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The University Courier.
Kansas State University.
AT the head of the public school system of Kansas stands the State University." This sentence has been read or heard time and time again by a majority of the people of Kansas. But how many of them know and appreciate all that is implied in those words? How many pupils of the grammar and high schools know of the real workings of "their" University and the opportunities which there are presented for the completion of the education, the foundations of which were laid in the primary grade of some district school? The farmer whose wheat and corn is ravaged by the chinch bug looks for relief to the scientist at the University, the benefit of whose years of labor in the laboratory and in the field the farmer-citizen of Kansas enjoys. To whom does the student of Kansas socialism look for a solution of his vexing problems other than to those University men whose earnest efforts to find the truth have given them to a certain extent the ability to give an unbiased opinion? The waters of the state are sent to the University for analysis, on the accuracy of which may depend the health of thousands. The quality and value of rocks and soil are determined by University men by whose years of research the people profit. The man who is interested in art, ancient or modern, knows that he can find at the University those likewise interested. Or it may be that it is in the study of the languages that the citizen of Kansas likes to employ his leisure moments; perhaps his special study is the English language and literature; it may be the workings of the human brain. No matter in what line of study his taste may run he finds University men whose likes are his likes. The high school graduate who desires an education in mechanics or engineering turns at once to the University.
But little does each one think of the other departments in which he is not interested but which with the school in which his speciality is
taught go to make up the "University." He does not stop to consider that the scientific, sociological, legal, music and other departments are each but a part of a great whole.
The University student himself very seldom appreciates the size and scope of the institution in which he is enrolled. His work lies in one department or school; his knowledge of the work in the other departments and schools is meagre. The law student knows little, if anything, about the work of the engineering school. The student of the school of arts knows as little about the methods employed in the music school as he does about the work of the pharmacy student.
And so, then, a few words explanatory of the work done and the methods employed in the various schools and departments will be perhaps the telling of a new story to the reader of the Courier whether he be a citizen of Allen or of Wyandotte county; or whether he be a student in attendance upon some department of the University.
NATURAL HISTORY.
Snow Hall, the home of the Natural History department, contains much that is of interest both to the ordinary observer and to the scientific curiosity-seeker. Here are the museums and collections which attract so much attention and bring so many visitors to the University Here are the laboratories in which constant research is being carried on for new truths and fresh proofs of old theories. On the third floor are the laboratories of the department of taxidermy. Here work Prof. L. L. Dyche and his assistants. Here skins are prepared for mounting. Here was made ready for exhibition the collection of North American mammals which was the principal part of the Kansas exhibit at the World's Fair. On the next floor below are the laboratories of the departments of entomology and botany. Here were carried