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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1887)
w H THE HESPERIAN ltm ti.m EXCHANGE. The Association Notes, of the Y. M. C. A. of New York, is now a regular visitor. We have looked long and vainly for the Exponent, of He atricc. Vc wonder if it is bankrupt. The College Index comes in on time and with a neat new cover. The literary department is especially good . Vhc Literary World, of Host on, keeps its readers well in formed as to recent literary productions by living authors, with a fair estimate of their merits. The article on Mr Hag gard's "Jess" is good. The first number of volume I of the Collegiate Herald Aram Geneva, 111., comes to swell the list of exchanges this week. Its literary articles are good, and we look forward to a bright future for this new journal. The prize oration at the Iowa State oratorical contest, written by C L. Zorbaugh, appears in the April number of the Aurora The subject is "Napoleon at St. Helena." It has the true oratorical jingle. We are glad to note that the April number of the Unhersi ty Argus is decidedly better than any that has heretofore reached us. It appears in a new form and the matter is good; but what about the arrangement? "How styles have changed since I was a girl," writes an old lady in the Louisville Post. "When I was young they used to wear dresses up to the neclc and gloves with only one button. Niw they wear gloves up to the neclc and dresses with only one button. My time is nearly up, but 1 would like to come back in sixty or seventy years, just to see how women will dress." The report is abroad that in Dickenson College there is a strong opposition to ladies entering oratorical contests. Re cently, when one of the co-eds of that place attempted to do so she was met by hisses, ringing of college bells and many other demonstrations of a rough character. What kind of a civilization have they up there, we would like to know. One would judge from the Teport that they are about a thousand years behind the age. We are glad to see so many of our exchanges coming out so strongly with their prohibition doctrine. No one will deny that this great problem will soon demand solution. Lending politicians will soon find it to their interest to take a bold stand on one side or the other. If the time ever comes when all college students will go forth educated to hate intemper ance and work against it, the battle will soon be decided and whiskey will go. Acollege paper of course is a small con. cern, but nevertheless exerts some influence. Let It be In the right -direction. No doubt many of our readers have had the delightful ex perience of teaching acountry school. All who have, have done more or less fretting in the attempt to discover some plan by which they could attend to anywhere from six to twenty-five recitations each day and still be ready to close at four o'clock. The Nebraska Teacher, which has in some mys erious manner found its way to our table, hat an excellent ar ticle on the subject. It gives a neat and complete, as well as practical, cource of study. Also a daily program that would he of great service to any of our sehoolmarms. The mysterious influence of spring seems to pervnde even the world of college journalism. If we were locked within otir dusty editorial sanctum, with windows closed, soas'toex- clifde "the licrllL. II We Could notee lhp enrinmnir'irrncLrxl.. o , - - j to"b b'"""' prep ooianisis imungaooui nice tmtterNies.gatheringeach new flower a, soen as it springs into existence, still we would know that balmy spring is here. Our exchanges would con clusively prove the fact. They arc crowded with accounts of picnics, base ball, boat racing, and spring poetry. Even the Yale Record furnishes a cut of the college dude as he comes forth in his spring suit. What a comfort the exchange is to the weary soul! We always admire the snap and firmness displayed by the Guatdian. That five column article on "What Shall wc do with our Gills," (a pertinent question) was most admirably written. Still, without attempting to criticise it, wc venture to say that it occupied loo much space. Wc quote the follow ing: "Prepare our girls for active duties of life. Teach them to make an honest living for themselves. Place them alove being dependent on any man, and those women's highest object will not be marriage." Now that is good advice, but wc object; first, because wc think our girls understand the situation and are sufficiently qualified to settle the (matter for themselves; second, because it is at least inferring that they lack ambition and have no thought but that of dependence upon a man; third, because it refuses to admit that they al ready equal the "lords of creation;" and fourth, because it would lead one to think that in this age of education wc arc still bound by one of the most slavish, degrading customs of antiquity. In looking over the St. Charles College Gazette our eyes fell upon an article on ''Reading." Wc read it and pronounc ed it good. Wc would not propound the question 'How ma ny can read?' to the great mass who have simply a common education, but will confine it to the narrow limits of the col lege educated. How many, even of these, can or do read in telligently? How many can dive down beneath the surface and catch the spirit that prompted the author to write? Good Tcading as a rule cannot be done rapidly. It is not the num ber of pages that is run over that indicates the worker along on this line, but the amount the brain assimilates and stores away as a fund to be drawn tipon when occasion requires. We admit that the massreads for enjoyment. We do not con. demn this; it is all right for the end In view. But it Is not this kind of reading that we should be interested in.. It is to learn, that they should read, and to do this, searching inquiry should be the leading characteristic. When will our exchanges let up on the contest question? The large majority of those papers that it is our lot to read contain one or more prize orations. It gets monotonous after reading twenty or thirty such productions. We throw dowii the papers in despair and try to find. rest by burying ourselves in the quiet stillness of our study room, but even then the faint echo of these oratorical contests disturbs us. 4lt is in deed grand to lo able to sway the emotions of the human heart by the fiery tongue of eloquence, but after all how much true oratory is displayed in these contests? Who could not, after days, and sometimes months, spent in preparing, enter tain an audience for ten or fifteen minutes? True oratory is the outburst of a surcharged feeling, and is bound to pour forth when occasion calls for it. Orations made to order are, in our opinion, of little value. It is the great soul-stirring subjects that inspire men to oratory. How many such grand, all-absorbing questions disturb the quiet roatine of student life? Again, who ever heard of an oratorical contest resulting in such away that every one was satisfied? The man who consents to be a judge on such an occasion must endure the 'disapprobation of iat least a good part of the audience. For our part give us the good, solid, everyday work. It 3s this, jat the end of a foury ear's course, that makes the man.
