THE HESPERIAN. tainment of that excellence possible with more care. The work is done to please tastes far from cultivated, and, lacking the stimulus of thorough and able criti cism, tends to degrade, rather than raise the standard of excellence in the editor. But if newspaper woik is unsatisfying that done on the ordinary college pa per actually dissatisfies. Much is frequently said of the benefits to the college editor of his editorial work, but a dispassionate consideration of the sub ject reveals the other side. Let it be granted that many a slow and laborious writer has acquired a cer tain measure of fluency through the pressure of col lege editorial work, that the thought is broadened, the perception made quicker and more acute. But is this a sufficient recompense for the loss? What is the loss? The idea appears to be prevalent in many qnarters that college paper work is done wholly in leisure moments and truly its quality sometimes makes the deduction logical but the fact is that the work on a college paper demands the choicest Lours of an editor's time. It is therefore done at a real sacrifice of culture. This objection is however nega tive; a positive one may also be produced. For the slow writer the pressure of editorial writ ing works an undoubted good. But such are not chosen for editors where the paper is published as an honor to its institution and a gratification to its subscribers rather than a training school for its edi torial corps. Not the slowest, but the most fluent writers are chosen as editors of our college papers, and of necessity this must be. To a fluent writer editorial work must be disastrous. He needs careful training; he should learn to condense, to weigh his words and to pay much attention to his style. On the contrary he is forced to the extreme of man' words with no regard to quality and 1 lttle time to consider meaning. He is obliged to pour out his ideas crude and half formed to satisfy the cry for more copy, reaches the limit of his exertions. On a writer al ready profuse, work of such character can have only a bad effect. To remedy this is worth an effort. Let the general work be so lightened that common senti ment may be able to exact better work; let such work be further exacted bj being admitted as regular liter ary work, subject to severe but cultured criticism. Not till some such move is made can we hope for first class editorial work on our college journals. at once weighty and of great import. Their doings affect us not only as citizens of this great state, but also, and no doubt more vitally, as students of the University. But our claims as students will be presented in the proper and appointed way, and we will trust to their appreciation of our good work for fair treatment on this score. But, to lay aside all jolces and to overcome our disposition to treat the matter with some degree of levity, is there not yet some janilorship of commit tee rooms, some such morcor less honorable and lucrative po sition which is still open to the few students who have so far failed to get a position? We would not be understood as disconraging any student in an honorable effort to earn his own support, but must question nevertheless whether his true dignity is not necessarily lost in seeking positions at the hands of our legislators. Can these positions, the giving of which is too often In the hands of the most unscruplous and unprincipled, be sought and gained without more or less of a real sacrifice on the part of ihc student? We are only anx ious that our students, and along with them the University shall appear before the legislature in ihc mos tfavorable light. If possibly, therefore, thise positions have been honorably obtained, we are interred only in seeing them honorably and faithfully filled. "There is nothing new under the sun"; after a trial which has carried us through one or two numbers we are prepared to subscribe to the foregoing quotation, and acknowledge our inability to write anything new. This is our excuse for re turning, somewhat abruptly, to the old and favorite ttjic, pol tics. Now since we have taken a second thought, perhaps we did refer to some political matters in the last number, just by way of illustration, but that does not count; then to the work. Nebraska's legislators arc now met "here, their buisness is LORD LYTTON. The frontispiece to one of the Franklin Square Library series represents a peculiar face. An aquiline nose, flanked by large deep set eyes, gives an impression of strength; the mouth below, partly hidden by beard, indicates a refined and sensitive character; the forehead, seamed with wrinkles, tells of care; but the general appearance is of one who, withal,has made no failure of living. The book "is the autobiography of Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton, supplemented with bio graphical work by his son, the present Lord Lytton, and the picture is his likeness. Most autobiographies are uninterest ing, but the one before us is no less attractive than the pic ture of its subject: Both style and matter claim our notice and fasten our interest It interests partly as an index to the generation preceding our own, but chiefly as It portrays with rare fidelity a character attractive alike in Itself and in its as sociations with limes And men. Lord Lytton was born in London in 1803. He came of ar istocratic blood, but his aristocracy did not prevent him from inheriting much of eccentricity vhich the circumstances of his life greatly aggravated in a nature morbid in its sensitive ness. He was the third living son. The father lavished his fond ness on his elder son, who, according to the laws of primo geniture should inherit his wealth, and whose nature was agreeable to the rude and martial sire. The second son became the protege of his maternal pi and- mother, and the subject of our sketch was thus thrown much in the training and companionship of his mother, a woman of noble and refined character, but in whom a character not naturally exuberant had been repeatedly saddened. Disap pointed in her first affection, she had married with only re spect for her husband, from whom she differed greatly In temperament and taste. Lytton says of his lather "He had most of those moral qualities which insure tuccess to mental effort a will of iron.a combative temper that nothing daunt, ed and nothing deterred; a love of command andapromptness of judgment that enforced obedience; a stubborn and .a pa tient ambition." But he was destitute of refinement and lit erary taste; read only his newspaper, and this from beginning tothenrinter'ename, His mother Eulwcr cantiot aismiM