H
THE HESPERIAN
Be
i
II-
EXCHANGE BRIC-A-BRAC
Hiram College has no fraternities and does not want any.
The literary socities are doing excellent work.
Nearly one hundred students of Ohio Wesleyan were con
verted in one week recently. Practical Student.
The students of Tufts College have hecn physically exam
ined and the Tuftonian prints the names of the twenty
strongest men.
The Kentucky University Tablet has undertaken to pub
lish in each issue the portrait of one of their faculty and an
article by the original of the portrait.
We notice in the College Star that three members of the
class of '89 at Hiram are married and four babies help to oc
cupy the spare moments of said seniors.
Kansas State University has now to step to the rear or
Washburn College in the matter of oratory. We hope the
result in the Kansas contest is no foreshadowing of the result
in Nebraska.
In the University of California there is a students' co-operative
association through which text books and stationary are
obtained. The Occident says many hundred dollars have
thus been saved to students.
To the Blackburnian we would say that the omission of
a literary department in The HksI'KKIAX occurred in only
one issue. Ordinarily we devote as much space as we think
profitable to that line of writing.
The College Index, Kalamazoo, gives pictures of the fac
ulty for premiums. ' A new departure in college journalism.
We always supposed Professor llntsford (U. of N., '84) was
too modest to allow his picture to be used in so public a
manner.
Kansas colleges seem to be troubled with anonymous
newspapers. The latest is the Clironices at Washburn which
attacks the faculty for a recent action in regard to the young
ladies' boarding privileges. The Argo rightly says that this
is a "mean, disreputable way of venting spleen."
Kentucky University is another institution were "there is a
tradition, handed down irom generation to generation among
university students, that there is somewhere hidden away in
some cavernous recess about the building, a library of twelve
thousand volumes." The Tablet goes on to say "Few have
heard of it, except from the catalogue; fewer still have seen
it, and none have access to it." What a commentary on the
old fogyism of that faculty!
The Southern University Monthly in commenting on a
lecture delivered by H. K. Hrucc at the Ohio Wesleyan o
the "Race Problem", says: "We doubt whether Hruce, in ad.
dressing the white students of the North is helping the South
tosettle the "Race Problem." A negro speech before a body
ol white students in the South would be a most novel experi
ence." We wonder when our southern brethren will learn to
00k on a man as a man, regardless of color.
TUetudenl Life, Washington University, St. Louis, is
run on a novel plan. The assistant editors take turns' in
issuing the paper. We do not know if this system is what is
at fault but the editorial? in the issue at hand arc not remark
able for weight. One of them confesses that the editress has to
use dictionaries and encyclopedias to get topics, another gets
ofl an attempt at a joke on Susan IJ. Anthony, and another
discusses the newest idea in dude's clothes in New York,
lietter put some capable person at the head of your paper
and let him stay there long enough to find out how to run a
college journal.
The Sibyl, Elmira, New York, differs from most college
journals in being edited by the Senior class as a whole. It
seems also to be published but once in three months. Nat
urally with fifteen editors and three months of preparation
the "dear girls" can get out a pretty good paper. A sopho
more's account of travel in Japan is quite readable as is also
a letter from Germany. The number of amusing happenings
and "breaks" recorded is startling. Do the girls ever get
anything right?
We want to say to the Hillsdale Herald, the University
Reporter and a few other benighted papers that it would be
well to quit a little habit they have and which they continue
in simply because it has been the custom in the past. This
senseless habit is the publication of "Society Reports." It
originated perhaps in the jealousy of the various societies pub
lishing the several papers. Hut this childish feeling is not
sufficient grounds for continuing the custom. The members
of one society do not need to be told what they themselves
did and their performances are not ttartlingly interesting to
others. What sense is there in publishing that a "committee
on window curtains was appointed," or "the vice-president
was instructed to look after the fires?" Of what use are
comments on the productions when you do not dare say any
thing but "nice things?" If you have any literary ability
at all you could fill the space occupied by these "reports"
with matter which would be a great deal more interesting to
all concerned.
The Portolio is the name of the latest addition to our
list. It comes from Parson's College, Iowa. The "editorial
staff" docs not seem to include half the names which appear
at the head of the several departments. We scarcely see the
use or a.lvisability of the three columns of quotations "About
Philosophy." While as a rule wc hardly think it best to
devote the whole editorial space to one topic, yet the Port
folio's comment on the Collegian is praisworthy, and the objec
tion that that magazine may not fill its intended mission in
the West is a legitimate query. However wc hope the new
magazine will be able to overcome the objection. If the plan
suggested as to a western inter-collegiate magazine could be
carried out we would say "amen." Hut would it not be well
to await the result of the eastern experiment, sustained, as it
is, by the older institutions, before another similar project is
undertaken? One thing more we wish to notice in this paper.
It is a column of the veriest nonsense which appears as the
contribution from one of the societies. Don't lower the
grade of your journal by printing such stufT again.
The exchange editor on the Simpsonian needs consider
able practice before he will be a very great success. Expres
sions like "rocky," "it's a cold day," "on deck," "big thing
on ice" are hardly proper in a journal coming from an edu
cational institution. This gentleman's logic is also slightly
at fault. Because, as he untruthfully says, The HESPERIAN
"devotes no space whatever to literary matter" he thinks we
have no right to criticise another journal for a superabundance
of contributed articles. Now if, we devoted a large amount
of space to such articles we might be censured for criticising
such an action in others. However as we aim to keep the
literary matter within proper limits and as a rule furnish our
own "copy" we believe we are consistent in criticising those
who fill their paper with contributions. Perhaps the state
ment that we have no literary department comes from the
fact that that department was omitted in one issue, owing to
pressing duties of the-literary editor. However in that issue
were about four columns of matter which were neither edi
torial, exchange, or local and might properly be called "liter
ary" even though they were not long, headed articles.