THE STUDENTS JOURNAL
PUBLISH+D WEEKLY BY THE Students Journal Publishing Company
J. M. SHEKER ... edito I - chief
E. E. SEDOIR-TROM ... Literary Editor
JOHN M. STURL ... local Editor
WM. M. RAYMOND ... Exchange Editor
BUSINESS MANAGERS.
C. T. SOUTHWICK.W.J KREHBIEL
SUR-EDITORS.
SLE-EPTIONS
I. C. Biggs.
O. G. Rountgast.
A. O. Hawlett.
A. K. Hops.
E. F. Wallick.
Miss Haden Wryne,
Des Poetter,
S. E. Bromson,
Herbert-Lebvy
WHILE not of a nature to become frequently talked of, the Department of Languages working steadily and progressively.
The efficient work of Mr. Haworth in economic zoology, in which he is a proficient expert, may be expected to have a telling effect, financially and otherwise.
WITHOUT the aid of the geological department of the University, the State of Kansas would probably have long remained in ignorance of the real worth of the geological deposits.
The universities of neighboring states have of recent years used money more freely than formerly. That partially explains why Kansas University is at the point of losing its position.
When the present law for the maintenance of the University was passed, the appropriation was almost sufficient. Since that time, however, the number of students has greatly increased.
THE University looks to the health as well as to to the wealth of Kansas. The public is receiving from the School of Pharmacy druggists who are able to sell drugs without poisoning patrons.
GOV. LEWELLING has shown himself in favor of liberal education by recommending in his message to the legislature that they give due consideration to the report of the regents of the University.
THE studies carried on by Prof. Black mar with a view toward effecting reforms in prisons, charitable and reformatory institutions will help classes of men everywhere needing help most surely ___
The proper use of mechanical agents is an almost infallible means of acquiring wealth. The School of Engineering is giving practical education to its students which must prove of very great worth to the State of Kansas.
THE tests of Kansas coals and salts, made by the Chemistry Department of the University, may prove of much worth. They show the exact strength of each subsistance taken from various places in the state.
BESIDES being offered larger salaries elsewhere, the members of our faculty are tempted to leave us, because at other Universities they would have more books and apparatus. An increase in the appropriation for the current expenses of the University is the only remedy for such cases.
The way one department of the University supports another is well illustrated by the new course in mineralogy, designed for engineering students. By examining stones with microscopes, fitted especially for the purpose, students are enabled to determine more about the qualities of a building stone than by any other one method. To be sure, the test of the crushing machine in Prof. Marvin's department is necessary, in order to determine the strength of the stone. The microscopic test shows their durability. To a builder the knowledge of their durability is fully as important as a knowledge of their ability to withstand pressure. This method of testing is recommended by being of little trouble or expense. It is much to the credit of our University, and the Geological Department in particular, that ours is one of the first schools to introduce this cheap, simple, and practical method of examining stones.
THE HONOR OF KANSAS. SHALL
IT BE MAINTAINED?
Harvard, Cornell, Williams, and others of the best schools in America, have taken members from the faculty of Kansas University, and placed them in their own faculties. In each case the inducement was dollars. Amherst, Northwestern and other high grade schools, have also offered to some of the Kansas faculty enticing advances in salaries. These latter offers, however, have been refused, because the men to whom they were tendered had faith in the patriotism of the Kansans; they believed that the University of Kansas would soon be as well cared for as other schools.
Is it to be? The honor of Kansas is involved in the question. When one educational institution goes to the faculty of another to procure instructors, only the most able are selected. The possibilities are that the intellectual dwarfs in any faculty will receive no offers from other schools. As a consequence, when any school from a lack of funds must endure having men leave its faculty, to enter other faculties. it suffers from having its able men leave it; and it suffers from not having its incompetent men leave it. If it does not have funds enough to retain its able professors, it will not have funds sufficient when they are gone to procure other good ones. With only its incompetent men remaining, and being able to hire none but incompetent men, a poorly supported university can have none but an incompetent faculty.
Because our faculty are lovers of Kansas, having faith in the loyalty and patriotism of the Kansans, many of them have remained here when larger salaries have been offered them by other institutions. Yet, because they have in the past remained here when offered larger salaries elsewhere, is no guarantee that they would do it in the future. If they have been selfeneying enough to labor and to wait here for more liberal support, the state should now be practical enough permanently to hold them here, by offering them something near the same encouragement offered them by other schools.
THE PRACTICALNESS OF MODERN EDUCATION.
Education has been dethroned from its former useless eminence. It is no longer a refined amusement for rich idlers; no longer a patent medicine to strengthen weak minds; no longer a subject for reproach, as it was sometimes in the past, but a blessing for its possessor and for the society in which he moves. Its tendency at the present time is not as it was formerly, to discourage its possessor from working, but rather to incite him to greater endeavors. Today the student is not satisfied to commit or to repeat mummies stolen from the musty past; but on the contrary he is studious of the living present. His education is nothing more nor less than practicalness, disciplined and well informed.
Practicalness though it be, too much can be, and sometimes is, expected of it. To gain money is not the sole aim of education. If it were, the very narrowness of the aim would defeat the aim. It is because modern education is comprehensive and liberal, that it is superior to the education of former times. The betternement of man's condition, for example, did not at first glance, seem to depend on his knowledge of the compass or the astrolabe; it did depend on it, however. It is due to a knowledge of these two instruments that America was discovered. At first glance man's well-fared did not seem to depend on his knowledge of zoology; but it did depend on it. In the instance of the cinchin-bug, our own University has undeniably proven that an accurate knowledge of one disease of one insect is worth thousands of dollars every year to a single state. What is true of zoology, is true of botany. By knowing well the nature of the small plants, commonly called rust, smut, etc., man is enabled to use the forces at work in nature as he does a yoked ox.
In all branches of learning, parallels to the instances just given may be found. In each instance the most beneficial part—even if considered only from a standpoint of making money—was not discovered by attempting to find a maker of money, but by attempting to find the truth.
Then, society should not ask institutions of liberal education to become money hunters. Left to follow their own course, they will acquire and disseminate more liberal knowledge, and in the end, by means of that more liberal knowledge, more effectively care for the wealth and health of society than would otherwise be possible.
A COMPARISON.
The relativey position of the University can be determined only oy comparing it with other universities.
KANSAS UNIVERSITY COMPARED WITH OTHERS
University of
Total annual in-
come for expe-
niment instructors
Missouri ... $15,000,000
U. S. $ 34,000
T. S. $ 34,000
U. S. $ 34,000
L. S. $ 34,000
U. S. $ 34,000
L. S. $ 34,000
U. S. $ 34,000
Missouri ... $191,900,53
$ 82,000
Total salary of Salaries of other employees
instructors
$ 67,100
$ 22,000
117,000
117,000
14,623
15,000
4,000
149
$ 90,923,25
$ 13,000
Number of in-
structors
58
118
118
14,623
15,000
4,000
149
93.4
Average ... $191,900,53
$ 82,000
$ 90,923,25
$ 13,000
93.4
Kansas ... $82,000
$ 82,000
There are four blanks in the table, because the data in those four particular cases are unknown, and at the present unprocurable However the table is nearly enough to show that the University of Kansas is supported less than half as liberally as the universities of neighboring states. Every time the University of Kansas receives 43 cents the average university among the other seven receives $1. Everything else being equal, the chances are one hundred against forty-three, that the other universities will leave the University of Kansas behind—unless it receives better support.
In its faculty it has less than half the number of instructors that the average of the other universities has; or—to express it in decimals—the number of its instructors is only forty five per cent of the number in the faculty of the average of the other universities. The result is, our instructors have little or no time for original work, without which the mind of an instructor becomes as a stagnant pool. "All work and no play makes Tom a dull boy;" all teach and no study makes an instructor no instructor.
$150,000 vs. $311,000.
The estimates sent in by the farmers indicate that within the last two years the experiments at the University, with chinch bug diseases have saved over $311,000 worth of grain. Within those same two years the state has appropriated only $150,000 for the current expenses of the University. The amount appropriated for the University is considerable less than one-half the amount saved by one single thing. Other professors have saved much money for the state. as Prof. Kellogg by his pamphlet on pests, and so on, and so on. The list, if completed, would be very long. But, notwithstanding this, the University is crippled by a lack of funds.
As the pleader of the University's cause the STUDENTS JOURNAL should receive the united support of the students and faculty. For it, as for the University, encouraging words are agreeable, but with encouraging words we can not pay bills. Pay your subscription.
LITERARY DEPARTMENT
CHINATOWN.
San Francisco, as everyone knows, is a cosmopolitan city. Almost every race and nation is represented here. As a rule each nation has its own particular quarter. That which seems most interesting to strangers is Chinatown. Right in the very heart of the city, and only a block from the Plaza, live some 40,000 or 50,000 Chinese in exactly the same manner as they do in their native land The Chinese, unlike the Japanese, are a very conservative people. All their ancient customs are still preserved. The streets of Chinatown are very narrow, so narrow in fact that through many of them teams are unable to pass. The buildings are of the Chinese style, with little grated windows, overhanging balconies, and pagoda-shaped roofs. The doors of the shops are adorned with red and yellow papers bearing Chinese characters, and from the many balconies hang huge lanterns made of horn and gaily painted. Chinatown at night, when all these lanterns are lighted, is a sigh long to be remembered.
About the first place that a tourist visits is one of the Chinese theatres. There are some four or five of these, but the Grand Theatre is the one usually selected. One enters and finds himself in a large room filled with hard wooden benches. At the end of the hall is the stare which is entirely desititute of curtains or scenery. In the rear wall are two doors through which the actors enter and exeunt, and between these at the back of the stage sit the orchestra. White visitors are usually conducted to seats upon the stage at one side. The instruments upon which the orchestra play are very singular, consisting of one-stringed fiddles, gongs, cymbals and many indescribe instruments. These "musicians" play during the whole performance, most of the time completely drowning the voice of the actors.
The pieces represented are usually taken from Chinese history or legends, and run for weeks, a part only being performed in one evening. The actors are all men, as among the Chinese no women are allowed on the stage. The costumes worn are very rich and expensive, being mostly of bright colored silks. The armor and swords used are very ancient and of great value.
Their custom of having no curtains or scenery looks rather strange and primitive. For instance it seems absurd to see an actor when he has finished his part, step aside and in full view of the audience drink a cup of tea, or to see the property man arranging the furniture on the state for the next scene. It is no less amusing when a character in the play has been killed (which occurs every fifteen minutes or so) to see the corpse get up and demurely walk out while the man who is supposed to have killed him, marches up and down the stage, waving his sword, shouting, and holding up by its queue a wooden head which the property man brings in and hands to him.
Way up on the walls, high above the stage, are queer little boxes, reminding one of bird houses, from the grated windows of which peep out almond eyed ladies.
Another great attraction of Chinatown is its numerous temples. There are innumerable ones, all more or less alike, I will briefly describe the largest of these, recently erected at a cost only a little short of $100,000.
External y it is an imposing building, with overhanging roof. The doorway is a handsome marble arch. The whole front of the upper story is one huge balcony which is hung with magnificent lanterns. The front of the temple is ornamented with beautiful carvings and gildings, and over all floats the yellow triangular flag of China, bearing the blue, five clawed dragon.
Entering the temple one finds himself in a vestibule paved with marble from China. Just over the door is a bit of granite from the Great Wall. The walls of this vestibule are hung with rich silk
finely embroidered. A few dim lanterns shed a subdued light upon the scene. One ascends the stairs to the second floor, and right before him is a Chinese court room. Chinamen never sue each other in our courts, but maintain courts of their own. This room is fitted up in ebony and gilt. Along the sides are ranged richly carved chairs for the judges, and at the extreme end a sort of throne for the presiding judge.
On the next floor is the temple itself. As one ascends he becomes aware of a peculiar sweet odor. It is sandal-wood and incense which is being burned in the temple. The temple is almost dark. Just before him is a huge gilded shrine covered with real and artificial flowers. At the other end of the room is a similar shrine, and back of that are heavy curtains. They are parted, and in the dim light one can faintly see a huge idol some ten feet high. Different temples are dedicated to other gods, as the Chinese have some dozen deities. The walls of the temple are decorated with splendid carvings, gildings and silk hangings. Just before the shrine where the idol stands, is a low table upon which are placed queer sticks of sandal-wood. Before a Cainaman goes into any important undertaking he goes to one of the temples, and kneeling before some idol which is an especial favorite of his, picks up one of these sticks, tosses it into the air, and carefully notes which side falls uppermost. One side means "Yes," the other "No."
A really comprehensive description of Chinatown, of its restaurants, barber shops, opium and gambling dens, of the Chinese New Years and the great Dragon Procession would fill a quarto volume.
Leaving the temple one goes out onto the balcony before mentioned. Here are two bronze yases valued at many thousands of dollars. They are filled with the ashes of incense and sandalwood which has been burned in the temple. It is estimated that these ashes represent the remains of some thousand dollars
It is impossible to give anything like an adequate idea of a Chinese temple, the dim light, strange barbaric decorations, the odor of burning incense and sandal-wood, the strange weapons and armour arranged on the wall, must be seen and experienced to be appreciated. What might be termed "Under ground Chinatown" is of as much interest as that which is visible to the tourist. It is a part which very few but the police ever see. All through Chinatown, under the streets and alleys, are tunnels which have been dug by the cunning Chinamen. Although our Mongolian friends are good laundrymen and servants yet they have their little faults, such as killing each other occasionally, gambling, opium smoking, and the like; so they concluded that it might be a good idea to construct these tunnels to avoid any unpleasant meetings with the police. Now if a Chinaman commits a crime and gets down into the tunnels, one might just as well expect to catch a rat after he has got into his hole as him. These tunnels are really a sort of catacombs. The Chinese believe that if their bones are not buried in their native land, their souls will be turned over to Fung Choy, who attends to the Mephistophlecan affairs of China, so the bones of the Chinese who die in this country are sent home after some three or four years. Many skeletons are stored down in the tunnels awaiting shipment.
PORTER EDMINSTER, "Law," '90.
** *
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Bret Harte is reported to be at work on several stories—enough to keep him busy for a year to come. He has just completed an American story—not an English one, for though he lives in England, he does not propose to deal with English life. "No," he says, "let English people write of England and Americans of America. There is any amount of material in America to be worked into fiction, if Americans would only write. To write what you have lived is, to begin with, one secret of success." Mr. Harte thinks that the fiction of the civil war
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