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 work
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 hours
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 many 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 by 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.
"There is nothing new under the sun"; after a trial which
has carried us-through one or two numbers we arc prepared
to subscribe to the fordgoing 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 are now met here, their buisness is
at once weighty and of great import. Thcirdolngs 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 nnd appointed
way, and wc will trust to their appreciation of our good work
for fair treatment on this score. But, to lay aside all jokes
and to overcome our disposition to treat the matter with some
degree of levity, is there not yet some janitorship of commit,
tec rooms, some such morc.or less honorable and lucrative po
sition which is still open to the few students who have so far
failed to get a position? Wc 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? Wc arc only anx
ious that our students, and along with them the University
shall appear before the legislature in the mos tfavorablc light.
If possibly, therefore, these positions have been honorably
obtained, wc are interested only in seeing them honorably
and faithfully filled.
LORD LYTTON.
The frontispiece to one of the Franklin Square library
scries 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 Bulwcr, Lord Lytton, supplemented with bio
graphical work by his son, the present Lord Lytton, and the
picture is his likeness. Most autobiographies arc 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 times 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 which 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 grand
mother, and the subject of our sketch was thus thrown much
in 111c training ana couipanionsnip 01 Ins mother, a woman
of noble and refined character, but in whom a character not
naturally exuberant had been repeatedly saddened. Disap
pointed in hci 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 father "He had
most of those moral qualities which insure success to mental
effort a will of iron, a combative temper that nothing daunt
ed and nothing deterred ; a love of command and a promptness
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
to the printer's name. His mother Bulwcr cannot dumiw
