THE STUDENTS JOURNAL.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY
By the
Students Journal Pub. Go.
R. W. Cone ... Editor-in-Chief
E. E. Waltmire ... Local Edition
Margaret E. Menet .. Literary Editor
M. L. Bilshef .. Managing Editor
BUSINESS MANAGERS
J A. Simpson, Adna G. Clarke
ASSOCIATES.
L. N. Flint ... Exchanges
C. W. Armor ... Athletics
F. H. Johnson ... Local
W. N. Logan ... Snow Hall
Ell Cann ... Law School
W. O. Galbreath ... Engineering
The stock of the STUDENT's JOURNAL company consists of non-trans- memorandum stock. The instructor or employee of the University may hold one and only one share.
THE election of the athletic association last Tuesday did not result just as we wished, but that is all a matter of the past now. However the directors elected are all good men, who will do everything in their power to benefit the cause of athletes in the University. Every one should now lay aside all bitterness and partisanship and work with the directors.
--street of five houses, with beautiful lawns and no fences—"Fifth avenue," the east-side people called it. But in general the fences were op, and grass grew along the sides of the road at its own free will. The country around Lowville was beautiful; there were hills, not very high to be sure, but covered with bright heritage, and affording an extensive view. Along the way to these hills were grand old elms, spreading the 'grapeful branches,' unhindered by th' smile of the borticulturist. But the roads' rough and lumpy, or even sandy! The roads in England were so hard and smooth, it was a pleasure to walk in them.
ALTHOUGH the lecture course is not under the direction of the University Lecture Bureau this year, still it will merit the patronage of the students. The six entertainments to be given will be well worth the sum asked, two dollars. Inasmuch as the course is approved by the Bureau, it may properly be called the University Lecture Course. It is to be hoped that by another year the students will appreciate the value of a good course directly managed by the University and see the necessity of giving the Bureau their hearty support. Until such a time shall come the Lecture Bureau will continue its organization, and wait.
ONE of our exchanges, the Occident of the University of California, is agitating the matter of a university pin. The trouble there seems to be that they have too many kinds of pins—round pins, square pins, pennant pins and so on. At present they are endeavoring to secure an appropriate and satisfactory design—one so eminently adapted to the needs of the school that it cannot be distorted from favor by any subsequent design. Fortunately we have as yet but one kind of pin and a comparatively small number of that kind, although there has been some talk of following the mania for pennant pins. Let us endeavor to settle this important matter and settle it satisfactorily before we have more kinds of pins to oppose.
We notice by an exchange published at a college in one of the middle states, that a certain athletic student of that school has been called to an eastern institution, where there is need of a left guard and where all of his expenses will be paid by the athletic association of that institution. This is merely an illustration of what is done very often, in one way or another, to strengthen college athletic teams and in this practice there lies the cause which will result in the ruin of college athletics. It is the first step—and a long step—toward professional athletics. And professional athletics means either that the college as a means of disseminating learning must yield to the college as a means of collecting teams of athletes or that the teams must be done away with. College athletes exist, theoretically, for the purpose of encouraging students to take physical exercise, and are defensible upon no other ground. The organization of college teams for the purpose of contesting with the teams from other colleges is necessary to stimulate enthusiasm and interest in the primary object, physical exercise, and is open to very little objection so long as the members of these teams are students who attend the college for the purpose of learning what is taught there. But when an institution has on its teams men who are in one way or another hired to attend that school, men who hold positions in the school not because of their fitness for the positions but because they will add strength to some athlete team or men who are kept in school not because of scholarship but because of athletic ability; then that institution has lost sight of its only logical reason for existence and is doomed to certain decay and ruin unless it return to the original and correct theory of college athletics.
EVERYONE who has the good of higher education at heart, or the good of common education either, for that matter, has heard with delight of the acquittal of Professor Richard T. Ely, of the University of Wisconsin, from the charges preferred against him of teaching doctrines subversive of good government and social order. The charges were, as all know, made by a notoriety-seeking State Superintendent of Instruction, in a letter to the Nation, and when Professor Ely demanded an investigation by the regents of the charges made against him, the state superintendent was unable to prove his statements. The committee of the regents investigated the matter thoroughly and exonerated the professor without reserve. Naturally the committee did not say much of the state superintendent—he is *exofficio* a regent of the University—but their report, we has we are thanked to learn gone far toward winning him out of political existence. It is very much to be regretted that such men, brought up into public office by political accidents, should ever be entrusted with the important position of regent of an institution, the spirit and nature of which they cannot comprehend. It is like entrusting the steering of a ship to a pilot who is entirely unacquainted with the management of such a ship and with the dangerous passages through which it is steered. No man has a more important and exacting duty, requiring more careful and broad knowledge of affairs, than the regent of a college or university. Nothing could more quickly destroy the value of the teacher in any station than to limit his free search after truth by establishing a partisan, political censorship over his work and his opinions. Such an arrangement would necessarily lead to the most pitiable stagnation in all branches of the science and especially in political and social science. We have, in years past, experienced something of this sort of censorship to our sorrow.
In a previous issue we said something in regard to the trouble which many students have experienced this fall—and indeed, which they experience at the beginning of every term—obtaining text books promptly. As we said then, it is impossible to fix the blame for this state of affairs upon either instructors, students, or book-sellers. This fact is recognized by the professors and students, but the book-sellers seem inclined to blame the professors from whom they obtain lists of the books to be used and, if possible, estimates of the number of students likely to be enrolled in each class. They say that the instructors often refuse to furnish such estimates. This estimate can be based only upon a mere guess and consequently the instructors are often compelled to refuse to make an estimate. Under the circumstances it seems to us that one bookstore could handle the better than several. It would be reasonably safe in ordering for the whole number estimated, while where there are several dealers, each has to go through a further process of guessing what part of the whole number of purchasers will patronize him. However it would not do to have only one book store here. Prices would tend to rise from lack of competition. In the past we have seen something of this tendency here and we hope to be spared in the future from monoply prices. Having decided that one book store would be preferable to many if it were not for the danger of high prices, we seem to have no solution for the problem except through the establishment of a co-operative book store. And why should we not have a co-operative book store? Other schools have tried the plan and found it perfectly feasible and very satisfactory. Although the retailer's profit on a text book is small the saving to the student body would be, in the aggregate, very considerable. Indeed the saving to one student in the course of a year would be well worth noticing. Let us consider this matter.
The following railroads have granted the rate of one and one third fare on the certificate plan, for the State Convention of the Young Woman's Christian Association, to be held at Ottawa, October 18th to 21st: A. T. & S. F., C. R. I. & M. P.; S. J. & G. Is., St. L. & S. F., U. P., M. K. & T., and K. C. Ft., S. M. R. Railroads. Tickets are good for return until October 23. All railroad receipts must be signed at the convention by the State Secretary. Will all Lawrence papers please copy.
Y. W. C. A. Convention
Miss B — said the German Professor, "please give the feminine form of Papageir (parrot)." "Mamagier" innocently replied the maid, and wondered why the G. P. smiled.
OUR STUDY WINDOW.
As chief of the Editorial staff of The Chromo, the Editor soon found himself becoming very popular. He had not expected popularity in any form, certainly not in that in which he was now receiving it. On the one hand he had reached the very acme of social distinction, a thing he never aspired to and sincerely did not wish; and on the other, he was on the dunce block, an object of mockery to many ultra practical people. He had accepted the position offered him, because it seemed to afford an opening to something else, and had acquiesced in the prescribed line of work because he had nothing especially better to suggest. The opening had occurred rather opportunely.
After graduating from college, the Editor spent a year in travel, visiting the larger cities of his native land and seeing the picturesque scenery it offered. The next year, he went back to college, pursued his studies further and took his Master's Degree. He then came home, his head full of ideas, but with no definite plans. It was a small, clean, western town where he lived; most of its citizens were well-to-do, and there was a rather unusual number of wealthy families there. The Editor himself was moderately rich. He had only his mother to care for; his father was dead, but had left him a generous share of worldly goods. The Editor meant to settle in his native city.
Most of his time at college had been spent in literary studies, "The Editor," was what he aspired to. He had not enough capital himself to start a magazine, but he hoped to interest some of the wealthy people of the place in his plans. He had many friends in Lowville. When he arrived he found that others beside himself had been thinking of the same thing, but from a different point of view. Miss Gertrude Blackburn, too, was interested in the publishing of a magazine.
Miss Blackburn was the only grandchild of Judge White, one of the oldest settlers of Lowville. Her's was a singular story. She was the child of a marriage effected through elopement. Her mother, Gertrud? White, would not brook the restraint her father sought to impose upon her. Mr. Blackburn seemed to be a gentleman, and a nice fellow; but he had not been long in Lowville and nobody knew exactly what his antecedents were further than that he was of English parentage. There were even rumors about concerning him. He had been driven away from home because of his refusal to marry according to his father's wishes. He was the son of a nobleman and had been disenherited. Judge White, like a sensible man, paid no attention to such reports, but his daughter was very dear to him; he sought to restrain her. She was married nevertheless.
After her marriage, her father's anxiety was soon dispelled. Blackburn was really of aristocratic English birth, and proved himself the gentleman he seemed. Their child was endowed with health and loveliness—but misfortune came. Before she was twelve, both parents had died. The child was taken by her grand-parents, but her highly strung temperment made it very difficult for them to soothe her, and in their despair of ever lifting the morbidness into which they parent's death had thrown her, they sent her to England. Here she remained, well educated by private instructors, and grew up into a young woman, fair of form and quick of mind. After six years of English life, which she spent to a great extent in defying social conventions and her grand-mother's authority, she returned to her home with a fortune in her own name, and nothing to do.
When the Editor came back from his wandering he went at once to discuss his project with Judge White, whom he knew intimately. The interview almost destroyed the young man's enthusiasm. The Judge, although very anxious to help his young friend, could not help pointing out to him the impracticability of his plans. To publish a periodical in a town as small and as unenterprising as Lowville would be folly itself! The Editor felt like a fool; but Gertrude stepped forward with her plans, and helped him over his difficulty. On returning to Lowville she had been impressed both with its pretiness and itsugliness. It was really a very neat little town, situated, as it seemed, in the midst of a vast grove of trees. The houses were mostly frame ones, had comfortable porches, and presented a generally home-like appearance; there was not such a thing as a tenement hou' in the place, and Gertrude was heartily grateful for it. There was one
Gertrude felt a natural affection for Lowville, and had come to the conclusion that it might be made as pretty as the little English village from which she had returned. The only thing needful was to make the citizens feel the desirability of a change. If they could have presented to them an effective picture of Lowville, with smooth, white, paved roads, stone curbings, even lawns and well-trimmed trees, the battle would be half won. Improvements would immediately follow and artificial means applied to natural beauty would make it an ideal little city. Gertrude felt it was worth a life-time to produce such a place in the midst of the great West. Its influence on the character not only of those who lived there, but of all who came in contact with it would be investable. After an interview of half a day, in which there was a great deal of enthusiastic talking on Gertrude's part, and intense sympathetic listening on the Editor's. The Chromo became an established fact.
And to-night the Editor is sitting at his desk opposite Our Study Window, before him a half written page, his pen in hand. But the pen is idle, the Editor is looking beyond the page, beyond the desk, beyond Our Study Window. The Editor's study was in the top story of his home and was chosen because of the beautiful view the Window gave. There were no buildings near, but in the valley beyond were small houses and large trees, and beyond the valley were hills covered with red herbage. The view with which he had long been familiar had had a great influence on the formation of his character. Early in childhood he had shown a quick appreciation of the beauty of nature, and had formed a resolution, though vague in its purport to make his life conform to the beautiful. The desire staid with him, but the realization of it was still a problem. The Chromo at least offered a chance for the development of his ideas, and was accepted accordingly.
As he looks at the scene before him, written characters flow from his pen in a steady stream, expressing the ennobling and spiritual influence of a contemplation of natural beauty. Another look, and the Editor stops writing in order to feel more intensely. Familiar as the view is, there is always some change. White, fleecy clouds have just come into the clear sky; the Editor likes to watch the changes, their infinitesimal movements cause. When a boy, he used to lie in the grass and see them assume all sorts of human shapes; they were often beautiful, but only for a moment, they always changed to the grotesque. To-night, in the midst of old surroundings, the childish habits comes back; he sees human forms in the white, fleecy clouds. They are all beautiful, but one is familiar. It moves away from the rest; the others merge together. Yes, it is she, the lady who called at his study not long before. The Editor knew she was pretty, but she looked grand in the midst of the beutiful landscape—grand, and in harmony with her environment. But she wanted to vote!
The Editor had once attended a large political mass meeting, and in the midst of the display of course jokes and vulgar partisanship had decided that that part of human affairs must be let alone by one who was seeking the beautiful. He still held to his decision—but the lady? The fleecy form changed and changed, but it still resembled the lady, still seemed in harmony with its environment.
A light tap on the door and a "Supper's ready dear," recalled the Editor to himself. He collected his papers, read the written pages, throw them down, scowling. The words written in such fervid earnestness a moment before seemed to mock him now. He made an impulsive movement toward tearing them, but stopped.
"It's too late now, it'll have to be in; but confound it!" and, in the vexation of the moment, the Editor actually forgot his search for the beau- 1.
Ernest Blaker was on the hill Monday.
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