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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 12, 1886)
THE HESPERIAN. is m I of the societies would feel themselves honored to re ceive regular visits by the faculty, and would as cer tainly make an extra effort if they might thereby fa forably impress them. This is also the one great op portunity for faculty and students to meet in general conversation, and to form personal acquaintances. Let us be a little less selfish in these matters, and we promise all concerned that there will be nothing lost, and, perchance, very much may be gained. We have scarcely space enough to undertake a sep arate mention of each of the changes made within the University building during the last summer. The mail service and library arrangements most directly affect us as students, and they were consequently thought worthy of a first and separate notice. But not less important is the new arrangement for an ar mory. The two rooms formerly used for a labora tory have been converted into an armory and recita tion room for the military department. These rooms do not yet furnish room enough for a good armory, but they are such an improvement upon the old,damp and musty basement rooms, that students cannot longer plead the danger o.; colds and levers as a suffi cient excuse to stay out of the armory and away from drill. Number five has been fitted up in office style, and is now occupied by ihe Chancellor. Number one, the Chancellor's old office, is newly arranged, and is now occupied by the Steward. The mail is distributed from this office. Acting upon a former suggestion by the Hesperian, the old musical room number nine, was fitted up for a ladies' cloak room, and is a decided improvement upon the room once used as a cloak room by the girls. The old cloak room, twenty-two, is now given over to the State Historical Society, and will be used as a library and place of safekeeping for documents and all printed matter of importance connected with the history ot Nebras ka. But most noticeable of all the changes made are the newly calcimined halls of the first floor. TIicHes herian would ask, if possibly there can be any dan ger of such a thing happening, that each and every one who professes to be a student at the University be very careful thatthc walls now so neat and clean suffer no defacement at his or her hands, nor indeed, at the hands of other than students if it be possible to prevent it by a timely warning. These improve ments are being made at no small cost. Our ready money, our surplus, is needed for other purposes, as advertising; and to those who are truly interested in the University and who make a study of its needs and prospects, there is no cause to emphasize the im portance of close and careful dealing, of preserving what we have, and of accepting readily what prom ises most for our future. MISCELLANY. The phenomenal success which has attended the later ef forts of E. P. Roe makes him, in a certain sense, one of the most conspicuous of living American authors. The popularity of his work is the litcaary wonder of the hour. He seems to have inherited the mantle of the late G. Holland, and his books are said to reach the same class of people as did "Kathrina" and "Arthur Bonicastle." Born in 1838, he be longs to the younger generation of American writers now be fore the public. He is a clergyman by profession and his literary career seems to have been an afterthought, as it did not begin until 1873, when he published his first novel, "Bar ricrs Burned Away." Since then he has written a number of books, some of which have gone through several editions in this country, been reprinted in England and also translated into German. He is moreover an amateur in another dieec tion. In 1881 he published a work on "Success in Small Fruits," and at his home at Cornwcll on the Hudson he has long been engaged in the industry treated of in this book. Roe's novels are not regarded by critics as belonging to a high order of fiction. They do not reveal that knowledge of human character, that observation of men and things which belongs to the ideal novelist. Theyarc also sensational and depend too much for their effect on the excitement which they can produce upon their readers. Perhaps their defi ciencies may best be shown when contrasted with such a style of fiction as that of Hawthorne. But nevertheless the novels of Roc have a mission to perform in educating public taste a process which is necessarily of slow growth. While they fall short of the ideal, they yet mark an advance beyond what was once the popular style of literature. They thus reveal an intermediate stage of public taste and form a stepping stone by which the masses may reach an appreciation of the best in fiction. Moreover they are read by a vast number of p epic, and he who would study current literature from a s cntific standpoint, must know the effect which it produces . .d the environments which produce it, must study such as lese, regarding them as the naturalist does his specimens, and must take them not as they should be but as they are. The New Englander and Yale Review for October contain articles on "Joe Barlow," the . poet of American colonial times, "The States General of France," "The Future of Re form," "Shakespeare's Julius Caesar," besides others of a more technical character. The November issue of Harper s Magazine is at hand, and ully up to the standard. The literary movement in New York is treated by George Parsons Lathrop with sketches and portraits of the leading authors of the metropolis at the pres ent time. -The labor problem receives its usual mention in an article on "Cooperation Among English Workingmen." Thomas Wentworth Higginson gives some "Hints on Speech Making," which will be found especially valuable to students. Among other articles are "Tht American Cow Boy" and "Our Coast Guard," a history of tbc marine service. Among the recent additions to the library is Tolstoi's novel, "War and Peace," a part of which was reviewed at length in one of our issues of lost year. The entire work complete in six volumes is thus placed within the reach of our students. The translation of its third portion into English has just been finished, and is regarded by the Literary World as '.'one of the most considerable events of the year as important in,;its department as was the introduction to us of 'Les Miserables. ' ' '
