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THE HESPERIAN.
most unenviable duty. Each member should be pre
pared then to perform whatever he may be able for
his society and let him be assured that however much
good he may do lor his society that he himself will
receive the most benefit from the work.
i ATHER strange what ideas some people have.
They join a fraternity because they intend to
attend school elsewhere and the fact that tl.ey belong
to a fraternity will insure them a standing in society
that would not be attained otherwise. It seems to us
that this is absurd. A fraternity may be composed of
good men in one institution and of very undesirable
ones in anothdr. If a person is wise he will select
new friends when he has a chance to see and know
them rather than allow some one else to choose as
his associates people whom he has i.ever known. We
prefer to select our friends after we have had an oppor
tunity to test them rather than to be bound to any
aggregation- simply because they happen to wear a
particular frat pin. That man must indeed have small
confidence in his own ability who must rely upon a
fraternity badge to bring him into "good society."
n
E admire consistency. We also have great re
spect for the man who when finding himself
mistaken has the courage fearlessly to acknowledge
his mistake and the manhood to attempt to make
amends. But we are unable to repress contempt for
the person who when he finds that he has been in er
ror, tries to shift all the blame from his own should
ers to those of another. Such has been the action of
one of the city papers with respect to the charges
of plagiarism against Mr. Ferguson. The paper to
which we reler was the first to proclaim the news that
Mr. Ferguson's oration was not original and the al
leged proofs of the charge were not published as we
believe solely because the paper did not possess them.
But when the facts were brought forward by another
paper, the journal referred to was not slow to use
them. A few days later this great moral educator,
with a high conception of Truth and Justice proceeded
to brand as cowards those who struck at a man when
by his absence he was unable to defend himself and
seemed to insinuate that it was in no way responsible
for the attack. Now leaving aside all questions as to
manliness of attacking a man when it was impossible
for him to defend himself, would it not be more hon
orable, more dignified, and more just, if this great
moral newspaper had frankly admitted that it had
been in error rather than to attempt to throw the
whole burden of the blame upon another paper that
is perhaps less open than itself to the charge of injustice?
HE faculty of other institutions seem to take
more interest in oratory than do our faculty,
One professor of rhetoric came from a far ofTstate with
the orator who represented that state. It is only fair
to suppose that the professor did not come merely as
a spectator but to renderall the assistance in his power
to that orator. We may be pardoned for asking how
much the professor of rhetoric and oratory in this
institution trained in delivery our representatives to
the last two stale contests. If oratory is a thing, to
be discouraged for what reason have we a professor of
oratory? Why support such a department? But if
oratory is a thing to be encouraged, why is it that
our representatives at the state contests have not re
ceived the proper amount of training? Every defeat
lowers the institution in the opinion of the people.
We do not intend to blame any member of the faculty.
They all have plenty to do, but we do wish to remind
every one of the necessity for training our orators and
also of the fact that so Air as we know no special pains
have yet been taken in drilling our orator for the state
contests. As a consequence of this we have been de
feated in several contests.
OW that the inter-state contest is over we may
be allowsd to pass judgment upon the manner
in which the Wesleyans treated Gates college after
the state contest. We should have done so before
but we did not wish to take any action that would
tend to diminish the support which we, as the repre
sentative of Nebraska Slate University owed to our
orator at the inter-state contest. As is well-known
the orator from Gates was unable to speak at the state
contest but his manuscript was marked first. The
Wesleyan man won first honors, according to the
constitution. Legally he was entitled to his honors
and could not be deprived of them. But there is a
difference between what is legal and what is right and
we would naturally expect a Christian institution to
pursue a course in accordance with right. But it
did not. Instead of acting in a spirit of nobleness
and generosity the Wesleyans acted in a very selfish
and unchristain manner. Gates was given no oppor
tunity to compete for a prize that we believe she
would have won. We do not pretend to be a religious
institution. We do not harp upon the advantages
to be derived from attending a Christian school, but
we do wish to remark that our students are capable
of showing a fairer and more Christian spirit than
are those of the institution situated in the eastern part
of this city. We do not desire any honors unless we
win them fairly. Perhaps you may say that the Wes
leyan is not responsible for the action of her orator.
True she is not responsible for all of his actions but
if any student or the U. of N. treated an unfortunate
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