4
THE HESPERIAN ST J DENT.
nearly all the books relating to the central theory of
modern science. Even the very text book of evolu
tion Darwin's Origin of Species has not been re
placed since its disappearance some three years ago.
Of the latest works of science giving the results ofthe
past two years of research we have absolutely none,
except in the single line of chemistry; yet every few
months sees a new shelf of histories, which, while
valuable to the specialist, are very little used by the
student in fact they will still be new when the few
scientific books we possess are quite worn out.
The two departments spoken of have absorbed the
strength that should be divided among the different
subjects. We do not wish to be interpreted as blam
ing those who have developed their departments, but
only those who have not developed theirs. It is of
course the duty of each to to do the best of his ability
what is placed before him, and what we need is not less
cctive rr.cn in cur better departments, but men tha
are more active in the poorer ones.
garter aU.
In this number we occupy llio spuco usually devoted
to purely literary work with the exercises of Charter
Day, In order tlint the students may have a .visible
rur.inder of n most successful aud nppropiinto celebra
tion of the fifteenth anniveisiiry of the existence of our
University. The sentiments of the students wen: rep
resented by A. G. Warner's "The University from n Stu
dents Standpoint ;" J. H. Holmes' "Address of Welcomes
mid Miss Painter's "Charier Day Poem." The first two
art given below, thelabl on the first page. The excellent
address of Chancellor Manatt, which treated of matters
of practical interest to every teacher and student, is
omitted for want of room.
THE UNIVERSITY FROM A STUDENTS-STANDPOINT
The western college is pre-eminently a citizen factory.
To be sure in America citizens are horn and not rondo,
but 'nature is often a bungling workman and the natural
man bears no mors relation to the kind of n citizen (lint
is needed in this country, than a pile of iron ore bears to
a locomotive. Especially do we need an intelligence
mill in this state, for whatever of value there may be
in Nebraska more than is found in the dirt that fills its
borders, exists in consequence of the intelligent activity of
man. In other states natural eommercial advantages, or
mineB, or forests, or watei -power, or what-not, aid man
in his attempts to live. In this state nature simply mix
es up for him a loess deposit and literally invites him
to go to grass. (
To go back to the beginning which is a highly im
proper thing for a ten minute speaker to do I would
say that nature (if wo take the word narrowlly) is a green
horn. She did a good work in plastering the soil over
this country, but when that wis accomplished seemed at
a loss as to what ought to be done next, and so did
nothing. For thousands of years alio farmed this state
and during the wholo period produced nothing but Indi
ans, buffaloes, buffalo grasp, cotton wood, coyotes, rat
tlesnakes, and grasshoppers.
If, then, it devolves upon man nlouo to answer the
great question of the utility or the usclcssnoss of this
stato it may bo repeated that its groat need Is brain
power. So fur wo hare necessarily imported from other
states; but, whell'cr the political economists approve or
not, the fact remains that it is tho tendency of all gov
ernments to become protective. While the aforesaid
economists have beon pounding away with no more suc
cess than they desorvo on tho tariff quostion, tho central
government and all tlio state governments hnvo been ad
vancing along other lines to tlic protection of the weak
against the strong, to the protection of thcinsclvc
against destroying tendencies that have hitherto becu
called laws of nature.
Tho blind, tho dumb, the criminal, (lie insane, the
studious are now provided for, or aided by t'ie govern
ment. So, in this institution by the stato and for the cit
izens, tho ultimate aim must be worthiness of citizenship
and this end may or may not bo reached through scholar,
ship. There arc some three hundred students hero at
prcsont, and for many of us scholarship is a thing that
is unattainable Peahaps for many as for myself, a course
here isbut a six year's vacasion from farm work. It is no
possible for tlioso whose earlir years are taken up with
manual labor and who arc not able to begin studying
anything but tho common branches before tlioy are six
teen or seventeen years of ago, to acquire the thorough
schalarshipthatjis possible for one, who through his
wholo youth lias had nothing that he was compelled to
do except study.
I think it was Oliver Wendell Hlmes who doubted
if any one could obtain as thorough an appreciation of
books as lie who, as a boy has been tumbled about in a
great library. There is certainly a vast difference be
tween such a boy and one who has been tumbled about
among tho difficulties of a western life. In tho acquisi
tion of refinement and scholarship the former lias an ad.
vantage which nothing but great superiority on (lie part
of his competitor can overcome; vet if he- fails to
find that there mo difficulties in this world, fails to learn
the eternal needfulness of work, .his advantage is a dis
advantage The stato has taken upon itself to provide for the needs
of all, and rightly; but American colleges, more espec
ially state institutions, and most especially western state
institutions should provide first, and most carr fullj for
thoso who are little able to achieve as good an education
as lliay desire to except the state furnish tho oppor
tunity. It is useless to say all this, for, consciously, or uncon
sciously our higher schools have already shaped them
selves t this end. In a collego in which a student hrs
to bo working his own way, at least in part, injorderjto lie
considered aa one of tho upper tm, it was long ago dis
covered that a set of cast iron rules was but a nuisance,
and that thero was no longer any use for tho old fash-'
loued president with white hair, a prominent chin, and
a gold headed cane. Where outside work wus necessary
and thorough preparation for college work impossible it
was also wisoly concluded that a loose course, was bct-
OfflStSSS
