE HESPERIAN STUDENT. V V have been silenced, at least for the time being, and there seems to be grouuds for hoping that the state convention will select men calculated to push the University forward to the position of national promi nence which it will sooner or later occupy. If, how ever, the "party of progress" refuses to discharge judiciously its trust, the friends of the institution are resolved to do some very lively, and (as we hope) some very effective "scratching." Our societies have each expended, during the vaca tion, some two hundred dollars on decorations, be sides various sums for incidental extravagances. Many of the members in each organization plainly say that they consider such expenditures very unwise but add that, on account of the existing rivalry be tween the societies, they can see no way to prevent even the increase of such outlays. Others say that they consider the inspiration afforded by beautiful halls as a sufficient return for the expense. Some of us however, who, too modest to be book agents, have to earn a dollar by walking twenty miles through soft ground in the wake of a seductive harrow, feel that we are hardly in a position to invest our share of the two hundred dollars in the inspiration that may be afforded by yellow wall paper, broken-backed mono grams and crazy mottoes. The Indian who will give the proceeds of a whole winter's trapping for some brass car-rings and a red blanket may derive a certain amount of aesthetic benefit therefrom, but at any rate his counterpart may be recognized in the students of this comparatively poor University who spend such sums for red cotton-flannel and brass chandeliers. Bretheren let us pray for more sense. As the present corps of editors prepare to leave to other hands the duties pertaining to their office they devoutly hope that some kind providence will keep them from afflicting the patrons of the Student by the "gush" in which retiring editors are liable to in dulge. Most editors upon retiring say that they leave the work in worthier hands. Though this time the facts might well warrant the assertion, we yet re fuse to make it because it is conventional and would dupe no one into thebeliefthatwe were honest. It is also customary to say that we have sought to dis charge our duties faithfully and have experienced great pleasure therein. Now in the first place some of us have "flunked" on several important occasions and have not discharged our duties faithfully. Even when our work has been at last performed we have been often tardy in the performance and have caused the manager to complain that "eternal teasing was the price of copy." Secondly, as regards pleasure we would say that it is one)f those things that, if it were a material, would be put down as "lost in the an alysis." There was considerable fun in being elected and congratulated afterwards, but when the steady "grind" had worn off our enthusiasm a little we be gan to understand that it had been distance that had lent enchantment, and that the work would not seem enchanting again until it had been left in the distance behind us. Take it all in all, we have done just tol erably. There are infinite chances for improvement and we not'only hope, but believe that the new board will take advantage of some of them. During the vacation just past the board of Re gents met several times. They elected to the position of chancellor C. K. Adams of Ann Arbor. This gentleman came to Lincoln to see what advantages or drawbacks there might be to the situation, and asked for still further time for consideration. He finally declined the office, "giving'as his chief reason for so doing the danger there is of legislative interference in the matter of professor's salaries etc. There is certainly reason for any one who takes a position in this school to dread the meddling of politicians. One member of the editorial corpsremembers that during the first year he was here he did not stay up late but four nights,and these he spent sitting on a register in the back parlors of the Commercial listening to the proceedingsifof a legislative committe, part of whose members were trying to prove the Chancellor a liar, the professors fools, 'the students rakes and the whole institution a nuisance. The times were hard and it was necessary for politicians to make records for economy. Accordingly the chancellor's salary was reduced and appropriations were otherwise needlessly and injuriously curtailed. Further than the simple fear of what the politicians who were in the legisla ture might do, we suspect that Prof. A. may have had some dread of those dyspeptic politicians (actual, ex, or would be) who fill so many of the editorial sanctums in this state. For a man of noncombative temperment it is not a pleasant task tc face rhejdetrac tion of those who seek to vent their own ill humor and to curry favor with their patrons by finding fault with public institutions. The papers of the state have sown broad-cast their illnatured comments and the University is reaping the result in an abundant harvest of distrust. More energetic men than our re gents might well havefailed to secure a thoroughly competent chancellor. He should not only be a man of thorough scholarship and an excellent teacher, but he should be a good speaker and have push and ability enough to make grumbling editors accord him praise, and to induce economizing politicians to pay him. There are such men, but the great trouble has been that when found they wouldj not accept. The only thing that students and faculty can do at present