8
THE HESPERIAN
M
EXCHANGE BRIC-A-BRAC.
We have received the Dartmouth for the first time in some
months.
We have received the University iVetvs from Syracuse, N.
Y., and gladly place it upon our exchange list.
The Latvrentian for February is an extremely thin thing.
A careful search failed to reveal to us more than one item
worth reading.
We very much regret our inability to compliment the ed
itors of the Muhlenberg Monthly uwn their February number.
It is an excellent paper, but is mostly the work of contribu
tors, and to them belongs considerable praise.
The College Student, for February, contains some very
good matter. The paper on state ownership of railroads is
one ol much merit; yet we doubt if its position on thr popular
side of the question would be a hard one to refute.
The last University Magazine contains a short article in
which the writer speculates upon the abvisabilityof co-education
in the institution from which that sheet hails. The
conclusion is a wise one. Our experience has taught us that
co-education consists principally in mutual adoration parties
of strictly limited numbers held at all hours in the conven
ient and retired nooks afforded by the second story halls.
No, we will say to you confidentially, co -education is a sort
of mirage; its distance alone lends it enchantment for you.
The little freak from Jamestown has again put in its ap
pearance. We note in its columns a frantic attempt to say
something concerning Tiik Hesperian. If it were older and
wiser it would not get mad and say such things. The cur
rent number of the above mentioned (rcak is quite an im
provement upon any we have yet received. With a new and
quite pretty cover and a little literary matter which really
has some merit perhaps it will yet become one of our most
valued exchanges, for strange things do sometimes happen
in this world. It has our heartiest sympathy.
The Vidette says that a college editor is expected to be
overflowing with crisp and witty sayings. These he must
grind out with the regularity ol a grist mill. Now right there
is where the Vidette man makes a mistake and displays his
verdancy. Nobody expects any such thing of the youth
whose name graces the title page of a college paper. When
college editors get over the impression that they are expected
to produce abnormally bright things and descend to the level
of common life and common sense, college papers will con
tain less worthless rot and more commendable reading matter.
When a youth from a school like the New Jersey Normal
attempts to deal with questions of style, it is not strange that
he becomes a little confused and displays more enthusiasm
than judgment. We would like to meet the editor-in-chief
of the Signal and have a private talk with him about "Mr.
Hutton," but, as we cannot hope for this pleasure, we must
refer the editor to the leading critics of the day, or to some
of the old numbers of The Hesperian. In passing we may
remark that it might be well for him to find out something
more about the "cycle of Cathay" before he speaks of it
again.
The Messachorean, a paper from an Atchison college, whose
faculty has not yet decided to let it appear without the apron
and bib which accord so well with its juvenile character, has
dropped in upon us again. The current number displays the
fact that it is, for all its youthfulness, taking considerable
interest in its own existence. The Messaehorean also dem
onstrates that it is deriving profitable experience from its life;
perhaps at its present rate of progress by next year it may
have learned that there arc two or three things more that
it could know. It's "Thoughts on Life" arc well worth read
ing by anybody who is expecting to go into the business of
living. However, if the Messachorean will bear with us, we
will suggest that its contributor could write a much more
valuable treatise on a more familiar subject Atchison mud,
for instance.
The Central Ray hopes very earnestly that a certain gale
will not singe its whiskers. The metaphor is n beautiful one
though a little mixed. If suggestions are in order we would
intimate that that sheet might improve its knowledge of rhet
oric by attending some respectable night school.
The exchange editor of the Oxvl remarks that her task is a
thankless one. Permit us to commend the good taste of those
who fail to make it otherwise. No, The Hesperian docs not
demonstrate that you are all fools. You are a very promis
ing lot, and no doubt in the future you will all win fame
eternal. But just now your callow intellects arc not capable
of producing much that you will refer to with pride in after
years. The essay concerning Mr. Bacon is a excellent ex
ample of your verdancy. The one under the caption
"Thomas Cromwell" is a little better; but if you like to
print Green's "History of the English People," we suggest
that you begin at the beginning and issue it as a serial with
the proper title.
The last Pharos is a very pretty paper and contains some
very good things. Hut if Mark Twain ever concludes to issue
another paper on "English as She Is Spoke" the Pharos
certainly should forward to him for consideration its article
entitled "Silent Men." Wc arc willing to allow youthful
writers an almost unlimited amount ol poetical license, and
wc will overlook any reasonable number of rhetorical blun
ders by a friend, but wc are compelled to characterize that
article as the rockiest piece of composition wc have seen out
side of the SibyPs columns. Of course the Pharos will par
don us if we conclude to draw the line at an article in which
brooks are made to twi'tcr, and some man's character is
accorded the possession of shrewd eyes.
The last Simpsonian prints three contest orations. They
arc, perhaps, fully up lo the standard for work of the kind.
Hut why is it that college men who write orations insist on
undertaking tasks at which wiser men could well afford to
hesitate? Each one of those three men sweeps as easily
and carelessly through the ages of history as though he occu
pied his high place by right of conquest. He begins with the
creation, stops for a moment to expatiate upon the star of
Bethlehem, depicts in stattling terms the fall of Greece and
Rome, disdainfully points out the weak places in Shakes
peare and Milton, and finally concludes by giving modern
statesmen and legislators some wholesome advice, which
if followed will justify him in predicting a bright and happy
future. It is useless lo point out that such productions are
of no benefit to the writer or to the reader. They represent
no thought of the author. They arc merely brilliant com
pilations of the fruits of other men's minds. Thev do not
display anybody's learning, and their composition destroys
any originality or individuality which may once have belonged
to the writer's style. It is to be devoutly hoped that college
writers will some day'learn that the best and most valuable
subjects for orations are to be found among those topics
which directly concern men and caus'e them to think. When
that tpnc does come that man who dares to inflict upon us
the lessons which history teaches, but which he has never
learned, will be very properly relegated to a place where
life is not so short as it is here.