UNIVERSITY COURIER
Entered at Lawrence Post Office as Second Class Matter.
VOL. I.
LAWRENCE, KANSAS, DECEMBER 16, 1882.
No. 8.
University Courier.
A SEMI-MONTHLY PUBLICATION DEVOTED TO THE BEST INTERESTS OF
THE STUDENTS
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS.
BOARD OF EDITORS.
EDITORIAL...C. C. DART.
TOPICS...J. D. McLAREN.
LITERARY...E. A. BROWN, ANNA MURPHY.
SCIENTIFIC...L. L. DYCHE.
NORMAL...G. E. ROSE.
EXCHANGE...ALBERT RIFFLE.
LOCAL...GLEN MILLER, MARY GILLMORE.
PERSONAL...CLARA GILLHAM.
MISCELLANY...W. S. WHIRLOW, ELLA V. KEIST.
BUSINESS MANAGERS. EDMOND BUTLER, B. K. BRUCE.
Subscription, One Dollar per Year, in Advance.
EDITORIAL.
THE Third Annual Contest between the Oread and Orophilian Societies is at hand, and it is to furnish room for the several contest productions that the space of several of the departments of this issue is either partly or wholly given up to our literary editors. In the perusal of these articles, our readers will become acquainted, to some extent, with the style of thought and literary ability of those who are ranked among the best students of the University. Of the contest itself and of the previous ones, it is doubtless true that they have been directly of great benefit to those who have participated, and indirectly of benefit to the societies as a whole. It is right here that the good results are to be found. While it is very pleasant to "win,"—to obtain the decision of the judges—nevertheless little benefit occurs to the society from this alone. The verdict is rather an arbitrary affair, depending altogether on the taste of the judges. No two sets of judges would decide alike in a matter of this kind. So then, whatever the decision, each society will firmly believe that its representatives did the best and that they should have been declared victors. It is thought that good is being done, that should be the one that is uppermost in the minds of all. Doing this, whichever society wins, all bitterness and hard feeling will be avoided, and the affair will be pleasanter in every respect.
CONTEST PRODUCTIONS.
CAREFUL WORK. Contest Essay by J. D. McLaren, of Orophilian Society.
Carelessness is a crime against humanity. We are to be free from anxious care but never from earnestness. Play and sleep are necessary, that new energy may be formed. But it must be hard play and sound sleep. With tired muscle and weary brain we rest, not idly, but that you and I may go to our next task with more strength and fresher hearts.
Wretchedness, caused by error, afflicts the world. It is our duty to remove the cause. To perfect the world means to perfect ourselves. Our humility may tell us that our work will be insignificant, that despite our idleness or opposition, all will be right in the end. True, but mankind grows better only by the noble actions of men, and our insignificant acts are making the perfection.
Life is action. So far as you are inactive, so far you die, so far you lose individuality and become again mere dust of the dead world. That dust as dust has intrinsic worth, but as a man it is valuable only for its acts. Life is opposed to quiescence. A human being must work, will work. He is either a power for good or a power for evil. Men scorn the idea of neutrality and say: Who is not for the cause is against the cause. Humility must learn that if we do not help the world, we hinder it.
Honest toil is essential, yet alone it will not suffice. The beaver is an honest toiler, but he has no human needs. Whoever is so indolent as to live in this pasture field of the world, satisfying his animal wants and pleasures only, is not worthy the name of man. Using only the talents of a brute, he loses his manhood and becomes a sensual beast. But a man who does not repress his human nature, changes the pasture field to a task garden, and the animal shelter to a home which is a temple of truth and a shrine of character.
In this task garden we are to live, being perfect physically; to enjoy ourselves, being perfect socially; to help others, being perfect humanly. A task must be chosen. From the many callings demanded by the world you are to choose carefully, concernedly, one which will allow to every man the full product of his labor. If your vocation does not do this, you are a human parasite, listlessly idle, consuming as alms the lifejuices of the workers; or a human beast-of-prey, willfully idle, robbing the life-blood of the honest toilers, in the form of large fees, great profits, and much work received for low wages; or else, a non-human sensualist, dwarfing your own soul in animal pleasures.
The choice is for life, and involves your success or failure. Use your mind to collect all possible testimony, and then following the judgment of conscience, go to that work which you believe needs you most. Thus you will gain a clear conscience and a bold heart.
There must be preparation for the life work. Moral wisdom, material knowledge, muscular strength are to
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