THE HESPERIAN
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EXCHANGE BRIC-ABRAC.
The IMcaJ has a page on "Compulsory Insurance in
Germany" clipped, to be sure, but well worth reading.
The editors o! many of our exchanges are taking a vacation
just now. Blessed be the man who invented contest
orations.
The little seed catalogue from Fairfield has a paragraph or
two on "The Problem of Our Origin." The Call goes about
it all wronp. First thing it knows some good old elder of
the faith will quietly and firmly sit upon such enterprising
investigation.
The McnxMuJk Collegian man displays in a late number of
his paper a wonderfully vivid imagination as well as a startling
lack of artistic taste. The design upon our cover is the work
of a master hand, dear Collegian. You wolud have great
cause to be thankful if you had one as neat.
The first place in the Kansas intercollegiate oratorical con
test was won by the gentleman from Lawrence. After care
fully comparing the oration with its competitors wc feel it our
duty to compliment the author. He has chosen a living sub
ject. He has evidently placed the result of his individual
thought in his production. Barring a few poorly cast sen
tences and a certain lack of compact and logical arrange
ment, there appears no reason why Mr. Stebbins' oration
may not be a winning one in the interstate contest.
We would advise the youth who wrote the squib on "Con
servatism" in the March Argo to send a marked copy of the
paper containing it to Mr. Gladstone. The criticisms it makes
upon his course of action might prove of inestimable value to
that gentleman by showing him just wheicin he has erred and
just how he may go to work to regain the position which his
great blunders have lost for him.
The Jfiami Jcurnal a monthly according to its title page,
but according to its appearance in this office a semi-annual,
is a paper which goes a great deal upon its shape and upon
t'he fact that its college is the birthplace of a dozen or two of
fraternities. We nave nothing to say against Greek letter so
cieties wouldn't say it for the world if we had! but it is
considerable of a question in our mind whether the fact that
Miami is a sort of fraternity plateau of Iran is one of sufficient
importance to compensate for the general worthlessness of
the Journal. Its perusal reminds us of an involuntary con
versation we once had with the ''Oldest Inhabitant" the
slayer of the last buffalo.
The Niagara Index ex. man is, we suppose, going to school
in order that when he has attained to years of discretion he
may become a priest of the good old Catholic faith. We
like earnestness; we are on common ground with our Catholic
friend when he denounces hypocrisy, and we grant that much
of it is to be found in Protestant religious life; but he seems
to forget that, as a rule, people all over the world are about
equally good, no matter whether Catholic or Prolesantt.
What if Luther was a crank and a conscienceless apostate?
The Index man will not presume to deny that he was the direct
cause of that purification which first gave Catholicism the
light to stand on an equal footing with Protestantism as a
religious institution. By the way, when this Ancient obtains
the robes of the priesthood he will probably introduce more
astounding innovations than Luther ever did. He will say to
the trembling sinner who seeks spiritual counsel at his hands:
"Look here you knock-kneed, lopsided, bow-legged, brass
mounted omathon, there is nothing on earth, human or inan
imate, no matter what, more despicable, more treacherous,
mendacious shortcomings. Confess your sins, yoa immacu
late lunderhead!"
The editorial board of the VanJertilt Oiserver send out for
February one of the best papers that we have received this
year. Especially commendable is that article on theater
going. It is a telling hit upon those who indiscriminately
condemn everything in which they can find a trace of the
bad. The stage is one of the most important factors in nine
teenth century life. No institution need be of crystal purity
in order to be a valuable public educator. But even if the
modem theatre were the fountain head of all the immorality
claimed, we hold that the observation of man's wickedness
and depravity may teach the student as much that is valuable
as the constant contemplation of the loftiest of human ideals.
About two-thirds of our exchanges are printing an extract
from the Hon. J. J. Ingalls' speech enncerning college men,
in which the sarcastic little senator tries to prove by figures
that a man doesn't make much by giving himself a higher
education if he expects to make politics his vocation. He
shows that of the prominent officials of this government only
about forty-six per cent are college graduates. Turning to our
richly bound file of Ckestnutia we find that one man in every
2,000 graduates at colleges. Hence the senator's little calcu
lation contains a fatal inconsistency. This, by the way, is a
characteristic which has an unhappy faculty of attaching
itself to nearly all of Mr. Ingall's schemes.
The Courier of March 2 displays more spirit than any
number of the paper we have seen since Sullivan's time.
The space us ually occupied by chestnuts is filled up by a
letter from a kicker. Now nothing is more valuable to a col
lege paper than an occasionally squarely directed kick. The
Hesperian is dying to receive an anonymous communication
of this nature upon a subject or two that it might mention.
The Kansas kicker directs his invective against a tolerably
well known college institution in these words: "Final exami
nations are of no practical benefit, and that time taken up in
holding them is wasted cannot be controverted with truth."
Perhaps the kicker has been fatally caught in the clutches of
the finals, in which case we will not blame him for his
retort. But if that young man is right in bis statement it
must be said that his wonderful capacity for proving the fac
ulty a fool will be of the greatest value to his constituents
when he has become an honored member of the Kansas
legislature.
A little sheet down in Kansas gives it out straight that it
doesn't believe that a college paper has any business to con
sider questions of politics. The real reason of the assertion
becomes apparent later, when the writer remarks that he is a
good democrat and attempts to explain away a few little
inconsistencies in the president's late message. But no
matter what the reason is, such a doctrine is quite tiresome.
It is every man's duty to prepare himself for the proper exer
cise of the functions of citizenship. Indeed, it appears to us
that in these times, when revolution boldly threatens almost
every existing political and social institution, no man can go
amiss in making a special study of politics and all related
subjects. When college papers begin to print the result of
such study not because it is political, but because its ques
tions are live and practical and the enthusiastic and senti
mental rubbish which purports to be profound investigation
in history or metaphysics, but which is in reality an excellent
illustration of the dgoo old fashioned process of cribbing, is
I relegated to the background, then college journalism trill
tatealew mighty a.teps forward, and fewer colleges will
more cut throating, more damnable than your malicious and 1 have cause to be ashamed of their papers.