THE HESPERIAN STUDENT.
belongs to the University, they cannot supply the
defects which are so plain both to faculty, students,
and in a less degree, perhaps, to strangers who visit us
The crowded condition of our recitation rooms,
the necessity of having a better laboratory, the deso
ate appearance of our chapel, have all been sufficiently
dilated upon. And now we wait for the result of our
prayers. The legislature is now in session. On its
decision will depend our future welfare. It is in its
power lo grant us our money or with-hold it. We
hope they will be propitious and come down liberally.
There is an old cry resounding through the Stud
ent's columns foi many a year which must again find
expression; why cannot the work put on our paper be
accepted in lieu of essays by our professor of English?
The advantages accruing therefrom would be mani
fold. An editor could not then afford to be careless. He
could afford to put more time upon his articles. To
induce this concession on the part of the faculty, it
might be well to go even farther. To oblige com
petitors for editor ship to enter a competitive exami
nation of a test of their ability would not be a bad
idea.- -If there be one place in the University where
"sticks" have no earthly business it is on the edltoral
force of its paper, and any means of obtaining the
best men for the various editor-ships is surely worthy
of the students' careful consideration. This plan of
competitive examination majnot be in strict accord
ance with the theory upon which a college piper is
run, but it involves the same kind of a test that is de
raanded for an editor-ship in any other publication,
and whatever in practical papers brings about the
best results, ought to be applied to the theoretical
college paper as well.
All college journals are full of the liquor question
at present. It is a subject worthy of discussion but the
diLassion is entirely too one-sided. Almost all articles
declare openly for immediate prohibition. To be sure
all educated men of American birth and training are
in favor of suppressing in some way the liquor trafic.
But unless they are blinded by zeal their intelligence
makes it evident to them, that the majority of
American citizens must rule. That the majority of
the voters of the United States is not in favor of
prohibition, is axiomatic. Now thinking men be
lieve with Dr. Lewis that the people, not the aristoc
racy of brains or purse, but the people, must be edu
cated up to a prohibition way of thinking before the
final blow can be struck. When Hercules was wrest
ling with his earth-born foe, he did not conquer him
by choking him down to the ground, but lifted him
from off the earth till his strength was gone and then
destroyed him. So to destroy King Alcohol we must
raise men from their low grade of morals, from the
slums of wickedness before we can crush the monster
which dwells within their souls. Prohibition must
be caused by a gradual growth of public opinion.
Was it Grover Cleveland or Over Production that
caused the present commercial troubles? It really
seems unfair to attribute to either the whole burden
of the b'ame. A change in administration which in
turn changes the commercial relations of our nation
with th2 world, made the capitalists call in their out
standing wealth and necessarily caused a tightness in
the money market which, of course lessened the price
of all commodities. But it would be folly to attrib
ute to this slight contraction of the circulation the
startling reduction of prices in grain. New corn or
dinarily running from twenty-five to thirty cents is a
drug on the market at eight and ten cents per bushel.
While the democratic victory would have cheapened
corn in proportion to all other comodities and man
ufactures by decreasing the circulation somewhat, it
never could have caused such a fall in prices. This
year the greed of the farmers and the over-plenty of
the harvest is the grand cause ofall the discomfort. The
farmers in every section of the country thought that the
usual drought or mildew would ruin the crops some
where else and hence planted more grain than could
Le disposed of, if all parts of the country were fairly
productive. Hence the prices have fallen greatly.
This kind of hard times, however, is much better
than depressions caused by famine and if a panic is
not induced by it, the United States will not suffer
excessively from the present disturbances.
)e gtufontn' grrap goak, (,
THE PROPHET OF ISLAM
The evening thadotrs of t!ie Dark A.geB were appearing,
And the Komtiti Him was "lowly bhikhig in the west Five
centuries after Ciirisl the Vundal hml driven buck the advance-guard
of his followers, the Miigiun fire had been
kindled on the Holy Sepulchre, and llic Christian religion,
already polluted by coirupt man, teemed ready to fall to
the dust of idolatry and unbelief. In the deserts of ro
mantic Arabia a new prophet had been bom ; the stand
and of a new faith hud been planted. It fused scattered
tribes into a compact nation, fired the hearts of its de
votees with frantic zeal and sent them forth, wave on
wave like the billows of mad ocean, to beat against all
other religions and submerge them. The turbaucd and
scimitered warriors scattered the hosts of the Penians,
broke the emblazoned Syrian ranks, drove the guardians of
the Nile before them and wrested the myiteiious land of
the Pyramids forever from the graBp of the Pharaohs.
Resistless and restless the tide Mowed on un
til Africa hau bean won, Spain conquered, and an hivad .
lag army stood under the walls of Constantinople.
E'irop i trembled. A blazing crescent hid bieu seen L