Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885, February 15, 1889, Page 2, Image 2
THE HESPERIAN. possible. The students can bring about this change if they exert themselves It will require much work and a little financial scheming but it will pay and prove more satisfactory to all concerned. The following emphatic protest is worthy of pub lication. It is only just to state however that pe culiar circumstances have rendered the regents unable to improve the condition of the band. But better things are expected in the future. The condition of the University Cadet Hand for the last three or four years is to be deplored. The difficulty arises mainly from the lack of suitable instruments. Ifthcrcisa good instrument in the band it is the property of the one who plays it. The University instruments may have harmonized when they wcie first used at the Scigc of Troy but they vary about six octaves from each other now. Let a bright, healthy and rcphyrous prep join the and band blow a Uni versity instrument; if he is not'a human tornado before two terms have expired he wdl have become a thin-faced consump tive. There is no reason why the U. of N. cannot have as good an amateur band as there is in the state if the cadets had the proper instruments. Let the regents ramble on the right road. It is the duty of every student to attend the state oratorical contest The University is in the association for blood and no student should forget it. No matter who represents the University in the contest, let every student go to Crete brimful of en thusiasm for the representative of his alma mater. Resurrect the University yell, exercise your lungs, and get in trim to have a hurrah time to say the least. A crowd of two hundred vigorous students, turned loose in Crete, a number of "scientifs" in the opera house, a strong orator upon the platform and the University is sure to win. If there is any enthusiasm for the University among the students, let it be shown at Crete at the time of the state contest. Take the co-eds to Crete. Jf they cannot cheer, they will be excellent mascots. Let the cadet band go. to Crete. Leave dirges and funeral marches be hind. Let the University be in fullforce at Crete, and prove that it has an orator whom it is proud to cheer and support. The literarty societies are proud of the attention received from the people of the city. Every Friday evening the society halls are filled with an apprecia tive audience. A certain class however, composed of a few young people, seem to forget that the soci eties have some rights which should be respected. If the doors of the societies are opened to all, to enjoy the program, every one should give an attcn tive hearing. But this particular set, to the annoy ance ofeverybody, persists in carrying on a lively conversation from the beginning to the end of the program. In this respect, lack of courtesy, to say the least, is shown the societies. The societies are obliged to bear all the censure on account such dis order. Those who compose this disturbing element should see to it that no reproach be brought upon the society, the hospitality of which they are per mitted to enjoy. It might be well to add that some of the students themselves are not above censure in this respect. LITERARY. While the name of Bjornstjcrnc Bjornson is more or less familiar to all of us, yet the obstacles attending the transla tion of foreign books into English, together with the diffi culty of introducing them after they arc translated, prevents the average person from gaining even a superficial know ledge of this great Norwegian poet and of the books that he has written. As there is not a single volume of his writings in the library at the present time, the February number of Harfer's Magazine will be more than welcome, since it con tains the first of a scries of papers on "Norway and its People," written by Bjornson. To read this properly one should know something of the character and habits of the author, and also the main points regarding his work as a writer. Bjornstjcrnc Bjornson is a child of the people and with them has he spent his life. Simple in his habits as the peas ants themselves, he finds his greatest pleasure in studying his fellow men and the causes and effects of their political condition. Like Tolstoi he has a great love for agricultural life and sees no nobler employment than tilling the soil. Such a man could write but in one way. A child of nature himself, his books are the offspring of nature's child. He is a realist, but one that sees only the beautiful and spiritual in life, not the low or vulgar. But he is not a writer only, he he is a worker for the good of his countrymen. He has been engaged in political disturbances, and has always been on the side of liberalism, which is the side of liberty and of progress. Hence it is evident that the series of papers, men tioned above, will be doubly interesting, since the author knows what he says to be true, and is in earnest in saying it. As might be expected, the style of his first paper is the soul of simplicity. In natural words, with clear, direct ideas he describes the stony, ungrateful soil of Norway, with its barren hills and forest covered valleys. One does not realize the seriousness of the battle between man and nature, a battle for food and shelter, until he reads the description of those northern regions. It is hard for us to realize the diffi culty of merely living, when the soil itself has to be created from which the sustenance is to be drawn. In fertile Nebraska, vc cannot understand the difficulty attending the cultivation of the soil in stony, sterile regions. Still less can we understand how such a .soil and such a climate can pro duce the poets and the poetry that Norway has produced. Bjornson tells how the farmsteads arc arranged. It seems that when a dwelling house becomes old and untenable, it is not torn down to make way for the new one, but is left to do some inferior duty than sheltering its owners. Hence we can see that in the course of a fsw years the cluster of build ings on a farm would become very large, the number of structures varying as the number of. persons living on the farm was greater or less. On a single farm arc found all the branches of labor that arc necessary for the support of life and for the cultivation of the soil. .Thus at one homestead are smoke house, a dairy house, a smithy, a carpenter shop,