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
BY THE COURIER COMPANY,
For Kansas University Students.
A. L. ADAMS, President. | A. L. WILMOTH, Sec'y.
EDITORIAL STAFF.
HARRY SMITH, *Editor in Chief*
W. S. JENKS, '87,
LUAURA LYONS, '88,
G.W. HARRINGTON, '87,
NANNIE ANDERSON, '88,
MARY SARIN, '87.
BUSINESS MANAGERS.
DENTON DUNN, '87, | E. G. BLAIR, '87,
Lock Box 1248.
Entered at the Post Office at Lawrence, Kansas, an
second class matte.
Cutler s Petroleum Engine Print.
Notice.
There will be a meeting of the Courier Company at the end of the 4th hour Wednesday, April 31. Important business relating to the policy of the paper will come before the meeting. The resignation of Harry Smith as editor-in-chief is in the hands of the company, and a new editor-in-chief, one associate editor, a member of the board of directors and a president, will have to be elected. All persons desiring stock should see the business managers at once.
A. L. ADAMS,
A. L. ADAMS,
President
A. L. WILMOTH.
Secretary.
We notice that at the University of Pennsylvania no one is eligible to a nomination for the position of editor who has not shown his ability by contributions to the college paper. We incline to the opinion that such a regulation would be of benefit to both the Courier and Review.
Arrangements are being made to have a joint field day contest between Washburn and the University on May 7th, the day following the inter-state oratorical contest. We hope the students of Washburn will see fit to join with us in this movement. This should be the first of a series of contests to be held annually between the two colleges.
The anti-monopolist defends the hasty action of the Knights of Labor by saying that "both district 101 and the local assemblies had asked for arbitration before the strike began." This reminds us of Buck Fanshaw, who was such a lover of peace that at the first indications of a row at the spring election he sent fourteen men home on a shutter before they could strike a blow. There is nothing like peace, even if you have to instigate a rebellion to secure it.
It has been said that the greater one's advantages, the less likely is he to improve them. We see a striking proof of this assertion in the neglecting by many students, of the opportunities of the University. In the library are books touching nearly
every subject to which the student's attention is likely to be called. Yet only a comparatively small number of the students ever take a book from the shelves. There are also in the library papers from nearly every county in the state, as well as many literary and scientific periodicals; but how many students can name a dozen weekly papers of the state, or know the names of the most noted contributors to the North American Review or the Atlantic Monthly? In the natural history rooms are collections of minerals, birds and insects which in some respects are unsurpassed by any collection in the United States. Yet how few students there are who could name fifty birds or recognize the most important metals or precious stones! In other departments are apparatus of which the average student possesses the same blissful (?) ignorance. There is a neglect of careful observation that it would seem almost advisable to make this a required study in the departments where there is extensive apparatus, as well as the text book in use. If there is any kind of habit which will be of special benefit to the student when he leaves college, it is the habit of observation. There are many good things in this world which should be seen and examined carefully. The person who lives wholly within himself, lives only half his life; the other half is in the world about him which he has never seen.
SAINTS AND SINNERS.
University holidays have increased until nothing would now strike one with surprise. Should some professor appear on the chapel rostrum one of these fine mornings and announce the dismissal of school in honor of a very important 10-pound family event in his household the night before, the students would take it as a matter of course. Governor Martin has proclaimed under the great seal of "ad astra per aspera." that April fool's day shall be devoted to setting out green saplings. As a result we students, who couldn't tell a huckleberry bush from a shell-bark hickory to save our necks, are to have a vacation Thursday, Friday and Saturday. All right! I am not so traitorous to my student constituency as to raise a breath against holidays, though they come
"Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks Of Valombrosa."
It is well to take a serious view of some features of this matter, however. Many students will go home, as they always do on vacations. It is usual with these to delay returning till Monday noon. Now don't! It is cheating yourselves. The time allotted to University work is short indeed—too short for the course of study prescribed. As it is, every branch is scampered over at a rate of speed that forbids thoroughness. Don't do anything to make matters worse. Be here for recitations Monday morning.
The Ohio representative in the inter-state contest to be held here in May, has a wife and two children. I mention this that our fair beauties may not run the risk of trespassing on others preserves.
*
An article on the ''Curious Freaks
of Somnambulism," now going the rounds of the current press, recalls an episode in the life of Harry Shawhan two winters ago. As Shawhan has joined the church and sobered down into an inoffensive pedagogical life, he will not demur to the mention of this incident of his livelier career as a student. Shawhan boarded at Mrs. Henshaw's. His fondness for ladies in general, and one University girl in particular, was intense. Unfortunately, to this devotion for the gentler sex he added the embarrassing trait of somnambulism. One cold night when the snow was on the ground, his perturbed state of mind led him to rise in his sleep and start for the dwelling of his fair one. Poor Shawhan! His costume was ill adapted to the season of the year, however much in keeping with the hour. Sufficient to observe it was gotten up on the most approved plans of ventilation, and displayed the figure to a much fuller extent and to more admirable advantage than the tautest knee breeches now affected by our dudes. However, it was not constructed for street promenades, and with no especial reference to the legal enactments on decency. It certainly would not have been permissible in Kansas City where even Mother Hubbards are prohibited by statute. Well, Shawhan got as far as the Catholic church when he stubbled his toe and awoke. He was not long in realizing his unenviable position. Quick as his benumbed limbs would carry him, he hied him back to the Henshaw mansion. But the story of his adventure got out. It spread. Young ladies were much exorcised for his future safety, and kept awake nights peering into the lonely streets. In vain! Shawhan never walked again. He was too sharp for that. Each night thereafter when he had said his prayers and prepared for rest, he chained himself to the bed-post.
I have not been so flabbergasted in these many moons, as I was in picking up the last Washburn argo, and reading the following in the contest report: "The exercises which had been arranged with much care, were marred by the thoughtlessness of some of the University boys, who probably without thinking of the result, called out thename of a pharmacy monkey which frequents that institution. No sooner had its name been called than it bounded upon the stage, banjo in its paws, and went through a series of antics and vain attempts to insult the visitors of other colleges." And this from the home of the Washburn ladies quartette! Ye gods! Ye gods! Inasmuch as we were in a certain sense guests of Washburn students, I had concluded to pass over their inhuman inhospitality in torturing us and desecrating the brilliant occasion by letting loose the Washburn quartette. But the brazen effrontery of slandering the rare vocal excellence of Dan Crew, and lauding the rasping, gasping voices of their quartette, is enough to infuriate an angel. After the Ada Richmond company gave opera berlesque in Lawrence last fall, I said I had heard the vilest singing on earth. I am compelled to scratch the names of the Richmond company and let the Washburn quartette escape with the biscuit. I have a great deal of the sympathy for the girls in the
laughing ridicule they brought upon themselves, and will not now go the length of the Argo in publishing their names to the world. Now as to Dan Crew. Whatever may be said against him, his rich and delicious lyric efforts captivate every ear. On the occasion in question he enaptured the huge crowd by singing a topical song directed at the Bakery; and when the doughnuts spat and hissed at the apt application of his lines, he quickly quieted their endeavor to break him by repartee so forcible, so fit and so telling, as to bring a tumultuous storm of applause from the great multitude. Still, as the Washburn critic's musical education has not reached that point where he can distinguish a guitar from a banjo, his animadversions are of precious little consequence to Dan Crew or any one else.
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It was indeed a happy crowd of University boys and girls that attended Fra Diavolo last Monday night. Most of the pretty girls were there, and were at their prettiest, too. The audience seemed a reflex of the stage, except that the balance of beauty lay in the former. Perhaps no play has ever been witnessed by a larger delegation of students, or enjoyed by a more appreciative one. If any one of low desires was present expecting to see something brazen, or suggestive, or vulgar, or indecent, or nasty, he must have been sadly disappointed. How exquisitely undressing can even be done in public, in such a way as to enrapture and yet not offend the senses, was illustrated by the innocently modest manner and charming grace with which Miss Marie Stone achieved the difficult feat. I took some delight in noticing the effect on the audience, particularly the University portion of it, during this risky business. When her head-dress had been laid aside, her bodice removed, and she proceeded to unpin the bands of her skirts, a nervous twitch among the girls, and an anxious wonder on the faces of their escorts, seemed to say, "where will all this thing end?" It ended, however, and in that end revealed much less than is ordinarily displayed in a fashionable ball room. Had Miss Stone only a beautifully moulded form to make the illusion complete as she sung:
"For a servant there's no denying,
Here's a term; that's not amiss!"
her success would have been complete. As it was, her lover, Lorenzo, would have been justified in any court on earth for breaking the engagement there and then. But that wouldn't have been operatic. Miss Stone's gifts of voice, her light and silvery soprano, sweet and clear, did much to condone her scraggy figure. It is rare that we find a fine singer who possesses also a handsome outline of person. All the principals did well. Tom Karl's tenor and Mr. Clark's bass being especially meritorious. The chorus had little to do, and huddled on the stage like a herd of sheep; nor were they as richly endowed with beauty as some of our boys might have desired. As a whole, however, the opera was an immense success; pleasing to the audience, remunerative to the manager and creditable to the performers.
*
The remarkable success of students in maintaining their boarding clubs
on a sumptuous and at the same time economical scale, leads to what would seem a pleasing solution of the domestic problem. In Lawrence, as everywhere, the cry is continually heard that there are not enough good girls who can be secured for house work. What is there to prevent successful co-operation in establishing eating houses? Suppose all the families in one block should rent a house and employ cooks to prepare their meals. Three times a day they could repair to their eating place. The walk would be short and afford good exercise. They could arrange hours so that each family might have a room and table alone. The worst drudgery of family care would be removed from the house-wife. Groceries being bought in so large bulk and delivered at one place, would cost far less. To cap all, the economy of such an institution would greatly reduce the expense of living. The great consideration would of course be as it is with the students' club—getting a good manager and a good cook. As this feature of the matter has been successfully met by students, it ought to be equally easy for citizens. Boys are now living at $2.00 per week, where it formerly cost $3.50, and at $3.00 for what would otherwise cost $5.00. If I mistake not, Prof. Canfield worked up some such system of co-operative housekeeping a few years ago, but for some reason it dropped. I certainly can see no objection to the plan other than the universal dislike of people to leave their old-fogy, laborious ways, even for ones which offer so much ease and cheapness.
Not a year passes but some good natured fellow of the Senior class and his friends are wryly because the faculty wont let him patch up a course and substitute studies in such a fashion that he can graduate. The faculty are right. Our reputation as a University hereafter must be built upon the line of unequivocally thorough work in prescribed courses. We have cast off our high school or prep department and no longer can rest on numbers. Already the kindergarten Bakery at Baldwin has received enough infants to more than equal the number of our students, and with characteristic doughnut gall the last Index calls on the legislature to withhold appropriations from our institution. It says: "When the State University, with its insatiable greed absorbing immense appropriations, cannot hold its own with other institutions voluntarily supported by the people it itself burdens, something essential is lacking." I only reprint this twaddle to show that we must rely on the high quality of our work and not on numbers. As long as we can supply members from our Freshman class as professors to the Bakery, we wont be worried by their pretended rivalship, I trow. The position the University occupies in the educational field is too well established to discuss. It is among the first of the great state institutions. I am glad our faculty refuses to succumb to good fellowship so far as to let irregular chaps graduate. They ought only to go a step further now and discard that arrant humbuggery of "first class," "second class," "third class" graduates. Let us have first class graduates or none.
SMITH
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