10
UNIVERSITY COURIER.
Good crops have their influence even on University life, as may be seen by comparing the influx of recruits this fall with last year.
Another large invoice of those popular stub cigars just received at the "South End Drug Store."
The Normal Department will continue to grow and flourish under the careful care of Dean Williams.
"Bonus vir" was the title applied to Prof. Marvin while a professor at Alleghany College.
Old students will take notice of the new optional studies allowed them in the Junior and Senior years.
Those who expected to enter Lawrence via the Vermont Street railroad this fall, will be sadly disappointed.
REVIEW.
TOPICS.
To find the same issue in the platforms of our three great political parties prove that it is the wish of the people. The resolutions adopted at the late conventions asking for legal control of corporations show that the people of Kansas have been thinking and talking of the great transportation problem which is agitating the West, and that in the near future they intend to act. We are strictly an agricultural people. Our cheap and abundant land makes it the best immediate interest of the settler to produce large quantities of breadstuffs and provisions. But man cannot live by bread alone. We need many manufactured articles. We are forced by business policy to transport our crude products to the eastern laborer, in exchange for his manufactures transported to us. Our mills and factories are increasing as we grow more wealthy and land becomes dearer. The richer we are the more we can manufacture. But as a state we shall accumulate wealth very slowly if we are compelled to pay our present high rates of transportation. The tariff of the railroad is regulated by competition on "what the traffic will bear." Of course all commerce is thus regulated. But the railroad corporation is so powerful that the traffic is made to bear much more than the usual profits. The people to-day are merely asking that the profit of the railway be the same as that of the farm. What laws will produce this result?
Man is continually performing experiments in which he either fails or succeeds. He takes the way of success and must needs tell his fellows, that they may have time for different experiments. He speaks to his neighbors and writes a book to the world. The book lasts, and in many books we may find the thought and toil that brought success in all past ages. A godlike heritage this, to know good from evil. And the students of the Kansas University are extraordinarily fortunate in securing such a large share of this heritage as may be found at the Unversity library. There are at present about 5,500 books and 2,000 pamphlets in our collection which now embraces all of our departments of instruction, Music being added this summer. We notice the effect of the eastern question in the large number of works on Turkey, Russia, and adjoining countries, the latest being "The Egypt of the Past," by Erasmus Wilson. In this connection also we mention "Schuyler's History of Turkestan," "Scribner's Epochs of History, and "Creasy's Decisive Battles of the World." In the poet's corner we find a superb sixty-eight-volume edition of the "British Poets," and an elegant twenty-volume "Harvard Edition of Hudson's Shakespeare." Not far away are Emerson's Works, so popular that they have been read to tatters, but beside them stand a new and complete edition. We also notice "Schlieman's Mycenae and Tiryns," "Stewart's Conservation of Energy," "Horace Mann's Educational Reports," and "Helmholtz's Popular Scientific Studies." The student cannot spend leisure time to better advantage than in a course of reading upon the branches pursued.
BOOKS.
The tendency of American literature is to conciseness. As Ruskin says, we speak things clearly, not melodiously. At times we are terse to abruptness. At the other extreme is the English curse of wordiness. It is to be hoped that we may reach the golden mean. In Warner's "Washington Irving" $ ^{*} $ is an eloquent appeal for clear and melodious expressions.
This is the introductory volume of the "American Men of Letters Series," and if the remainder of the series is executed with as much discrimination and appreciation as this, they will each be sure to find a place in every judiciously-filled library. Mr. Warner, with rare tact, gives an interesting preliminary chapter, noticing the varying of books in public estimation, our limited literature and its tone, till Mr. Irving's advent among literary men. Then commences the biography of Mr. Irving. The author refers with sympathy to his struggles and misfortunes, with grace to his rise to eminence, with taste and good sense to his works. The most striking features in this work are its digressions, its selections from Irving's works, and its style. There are a number of pleasant episodes, and some short, interesting digressions, all of which, when inserted in Mr. Warner's pleasant way, would add a charm to any book, however interesting it may otherwise be. Regarding the extracts from the works of Mr. Irving, we notice that they are so selected as to give a good idea of his ability in each department of literature attempted. The extracts are excellent reading, and chosen so suitably that you become very well acquainted with their author's style. Mr. Warner's style is easy; he drifts to the successive years of Irving's life in an unaffected and attractive manner. The binding of the book is neat, the type clear, and on good paper.
Among the magazines in the Lawrence city library is one of the most pleasant places to pass an hour that can be found. In the September numbers we notice many good articles, but can speak of but a few. In Harper's Edwin P Whipple has a pleasant essay on "Some Recollections of Emerson." In the Atlantic is an article on "The Evil in Greek Mythology." In the North American Review is an interesting criticism of "Political Assessments." In the Popular Science Monthly is found a long illustrated article on "Animal Self-Defense." In the Century we have a portrait of Mark Twain with
* Washington Irving. American Men of Letters Series. By Charles Dudley Warner. Boston; Houghton, Millin & Co. Price $1.25.