UNIVERSITY COURIER
Entered at Lawrence Post Office as Second Class Matter.
Vol.I.
LAWRENCE, KANSAS, NOVEMBER 20,1882.
No. 6.
University Courier.
A SEMI-MONTHLY PUBLICATION DEVOTED TO THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE STUDENTS OF 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.
BUSINESS MANAGERS. EDMOND BUTLER, B. K. BRUCE.
Subscription, One Dollar per Year, in Advance.
EDITORIAL.
Aside from the other religious influences connected with the University, there is one that is making no great noise and yet it is doing a good that is of no mean importance. We have reference to Prof. Canfield's Sunday afternoon class. It has been the custom of the Professor, for several years, to invite the students to meet at his house and listen, for an hour, to instruction in the Christian Ethics. The Professor pursues his usual plan of reading the works of the best authors on the question in hand. At the close of the reading an opportunity is given for those to ask questions who choose so to do. In this way a great deal of knowledge is imparted that must have weight in keeping up the moral and religious tone of our school. One can hardly fail to admire the unselfish spirit which prompted and which keeps up these readings. It should not be forgotten, then, that the University holds regular devotional exercises each morning; that the young men have organized a Y. M. C. A.; and that Prof. Canfield conducts a
class in the Christian evidences. Verily, we are not altogether pagan.
THE Seniors closed their orations some two weeks ago, and were immediately succeeded by the Juniors. Notwithstanding, the fact that most of the productions of this class have been very creditable, viewed from a literary standpoint, it is nevertheless true that the delivery has been rather poor with few exceptions. In the first place, those who thoroughly committed what they had written was the exception and not the rule. And again the amount of practice that each speaker received was very limited. We know this to have been true regarding the Seniors. Very often only one rehearsal was possible on account of the other duties of the Professor of Elocution. Probably more attention is given to the Juniors since the Professor has, we believe, fewer regular classes than during the first ten weeks of school. It is certainly very embarrassing, both to the speaker and his audience, if he appear before them with an oration, be it ever so well written, which is so poorly learned that he is obliged to hesitate, cough, look down, and and stop, or take a paper from his pocket in order to recall what should have been thoroughly committed to mind. No one will deny that "the success of an orator," as Matthews says, "often depends more on how than on what he speaks." The conclusion of all this is that, as has been said time and again, some one should be provided who can devote a good deal of time to the subject of elocution, and he should allow no student, who has not rehearsed his production at least three times, to appear upon the rostrum. If this were done it would be much pleasanter to listen to the thoughts of the students presented in their orations.
THE unsophisticated passing along the streets on the morning succeeding Hallowe'en, might have been led to the conclusion that a cyclone had visitited our city the previous night. Gates were unhinged, sidewalks upturned, steps inverted, and other things scattered around promiscuously. It was plain to the initiated, however, that this devastation had been caused by no supernatural power, nor by the force of the elements, but by students of K. S. U. This practice of damaging and destroying the property of citizens may be the cause of much sport on the part of students, but it is generally the cause of anger and threats on the part of those whose property is injured, and it often leads them to disrespect and condemn colleges altogether. As a rule, the citizens of a town attend to their own business, meddling with the affairs of no one. And, doing this, they have a right to the same treatment at the hands of others. Once a year, however, they get up in the morning to find their front gates unhinged and lying two or