Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885, January 15, 1890, Page 5, Image 5
imm " m MmmMWWIl'W ' " ' i j,HE HESPERIAN. 1& 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 31