EDITORIAL.
89
THE HIGH SCHOOLS AND THEIR WORK.
We hope to see the time when the public high schools of this state will be academies for the University and our preparatory department will be abolished. We are not so anxious for this change however that for the sake of making it we would lower the quality of preparatory work. The University has gained too high a reputation to take any such backward steps.
Some of the high schools which now carry their pupils into the Freshman class are not in fact up to the standard; at least not to the standard of the work done by preparatory students here. It is hardly fair to give pupils who have received a mere smattering of Caesar, Cicero and Virgil at their home schools, an equal standing with those who have taken a three years solid and steady training here. This however has been done. The work in the classics here we know to be the most thorough, and the same degree of excellence should be required of the preparatory high schools. Of those schools now recognized by the University, the large majority are carrying out the preparatory course in practice and furnishing us a high grade of students. These schools are not, however, as they ought to be, without their exceptions.
THE TOWNS AND THE GOWNS.
The relations between the students and the citizens have always been cordial. Occasionally irate boarding mistresses have berated our boys, and they in turn have denounced Lawrence people for refusing to have anything to do with the students in a social way. This, however, is all. The melees between the towns and the gowns known at Oxford in Tom Brown's day have had no repetition here. The custom in eastern colleges of smashing street lamps,
wrenching off door knobs, shearing horses' tails, and egging citizens, is something foreign to our institution.
On the other hand, Lawrence business men have assisted liberally in every enterprise of the students. They have made reductions in the prices of their goods, they have offered prizes for scholarship, and they have contributed money liberally to student amusements.
It is with sorrow that we would view a change in this relationship. Last Halloween a party of students included in their pranks the tearing down and burning of a valuable sign of Mr.'Steinberg's on Mount Oread Mr. Steinberg immediately swore out warrants for the arrest of several students. He considered the destroying of his sign on Mount Oread as great an outrage as smashing the plate glass fronts of his store would have been. The boys claimed that the sign-board was an eye-sore to University students and visitors, and was out of place where it stood. They therefore took advantage of Halloween to remove it and have their fun. As a natural result much bitterness has arisen.
Whether the various tricks of Wednesday night last were performed by high school boys, city clerks or students, the latter will get the blame of all of it. We cannot but think, however, that things were carried too far. The boys who tore down fences would have grown pretty warm if on returning home they had found their books scattered in pieces over the yard. It makes all the difference in the world on which side the fun falls. To play a cute joke is one thing; to injure person or property is another. In the mean time a little moderation and consideration would not hurt.
Students interested in protection should read "protection to young industries," the Harvard prize essay of F. Y. Taussig, published by Moses King, Cambridge.