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j,HE HESPERIAN.
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upon us the charge that we are too young to mould public
opinion. We merely wish to call attention to a discussion of
this all important issue in the North American Kevino for
January. Read both article;; examine carefully the argu
ments of two leading men, Gladstone and Blaine, and then
whatever conclusions you may draw, whether you think free
trade or protection is the better policy for the United States,
you will be able more intelligently to assist in the solution of
that problem which is receiving so much attention from the
statesmen and politicians of our country.
There is some trouble it seems down in South Carolina be
tween the whites and the negroes. We do not pretend to say
who is to be blamed in this matter, but we do say that the
race question will be a hard problem for future statesmen to
solve. Those who imagined that the abolishment of slavery
would be an expiation for the outrageous traffic of human beings
must some day awake to their folly. There arc certain laws
which Nature lays down and any violation of those laws is
bound to bring upon the transgressor a punishment, sometimes
delayed, but still sure. The people arc now suffering for
the misdeeds of those who, in the early days of our colonial
history, introduced slavery. There nay at any moment break
forth in the south a war of extermination between the races.
Every thing seems to point to such an occurrence as highly pro
bable in the not far distant future.
What is the matter with the athletic association? Why
cannot we have an opportunity to go out on the campus these
bright warm days and indulge a little in foot ball, our favor
ite sport last term? The ball is out of repair and has been
for some time. Is the association too poor to mendit, or was
it only a momentary craze for foot ball that swept over last
term and has now spent its force? Until we, as students,
take more interest than we do in athletics, it would be
scarcely reasonable for us to expect the powers that be to fit
up a gymnasium for our benefit. Brace up boys. Do not al
low all interest in foot ball to die out. Practice a little now
and then, and when the proper time comes around we can
send out a team that will win glory for ourathlctic associa
tion, and at the same time advertise our university in this and
the neighboring states.
MISCELLANY.
Our attention was called to an article that recently ap
peared in an evening paper, in which the writer took to task
our literary societies because they fail to present entertaining
programmes. The whole article was meant as a burlesque,
and we venture to say, since the author has showed so much
ignorance of the manner in which the societies conduct their
aflairs, that she has never attended one of our programmes.
However, be that as it may. We are not members of a liter
ary society because we wish to please or entertain our town
visitors, but we arc in the societies for the good that they do
us. Of course we have a great desire to please all our visit
ors, but yet if we fail to do so we must manage to plod along
"in order that some day we may be able to rattle off at short
"notice such brilliant effusions as docs the critic who seems to
frown upon our efforts.
We have received a pamphlet containing a programme
and description of the inauguration ceremonies of President
Young of Center college, Kentucky. Speeches were made by
General Buckner of Kentucky, ex-Governer Crittenden of
Missouri and others. Center college numbers the above
named men among its graduates, besides Justice Harlan,
Congressman McCreary and Breckenridge and many other
distinguished men.
During the last meeting of the regents one of them was
very fond oi telling a story on our illustrious chancellor. It
seems that our chancellor, a short time since, was engaged in
the lecturing business in our western counties. One day,
while being driven across country to fulfill an engagement,
he saw a rare plant by the roadside. His scientific enthusi
asm overcame his prudence and he sprang out backwards
from a rapidly moving buggy with the natural result that he
bit the dust with almost hydrophobic ferocity. The number
of rotations that he made along the road was not reported
owing to the difficulty of perceiving a rapidly moving body
with the naked eye. When his friend picked him up he
found him the happy possessor of a sprained ankle, torn
clothes and the dust of our western prairies. The lecture ol
that evening was not as interesting as our chancellor's usual
ly arc.
Yes, Theophrastus, when sister Kathic told me her im
pressions of our literary societies (published in the Evening
Gall of January 2) I made up my mind that it was about time
(or me to leave such a plcbcan crowd. Besides that I had got
tired of associating with everybody and of speaking to every
second rate chap that I should meet. So I decided to join a
fraternity. Get an invitation? Why that's easy enough. All
you have to do is to buy a bottle of hair oil, turn your vest un
der, and shave three times a week. Well, I had been at
it but two days when my medicine began to work. The frat
boys began to walk down town in the form of a hollow
square with me in the centre. My board bill went down
from $3.50 to 75 cents. The frat girls used to borrow my
knife or lead pencils every half-hour, and on the whole I
lived in clover for the time. My girl? Oh, yes, Kathie should
have kept still about that; but then you see, in the fraternities
each fellow has his special girl. How did she become a frat?
Why, I called on her one evening and stated my determina
tion to join the frats and advised her to enter one of the girls
fraternities. You see, all she had to do was to cultivate a
gushing manner of talking, with her voice pitched way up,
and to intersperse her conversation with ripples of such sil
very laughter that all the profs in her part of the building
would be greatly annoyed and would go down to the boiler
house to ask Dr. Green to get his stock of coal shovelled in
during the night. I told her that this method would get her
an invitation within twenty-four hours. Well, we are both
frats. Yes, waiter, I'll take mutton chops and baked pota
toes. ) COMMENTS ON OUIt AXTI-FItATEKNITY ACTION.
The Hesferian still continues to pour hot shot into the
fraternity system of the University of Nebraska. While wc
cannot approve its course in giving so much of its space to
the discussion of this question, yet we can see,from actual ex
perience in the Wesleyan, that many of its criticisms, especi
ally in regard to the relation of fraternities to literary
societies, are strictly just. Any careful observer of our liter
ary societies for the past two or three years will not need to
strain his eyes much to see that the fraternities are not an
unalloyed blessing to them. In those societies where the
power is about evenly balanced more time and effort is
wasted in factional strife than is used in endeavoring to
strengthen the society. But this loss of strength is not the
only injury coming from this source. However it may be
elsewhere, here the fraternity people seem to make their
work in the open societies a secondary matter. The result
s, that in the society managed entirely by the fraternitie
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