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THE HESPERIAN
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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.
