UNIVERSITY COURIER.
9
It is a worthy ambition that would supply the Kansas State University with a law department, fully equipped with the means to give every student desirous of it a thorough education in law. That there should be such a department was the intention of those who first gave the University a beginning by their patient and earnest work. As the institution has grown and gathered to itself, in a large measure, the young talent of the State, this need has become more apparent. Already Kansas has furnished many promising law students to institutions of other States, and there are a large number of students now in attendance upon the University who desire to take a course in law. A promising beginning has already been made, under the tutorship of Mr. J. W. Green. As yet, the State has made no provision for a law department connected with the University, but it is sincerely hoped that it will do so. A Kansas legislature might almost immortalize itself by taking the matter in hand and providing that for which there is not only an earnest desire but a keenly felt want.
A marvelous case of development of genius has recently occurred in New York. A Miss Ida Hutchings, daughter of Prof. Hutchings, the rapid calculator, has suddenly developed a power to do numberless things which she has never learned. Her education is limited, but she speaks different languages, both living and dead, produces beautiful poems, sings like a nightingale — although her voice is said to have always been weak, and she never received any instruction — not only soprano, but contralto, tenor, and even basso, and in different languages, and in a manner generally attained only after years of study, improvising both words and music, and she recites like a queen of tragedy.
It seems that there is an effort in the scientific world to make the spots on the sun accountable for natural phenomena which cannot be accounted for in any other way. Mr. M. C. Meldrum, in a paper on "Sun Spots and Rainfall," states that the rainfall, as recorded at fifty-four stations in Great Britain, for a period of several years, was 0.75 of an inch below the mean when the sun-spots were below their mean, and 0.90 of an inch above it when the spots were in excess, and the corresponding values of thirty-four stations in America were 0.94 and 1-13 inches. This would seem to lead to the conclusion that increased or diminished rainfall is coincident with the appearance of spots on the sun.
At Topeka there is an Academy of Music and Languages, under the direction of Mrs. P. Amanda Washburn. A feature of the school is monthly concerts, whereby pupils can acquire that ease and freedom of performance which can only be acquired by appearing before an audience. During the summer vacation a musical institute is held. The regular course of instruction in the Academy occupies four years. In the department of languages, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, and Greek, are taught.
Lane University, at Lecompton, has about fifty students. Prof. Tohill, A.M., is President of the institution, and Prof. Bartlett, A.M., professor of Moral and Mental Science.
It is said that the Faculty at Oberlin is composed of little, dried up old persons, who came into the world ready grown to maturity. They never were young; never had the instincts and passions of young men and women. They know how to make rules and are well stuffed with book-learning. They conceive of the nature of young men and women, as something entirely prone to evil and to be repressed. They also think that young men and women should not enjoy each other's society. These views, and their enforcement in the form of rules, have resulted in a turmoil at Oberlin that has attracted amused attention from all quarters. There is but one Oberlin.
The city of Leavenworth has an Academy of Science, which holds regular meetings,has a large membership, including the most cultured people of the city,and, to sum it up, flourishes. Would not a similar organization be excellent for Lawrence? Science can be so popularized as to attract and hold the attention of the merest tyro in scientific study, much to his own improvement. Lectures and scientific discussions would be of benefit, especially to the student who is just entering a University course.
Rev. David Swing has a poor opinion of the truthfulness of this generation. He was informed that there was a society in Chicago, the members of which were fined for telling the truth in a regular meeting. "The modern lie," says Swing, "glides from the tongue with the lightness and gracefulness of a joke. If such a society has been formed, they may just as well consider all other societies in the land and all corporations as branch associatlons. That body need not solicit members—the living generations were born into it."
It is said that Superintendent Doty, of Chicago, excels Solomon or Confucius as a paragraphist. His one-line sentences for the government of teachers and pupils are bewilderingly oppressive.
While in an oratorical frenzy, the Rev. Joseph Cook exclaimed, "Allow me to pluck up the territory of the American Union as Milton's angels did the hills of Heaven. A gentleman arose and said "I object."
Gen. Fraser once said to his class in logic: "Don't fear the large words now; they are perfectly harmless, being but asses clothed in lion's skins."
That famous Richmond colored preacher who holds that "the sun do move," is making a model to illustrate his theory of astronomy.
The winter session of the State Normal School, at Emporia, will begin January 1st. There are now about one hundred and thirty students in attendance.
The students of the Agricultural College pay Prof. Platt for instruction in vocal music.
A majority of the differences in this world are about words. Gen.Fraser.
East Texas University, at Tyler, has just been opened. It can accommodate five hundred students.