2
THE HESPERIAN.
inspire love of country. So too it is with the holiday
just passed. The day at first devoted to prayer and
religious services might now more properly be called
"Turkey-day" or "the day we eat", for that is the
first thought conveyed by mentioning "Thanksgiving
day". A religious ceremony is gone through with by
a very few but most of us have none of the feeling
with which the day was instituted. This is not an
age of sentiment and it is natural that these things be,
but we cannot help feeling regret that the customs
which meant so much to our ancestors are gradually
losing their meaning in this generation.
Now we intend to neak ot something which lies
very near to our heart and our pocket-book the sup
nort riven The Hesperian by the students. Our
business manager reports a few more than fifty sub
scribers among those who are supposed to publish the
paper. We do not expect everyone to take the jour
nal. There are a certain number who are too pover
ty stricken to spend unickle for anything but bread,
butter, clothes and cigars. Then there are a few
whose minds are in too lofty a plane to notice our
humble efforts. These we freely excuse. We will
say these constitute onef-ourth of our number.
That leaves about 200 who should subscribe. We
are willing to cut this down one half for the benefit of
those afflicted with indifference, laziness, penurious
ness, obstinacy and contempt of our ability. We
think the remainder should pay up. There are prob
ably not more than a dozen students who do not
read at least part of The Hesperian. Is it any more
than fair that you should help pay its running expenses?
A rollege paper without money is like a wagon box
without wheels hard to pull. Our wheels, when we
have any, are just the size of buzzard dollars and we
use up a good many sets in a year. We can also use
some axle giease in the shape of halves and quarters
for short subscriptions. In the words of the poet,
"Don't be a clam," but do your duty by us.
It is natural to envy the student who can get his
lessons easily. After grinding for a couple of hours on
something which another ,has seemingly mastered in
half the time, we grow discouraged and wonder what is
the use of our trying to do anything if some "smarty"
is always going to outstrip us. But let us be patient.
The knowledge which has cost effort is deeper, more
lasting than the superficial learning which often shows
off so finely in the class room. The plodding student,
after mastering one subject is more ready for the next.
Not so the so-called genius. He gets an idea that
he need not work and carelessly skimming over his
lessons obtains little real benefit from them. But it
is not in the college that the most comfort can be tak
en by the non-brilliant student. Here he must under
go a certain amount of chagrin. But entering the
business of life, how often is it the case that he, who
in college was thought rather dull, achieves real, per
manent success, while the genius, though perhaps
flashing occasionally into notice, fails utterly. The
one has found that by working he can accomplish
what he wishes, and, following that plan, succeeds; the
other, entering on his career with an exaggerated idea
of his own ability, sinks into oblivion while waiting
for fame to come and crcwn him. Do not worry
because you are not brilliant, but keep on struggling
and in the end you will prove the best man.
LITERARY.
Corrigenda: In the lost issue, number the first three items
two, three and one. They should have been made up in this
order.
The editor of this department hopes that the students will
not consider it as too much out of the way, or think that, in de
parting from his presumably fixed themes of book reviews and
essays on transcendental topics which no one understands or
cares to, imposing on their good nature; but he wishes to
say to them a very few plain words on the topic of the time,
-the labor question. It is not his purpose to consider it in
theory, or to speculate on the outcome, but to attempt to
make it as practical as possible. Undoubtedly there are oth.
ers of our number who haye better and clearer ideas on the
subject, and from any of these we shall be glad to hear.
It is customary for those who are not of the laboring class
es to look upon strikes, laborers' mass-meetings, and the like
as manifestations of a lawless and even a violent spirit, and
to think that these manifestations are made by men who have
no cause to complain, for they are living under the best sys
tem of government the world has ever known. A strike, then
is something to be put .down, and to look into its causes
would be an encouragement to anarchism. An anarchist is
someone to hang. No more thought about him is necessary.
Now the average student of this University knows what it is
to watch every dime as it leaves him, and yet his expenses
are little short of nine dollars a week. This sum is just the
wages of an unskilled laborer in the city, when he can get
work, which is not much more than half the time. It is folly
to say that a man can get work if he wishes it, for any working
man who is not a mechanic knows better from experience.
Where do you suppose, for example, those recently employed
in putting in the sewers are now at work? Now the average
workingman has a Wife and four or five children. With
about six dollars a week he must feed and clothe himself and
family. How is he to do it? Then think of the winter when
he must be idle.
In the earlier years of our republic it was a favorite boast
that the families of laboring men could have meat three times
a day. A laboring man does not need this, yet few would
say that his wages should be such that he could nut have it
if he wished. Now this is an impossibility on six dollars a
week. He must do with a mere existence from day to day
with no opportunity to provide for his old age. The capital
ists, of course, are not wholly to blame. It would require at
fc
3
y
ifi
w
tfl
ft
