Toothaker's Stable is the favorite Livery with the students. Hacks always in waiting
THE WEEKLY University Courier.
The largest College Journal circulation in the United States.
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY MORNING
COURIER COMPANY.
For Kansas University Students.
mf. O. BILLINGS, A. L. WILMOTH,
President. Sec'y.
EDITORIAL STAFF.
W. S. JENKS, Editor-In-Chief
H. E. VALENTINE,'88. 'J. D. DAVIN, '87.
LATRA LTONS,'86. ['J. D. AVIN, '87.
G. W. HARRINGTON, '89.
NANNIE ANDERSON,'89. MARY SABIN,'87.
C. L. SMITH,'87
BUSINESS MANAGER
DENTON DUNN, 87. E. G. BLAIR, '87.
Box 143 Burlington
Entered at the Post Office at Lawrence, Kansas, as second class matter.
Cutler s Petroleum Engine Print.
Notice.
The business managers of the Courier have appointed Mr. Yearsley White collector of subscriptions. All whose subscriptions for the current year remain unpaid, should pay him or the business managers immediately.
Decoration day should be appropriately observed. It is hoped that all will take part in the exercises of the day in a proper"spirit. The recollection of the dangers through which the Union has passed; the remembrance of those who sacrificed life and fortune on the altar of their country, can be attended with nothing but good. As we honor those who have preserved our country, we will learn to love and keep the same blessing for future generations. Few monuments mark the place where our soldiers sleep; nor do they need them. In the hearts of their countrymen they have erected a more lasting monument, "around whose base the flowers of memory will bloom forever."
The following from the Kansas City Journal of Tuesday, written by the Topeka correspondent, speaks in high praise of the University:
"The Journal correspondent was this morning permitted to read a private letter from Pres. Elliott, of Harvard University. It has the following high compliment to our Kansas college. Speaking of western colleges, Pres. Elliott said: 'The Kansas State University is the best college in the west, with the possible exception of Ann Arbor University.' Coming as this does from the head of the leading college in the United States, it is a deserving compliment to a Kansas institution, in every way deserving the good words said."
The catalogue of the department of music comes from the press neatly bound and well arranged. It shows the department to be keeping pace with the other branches of the University. Although this is a new department, established in 1883, it has already reached a degree of efficiency superior to that of many other institutions.
The number of pupils enrolled in the instrumental classes reached 10;
vocal culture, 17; total, 67. This is certainly encouraging for the department, and speaks well for the energy and ability of the dean in charge.
The concerts given by this department have been highly pleasing and instructive to the public. Its popularity seems to assure a future as prosperous as the past.
The strongest advertisement which a University can receive, is the work of its students. The word of one who has attended the University will go further than a whole library of catalogues and special advertisements. Every student can do something to build up the University. Do you know of any students in your town or near it who think of attending some college? If you do, go and see them at once when you return home. Show them that they will have friends here. Take along a catalogue. Study it first yourself. Fill them full of University. Tell them the old standard jokes. In the absence of further entertainment, give them a copy of the Courier. It takes only a little such work to so completely "spike" a student that whenever they think of school the University comes to the front as the standard. Besides this personal work, every one can write something for his home paper. The editor will be pleased to publish the article and it will be a benefit to the writer and to the University. Make up your mind to do this work. All papers in the state want a report of the commencement exercises; accommodate them. The report will be much better received from a student who is known, than from the correspondents in the Kansas City papers.
In arranging for commencement, the matter of expense plays no small part. It has been considered an advantage possessed by western colleges that the expense of graduation is so slight. It is, indeed, an advantage, and it should be maintained. For this reason we regret to see a tendency in the opposite direction in the University. Each commencement seems to demand more display than the preceding; every year the expense of graduation seems to increase. More than one student has left school near the close of their Senior year because they could not afford the expense of graduation.
We hope the Senior class this year will return to the former custom of the University, and reduce all expenses to the minimum. There are some members in every class who need all the advantages of economy. They have worked their way through school, and can ill afford to have an extra burden thrust upon them in leaving the University. The Senior who has wealthy supporters is inclined to think, since he is about to finish his college days, that an extra display is proper and very desirable. This may be quite true, as far as he himself is concerned, but he has no right to vote heavy expenses on other members of the class. The ability of the poorest to pay should be made the standard by which the class is governed.
The lower class men of the Phi Psi fraternity, having suffered severe defeat at the hands of the Juniors and Seniors of the same fraternity in a goat riding contest, challenged
the latter to a game of base ball. They met in the green south of town and fought to the finish, the juveniles winning an easy victory; score, 29 to 16. Prescott and White were the battery for the plebs, and Little and Rushmer for the patricians. Good work was done on both sides. Among the brilliant plays of the game was the successful escape from right field made by Dunn, when the ball came in that direction. The first ball thrown by Prescott, which took the batter in extreme parts, demonstrated that he was no ordinary thrower, while a base hit made by Crane when he slipped on second, was heartily applauded. With the exception of a few sprains and bruises, no damage was suffered by the players. The boys are encouraged to try another game.
The State University, in keeping pace with the growth of the state, is constantly broadening out and adding to itself new departments. The latest addition is the department of pharmacy, which is now drawing to a close its first year. The work done in the past nine monthsis very satisfactory "indeed" to all who have been connected with it, and the prospects for future greatness are very gratifying to those in charge. At first there was considerable doubt about its success, owing to the lack of proper support; but the state legislature, realizing the importance and necessity of this department in the University, very magnanimously made appropriations for the needs of the pharmaceutical school, and made the professorship an established chair of the University, under support of the state. This insures the success of the school, and as soon as the contemplated improvements are made, and the workings of the department get fairly under way, as good a school of pharmacy as any in the land may be looked for. That the pharmaceutical department will continue to grow in greatness, there is no doubt, and Kansas will be fully able to educate her own druggists in the future. To this success great credit is due to the man at the head of the department, who has proven himself fully competent, and has labored unitingly for its advancement.
If there is any one solicitous for editorial honors, we would be pleased to see him. We have canvassed this subject carefully, and find that there is no such thing as editorial honor. Look in Webster; Worcester; bring out your cyclopedia—You can not find the expression in print. Editorial honors, like faith, are "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence"—and very faint evidence—"of things not seen." When first elected editor, it was with no small estimation of importance that we took up the editorial pen—the editorial pen, we will explain, is a toothmarked stub of a lead pencil, about an inch and a half long. But the most pleasant dreams are the soonest ended. It was necessary to write something. Here was the difficulty. I sat down and thought—of nothing. I analyzed, sympathized, generalized, without result. I then tried pacing the floor. The results were better. I soon perceived that I was getting quite heavily charged with thought. I seized the pen, but like a leyden jar, the charge was lost at the first
contact. Well, this is only a faint picture of the operation through which an editor must pass every week. But still the copy must be forthcoming. If you could step into the editorial sanctum and hear the "wailing and gnashing of teeth" of the editor-in-chief, when on the last afternoon before going to press he finds that the editors are three columns "short of matter," you would have little desire to enter the journalistic field.
The saying that nothing succeeds like success is quite generally accepted as truth. However, we see so many exceptions to this rule, that we are inclined to reverse the sentiment, and say that nothing is so ruinous as success. The student who can succeed in taking a great number of honors, must possess more than ordinary judgment in order that his success may not be an injury to him. A feeling of superiority and self sufficiency are almost sure to be the result. The person becomes careless; rests too confidently upon the support of past reputation; considers it beneath his dignity to do his best. He soon loses his reputation and finds that while he has been dreaming of honor, others have overtaken and passed him. The same remarks hold true in regard to fraternities. Beta, Phi Psi and Phi Gams have climbed up and down like mercury in a barometer. Whenever a fraternity becomes so successful that it can spend three nights in the week in self congratulation, it is sure to go down. Constant effort is the only means by which supremacy or even respectability may be maintained. It will never do to trust to the honors gained by two or three members of a fraternity. The only assurance of stability is in the high scholarship and unexceptionable deportment of all its members. This is a truth which every fraternity man should remember. He has no right to trust to the reputation of his fraternity to hide his deficiencies as a scholar, and as to conduct, nothing ought to be said. Yet, it is a fact that many fraternity men, under the protection of an honored name, do not hesitate to do things for which they would be ostracised from society were it not for the support of their fraternity. A student who will so conduct himself as to constantly require explanations and apologies for his actions from his friends, must have a low sense of honor.
Incidents and Accidents.
We hope the Seniors will not allow themselves to be imposed on this year as they did two years ago. That year several of the class were wealthy and they concluded to have a class day which should surpass all former entertainments. Without regard to the inability of some of the members of the class to pay, they secured a band from Kansas City, printed costly invitations and made arrangements for costly floral tributes. It was fun for the rich, but the poor members of the class had to suffer. One Senior at least, after paying his share of the class expenses, took the train for home, feeling unable to bear the further expense of commencement week.
Right here we wish to speak of another matter relating to commencement—floral tributes. It is hoped that no gifts of any kind will be presented to the speakers. It is very pleasant for the person receiving tributes, but for those who are so unfortunate as to receive none, the feeling is quite different. I speak from painful experience. When a fellow sits on the platform and sees all the other performers sighing and snifling over a "slight token," a very present desire for absence is likely to siege him. He feels as though he had swallowed a vacuum and it had begun to dilate. It was not many years ago that a Senior, after passing through this painful experience of class day, shook the dust from his feet and went home. He told me afterwards that he could not bear the mortification of sitting on the platform commencement day and seeing his classmates receive floral tributes while he received none. If friends will insist on sending flowers and other tributes, let them be presented outside of the chapel. It will detract little from anyone's enjoyment, and will add much pleasure to many.
***
Josh Billings, in one of his most polished orations, exclaimed: "Thunder and lightning—more weather!" He gave expression to a very prevalent opinion. Every time I go down the street my attention is called to this fact by a dozen flags and as many individuals. The great interest which all classes take in the weather, seems to assure its perpetuity. We may perhaps be permitted to indulge a pardonable pride in the possession of such a valuable article as weather. It is one of those blessings handed down to us from former generations, which we are bound to preserve. It is positively necessary to all social life; without it conversation would be impossible. It is the force which overcomes the inertia of embarrassment and makes speech a possibility. I have dived deep into the subsoils of history and find that no nation has ever reached a high plane of civilization without weather. It is the one ground which all men occupy in common. Here the rich and poor, the learned and the ignorant, meet on a plane of equality. On the subject of weather the opinion of one man is just as good as that of another, if not better. In weather we have a panacea for all social ills. It establishes long friendships, arbitrates long standing quarrels, pours oil on the course of true love, and makes life bearable. Far distant be the day when we shall have no weather.
It is greatly to be regretted that the work required of the faculty prevents them to so great an extent from visiting throughout the state in the interests of the University. One of the members of the faculty, by making special effort, has traveled quite extensively at his own expense in this and adjoining states, and has done much to bring the University before the people. From the success of his efforts it seems as though an agent of the University should be kept constantly in the field. It is hoped that the legislature and regents will see the advantage of this plan at an early day.
The musical department catalogues have arrived.
Now is the time to buy White Goods and Parasols.
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