150
The University Courier.
LITERARY.
Types of College Men.
There is a great difference in people. This is probably no new idea to most of us; but we scarcely ever stop to pick out the differences. These differences divide mankind into classes; and there are almost as many different classes, or types, as there are colors among cats, which is saying a good deal. Even among the students one will find as distinct types as among people in the outer world.
One of the common types is the student who is limited in financial resources, but wears good clothes, studies moderately hard, has his lessons as a rule, and spends his time when not at work reading some well known author, or keeping posted concerning the events of the day. His room is comfortable, and his few standard books are in plain sight on the shelves. This student is the one who will probably make a success when he gets out in the world, for he has that "rustle" which always comes out ahead in the end.
The smallest class is composed of the "grinds," who have no thought but for the lessons of the morrow. The grind goes to classes as regularly as clockwork, and as soon as recitation hours are over, he is at work, learning by heart all that there is in the text. This person rarely ever goes outside of his books for information, for he seems to have an idea that all the knowledge in the world is enclosed within the covers of his few school books. He is a harmless person, and may turn out to be of some great use in the world.
A distant relation of the grind's, but without his good points, is the "grade-one student," who lives for his grades. You will see this student always talking to the instructor after the recitation. He waits and walks down the hill with some of his professors. In fact, about all the real work that he does consists in "working the Profs." Some times he becomes quite an adept in this art, and manages to impress many of his instructors with his great
ability. He will even resort to hard study, if that is the only course left him, by which he can get a "I." After the examinations are over, your grade-one student will go about the halls for a day or so and ask every one that he meets: "What did you get in German," or "in English," or "on your themes?" and when the answer is given, the grade-one student will offer the information that he has a "one."
Another type is, in the modern vernacular, the "cheap sport." This gentleman may be as limited to cash as the first type mentioned, but he will wear his "ice cream" trousers (always "creased") and his dark, tailor-made coat in spite of all the stringency of the money market; and sometimes you can add to his costume a pair of russet shoes, and gloves carried in the hand—never worn, possibly for economy's sake. His hair is often parted in the middle and combed down over his temples. His room is always in disorder, and among the papers and books on his table you will find one or two "Albatross Novels," and probably several other works by equally interesting writers. These are his text books, and he regulates his actions in accordance with the very valuable precepts set down in their pages. As a consequence, he is an habitual flirt. He thinks all young ladies of no consequence unless he can get up a heart-breaking flirtation with them, and is seldom seen with any lady that does not belong to this very numerous class. He carries on his flirtation in public, thinking that they will be of general interest to other people, and proud of the fact that he is so popular. Such men have made something of themselves in later life, but not very often. The odds are greatly against them.
There is occasionally a luxurious student, whom you will generally find in his warm room, reclining in a big arm-chair, dreamily smoking a pipe of choice tobacco, and possibly, in a listless way, going over his lessons for the next day. He has a few books on his shelves, and among these you are very likely to find worn copies of Byron or Burns and the fanciful writinge of Ik. Marvel.