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The Weekly University Courier
The Largest College Journal Circulation in the United States.
J. M. SHELLABARGER  J. C. FON,
President. Secretary
EDITORIAL STAFF:
JOHN A. MUSHRUSH, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
ASSOCIATES:
Pulished Every Friday Morning by the COURIER COMPANY
MARK OTIS,
HELEN WEBER,
EDITH MANLEY,
J. O. WORDEN,
H. F. ROBERTS,
HELEN SIMPSON,
GUSSEE PRICE,
IRENE WEBR.
BUSINESS MANAGERS:
J. M. CHALLIS, | J. S. C. BREWSTER
ORATORICAL ASSOCIATION.
CHA3. JOHNSON, PRESIDENT,
W. A. SNOW, SECRETARY.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
J. M. SHELLABARGER, | J. C. FOX,
H. M. F. BEAR
P. T. FOLEY, Printer, Lawrence, Kas
Entered at the post-office at Lawrence, Kansas,
as second-class matter.
UNIVERSITY DIRECTORY
PHI GAMMA DELTA fraternity, Meets in the Eldridge House block, third floor.
PHI DELTA THETA, Meets on second floor of Opera House block.
PHI KAPPA PSI, Meets on third floor of Opera House block.
SIGMA NU, Meets in the Eldridge House block, third floor.
SIGMA CHI, Meets on the fourth floor East of the Opera House block.
BETA THETA PT, Meets on fourth floor of the Opera House block.
KAPPA KAPPA GAMMA, Meets every Saturday afternoon at the homes of members.
KAPPA ALPHA THETA, Meets every Saturday afternoon in the Eldridge House block.
I C. SOROSIS, Meets every Saturday afternoon in homes of members.
OGATORICAL ASSOCIATION: J. A. Prescott, President; W. H. Brown, Secretary, Executive Committee; J. A. Mushrash, V. L. Kellogg, C. E. Street.
BASE BALL ASSOCIATION; Manager, Prof. A. W. Wilcox, Captain of the nine, Charles Vooris.
UNIVERSITY SCIENCE CLUB, Meets in Snow Hall.
PHILOLOGICAL CLUB, Meets in room No. 30 every other Friday at 8 p.m.
TENNIS ASSOCIATION; President, F. E. Reed; Secretary, F. H. Kellogg; Treasurer, W. A. Snow.
COURIER COMPANY; President, Dent Hogeboom; Secretary, Ed Esterly.
"We would like to call the attention of our contemporary to the late" decision of the Faculty committee in the oratorical difficulty, "however unpleasant it may be." COURIER stockholders, thirteen shares; Times' stockholders, twelve shares. Justice has at last been done and victory is ours.
With this issue of the COURCIER the new staff assumes its duties. Following as we do a most excellent and successful staff, we take up these duties with a feeling of the grave responsibility devoluing upon us. But with a corps of editors representing all classes of students it will be our endeavor to maintain the high rank which the COURIER has heretofore held. As with our predicessors, so with us the constant aim will be to make it a strictly representative paper of K. S. U. In order that we may fully succeed in this we ask the hearty co-operation of all those connected with the University.
NEARLY every afternoon passerby may see from thirty to fifty young
men playing foot-ball in the city park. Owing to the roughness and the mud of the base-ball grounds, the fellows were forced to find some grassy place to use as foot-ball grounds. The park is an admirable spot for such sports and could not be put to a better use than to be partly divided up into tennis courts and foot-ball grounds. Some parties after a great deal of hard work have succeeded in obtaining the privilege to establish one tennis court in that great square which is unused and practically unkept and which, if the city fathers could only be persuaded, might like the parks in all other cities afford a means for the amusement and exercise of many. Can't the tennis association see about this?
THE staff of editors will please notice the following division of duties: Editorial: H. F. Roberts, Edith Manley, S. A. Miller and M. E. Hickey.
Locals and Personals: Mark Otis, Helen Simpson, Gussie Price, Helen Webber, J. O. Worden and Irene Webb.
Each one in the first list will be expected to hand in an editorial each week not later than Tuesday.
Those in the second list will hand all locals and personals to Mr. Otis, who will arrange them for publication.
To Preach to Cornell Students
It is the intention of the Editor-in-chief that each one of the associate editors shall be so in fact. No name was put on the list simply as an ornament. No "wall flowers" will be allowed. Work, honest, faithful work is necessary for the editing of a good paper.
A list of Cornell University preachers for the winter term is announced. This is a new departure at Cornell. Heretofore the Sage Chapel has been vacant in the winter. The list of preachers is as follows: Winter term—President M.E. Gates, LL.D., of Rutgers College; J. H. Ecob, D.D., of Albany; President John Bascomb, D.D., LLD., of Williamsstown, Mass.; Rev. Myren of Syracuse University; Rev. W.C. Wilkinson, D.D., Tarrytown, N.Y.; Rev.J.H. Twichell, D.D., Hartford, Conn., Ptof.W.P. Coddington, Syracuse University; Dr. Dr.Bachman, Utica.
The list of spring term preachers is probably the most brilliant ever selected at Cornell, and' in fact, the best array of pulpit talent ever selected for any course of service. They are Thomas Armitage, D. D., LL D., Fifth-Avenue church, N. Y.; President J. Clark Seeley, D. D., LL D., Smith College; President S. T. Scoville, D. D., Wooster University, Ohio; Theodore T. Munger, D. D., New Haven, Conn.; Prof. W. N. Rice, D. D. Middletown, Conn.; T. Edwin Brown, D. D., Providence, R. L.; Rob't Collyer, N. Y. City; Prof. Hopkins, D. D., LL D., Auburn Theological Seminary; W. S. Rainsford, D. D., N. Y. City; E. E. Hale, D. D., Boston; David H. Greer, D. D., LL D., New York City, baccaulaureate sermon.
Why We Ask For a Gymnasium The following is published as a last appeal to the legislature, and it is for this reason alone that we allow this backneyed subject to occupy so much space.—Ed.
Why We Ask For a Gymnasium
The students of K. S. U. have repeatedly made efforts to organize among themselves an association which could furnish the means of gymnastic exercise. In each attempt they have been unsuccessful because so few students are able to contribute to such an enterprise. The students think it is now right to ask help from the protectors of the University.
Scarcely any one can doubt the necessity which created our petition. Farmers' boys, who comprise the majority of the students, come here fresh from active manual labor. They are compelled to suddenly change their habits from those of vigorous exercise to those of sedentary student life. Thus they lose energy and determination, their idea of education is lowered and many of them give up the struggle.
Eastern colleges have a fame which allures away from Kansas enough money to build a gymnasium every year. They have that fame because their students, assisted by the careful exercise that gives health, are able to give a good reputation to the institution which aids them.
In the University of Kansas other departments are at least organized; this one, not the least important, is wholly unprovided for. The dignity of consistency in K. S. U. seems to indicate that such a department should be attended to. It is the only thing for which the students in a body have ever asked. They ask this not without weighing the merits of a need for a gymnasium. They feel that it is an important department. Brain feeds on brawn Strong brains require solid, healthy nourishment. A sluggish circulation can not furnish such food.
At one time it was urged that such exercise would produce mischievous physical effects. We quote from Harvard's report: "Your committee can not but believe that athletics contribute to this favorable condition of physical exercise. Upon the participants themselves the physical effects are good. The average strength of students and the perfection of their physical development have greatly increased during ten years. At present there are about one hundred men in college stronger than the strongest man in 1880. The regularity and moderation of life necessary for men in training have a very favorable effect on health."
"Do athletic contests tend to usurp the interest due to study, and thus to lower the scholarship of those who take part in them? It might be argued a priori that the discipline, regularity of life and the perseverance required of successful contestants in athletic sports would tend to make athletes more efficient men; and there have been numerous cases in which atletic men have been high scholars. Your committee have obtained positive evidence on this point,
and they are themselves surprised at the conclusions of the proof that, except in the Freshman year, study is not interfered with by athletics. Tables 1 and 7 make possible a comparison of the college rank of athletic men and men not interested in athletics, with the average of their respective classes. It will be seen that the percentage of the university teams in but one case falls below the average of undergraduates, and in two cases it surpasses that average. (Table 1) When it is considered that the standing of one or two irregular or unfaithful members of a team may reduce the average considerably, this record is more than creditable. It is worthy of mention that the most athletic seniors in the classes of 1885-86 and 1886-87 included one man who received honors, nine who received honorable mention and nine who were entitled to write commencement parts. (Tables 3 and 5.)
That the scholarship of the college has not seriously suffered from the growth of athletics is further shown by the steady rise in the average standing of the graduating class during the past eleven years (Table 7); while new sports have been added and the number of participants has largely increased, the average standing has been from $67\frac{1}{2}$ per cent. to 73 per cent. At the same time the use of the library, a fair test of intellectual activity, has constantly increased. It seems demonstrated beyond a doubt that participation in athletics lowers neither the standing of those who take part nor the general standing of the college."
STUDENTS OF K. S. U.
The gymnasium which we need and which is the most economical we have been able to plan, is based upon designs by Architect Haskell. These are taken from t.e plans of other gymnasiums and modified to meet our necessities. It is to be so constructed that it can be added to as the needs of the University may require. The first wing can be built and equipped for $15,000. When we compare this with the cost of Hemenway gymnasium ($110,000) and others of the East, it appears that our request is not exhorbitant.
A Military Department.
Now that the gymnasium fiend is taking a rest from his labors, it occurs to us to speak again on a topic which, though broached once or twice before, deserves more careful consideration and that is the idea of a military department at the University.
When a college establishes a military department it usually applies to the general government for an officer of the regular army to be detailed as professor of military tactics, and whose term is three years. Arms and ammunition are issued by the government, and an army inspector is appointed to examine each year the department, and report its condition and progress. The uniforms are usually furnished the college for the use of the cadets by the state in which the college is situated. Manv
of the educational institutions of the country have in this manner established flourishing schools of military discipline. Ohio has one at her state university, and in Kansas there is a thriving military department at the agricultural college.
The good arising from military discipline in schools is two fold, physical and mental. As to the physical benefit; no one needs to be told that military exercise in the open air, or the practice of the manual of arms, for an hour each day, or even three times a week, is conducive to good health.
If we had a military department at the University, and had military exercise compulsory for every young man during the first year of his attendance here at least, we venture to say that we would see fewer sallow, scikly, "foot-in-the-grave" young men, and would have a shorter sicklist. This may seem an exaggeration, but to anyone who has seen the effects of regular military discipline amon students, it is no more than the truth. Of course there is much to be said in favor of a gymnasium, it is certainly a good thing; but there are many who shrink from the acrobatic performances of the gymnasium, but who would willingly take up with military drill, partly because of the enthusiasm which seems always to accompany military exercise, and partly because of the healthy, but less violent exercise it offers.
Then the moral effect of military drill is good. It inculcates a spirit of obedience to orders, and subordination to discipline, and gives rise to a certain esprit du corps such as no other athletic organization can impart. As we said before, we believe that military drill would attract a larger number of students than a gymnasium, baseball association or any thing else of an athletic nature. Anyway, one thing is certain; we need some kind of regular exercise, and need it badly, and for our part, we think that a military department fills the bill exactly.
"Siberia."
The Chicago Tribune says:
"Bartley Campbell's great drama "Siberia," at Heuck's this Christmas week. There are many who claim that this play is the lamented dramatist's greatest. It must be a strong play to come again and again and receive such tremendous welcomes in crowds and applause. There were people in that audience last night whom the writer has seen there upon former productions. And notting so emphasizes the worth of a play than that those who have seen it are drawn to it again, and draw others in also by their encomiums. The one who saw "Siberia" for the first time last night will be among the first to welcome it with his dollar upon its first future presentation."
"Siberia" will be presented at the Opera House next Saturday evening. All the magnificent scenery of the company will be put on, and the play otherwise produced as in all the large cities. The seats are now on sale.
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