148
The University Courier.
A DEBT of honor is contracted oftenest by those whose honor affords mighty poor security.
IT IS CERTAINLY harrowing to poetic sentiment to be obliged to "bone" when the very atmosphere of the spring days invites us to get out doors and hustle around, but always remember that there is a class room atmosphere that needs some serious consideration. The examination atmosphere is looming up in the distance and warning us against the seductive influence of balmy breezes and soft moonlight.
THE FACULTY of the University of Minnesota have decided to replace the wearisome commencement orations with an address by some distinguished speaker. The step is progressive and it is a matter for serious regret that our own faculty did not display as commendable ideas in the selection of the K.U. commencement program. It is well enough to recognize the merit which the hard workers have undoubtedly earned by continuous grinding, but at the same time the public have a few rights and our own system of wearing everybody clear out by long-winded student orations is decidedly out of date.
THE MANNER in which the various colleges of the country are alleging that President Harrison is to be exalted from the humble position of an ex-president of the Union to a college professor, is something extravagantly humorous. First, Stanford University had him secured as a law lecturer at a most fabulous sum, to inculcate constitutional law into the California youth. Now comes the State University of Indiana and announces that the presidency of that most powerful education factory will be tendered President Harrison. In the meantime it might be just as well for the other colleges who are afraid the ex-president will be unable to secure a paying job, to postpone such senseless advertisements until Mr. Harrison has time to inform the college public that he is not a candidate for the position of instructor in any theatrical college.
It would appear that the zeal of the finance committee of the Athletic Association has led two of its members to forget discretion and to indulge in some antics that resemble a poor quality of horse play. When a committee is appointed to manage an affair it is always wise to allow it to do so unless it calls for assistance or shows itself incapable. As neither was the case in the management of Twelfth Night, the generous offer of services by the "generalissimo of the athletic field" and his loud boasts of patriotic sacrifice of time were not only amusing but were very ill timed and obnoxious to all really concerned in the presentation. It is hoped that this will check a rising ambition.
FROM AN ALUMNUS standpoint the college life marks the great epoch of transition from boyhood to maturity. At no time of life is character shaped so rapidly, and habits fixed more firmly. In this last training which we undergo before meeting the great responsibilities and practical application of our theoretical knowledge which will come with the contact of business life, we are shaping the character that will be ours from now until the end. In after years when we meet the companions of our present work, what a world of retrospective thought will gather round the memories of our college days. We will judge ourselves and our advancement by the progress they have made. If another has achieved honor we wonder in what way the path led, that we have missed it, and the only answer that wasted opportunity and neglected time returns will be, "Industry alone is the path to deserved success."
"Stop not, loiter not, look not backward, if you would be among the foremost. The great Now—so quick, so broad, so fleeting—is yours; in an hour it will belong to the Eternity of the Past. The temper of life is to be made good by big, honest blows; stop striking and you will do nothing; strike feebly, and you will do almost as little. Success rides on every hour; grapple it and you may win, but without a grapple it will never go with you. Work is the weapon of honor."