THE STUDENTS JOURNAL
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE Students Journal Publishing Company
C. M. SHERER ... Editor-in-Chief
M. E. SODENSTROM ... Literary Editor
JOHN M. STEBLE ... Local Editor
Wm. M. RAYMOND ... Exchange Editor
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BUSINESS MANAGERS.
G. T. SOUTHWICK | W.J.KREHBIEL
SUB EDITORS.
SUB EDITIONS.
H. C. Rigge. Miss Helen Wynne.
S. T. Gillispie. Dean Foster.
A. O. Garrett. A. K. Hoge.
A PERFECT man would be a monster
MEN who try to make perfect beings of us poor mortals, if allowed to have their own way, would drive humanity to death chasing phantoms of perfection.
PERFECT men exist only in ideal worlds and, if one of them should come to life and drop down on this old real world of ours, he would die from a lack of appreciation and neglect.
Why not lay out tennis courts west of Snow Hall? The position is very desirable; the cours would be near to the students, would be easy of access, and would have good drainage. These are three sterling qualities which should be considered in laying out any University court.
WHENEVER a holiday is to be celebrated several instructors in the University consider it imperative that they assign lessons much longer than usual. Conceding it to be a holiday in whose celebration the student is to take part, the instructor yet assigns longer lessons. Anv one who can, rise and explain on what reasoning such a practice is based.
THE University Republican club claims to be organized for the full, fair and impartial discussion of all political questions. How many distinguished democratic or people's party speakers does the club intend to invite here? What ever your politics are, gentlemen, be truthful; it will be good for your souls. If you are organized as a political power, profess it; people would admire you for it.
It is evident the University foot ball team is stronger this year than last. One of the main reasons is that the men work together better now than formerly; they make fewer plays for the grand stand; each is willing to sacrifice personal notoriety for the good of the whole number. The whole student body of the University might find a good lesson in this improvement in football playing, and in the future, work unitedly.
TUESDAY of last week a number of crest-fallen men were seen standing in the University halls. On being asked what had happened, they shook their heads, but said nothing. It was learned from their friends that they had been waiting to see if it would pay to buy lecture course tickets, and had waited too long. The verdict in the case is, it served them right and there is no cause for complaint.
Ir is said that when the foot ball team went to Denver old University students were frequently seen at stations along the road, and that invariably they were holding responsible positions in society. That speaks volumes in favor of the University. A school ought to be judged by its alumni. If judged in such a manner, Kansas University has nothing to fear; her alumni would likely prove superior to those of any other university of twenty-five years existence.
UNIVERSITY journals should not show political preferences. The Uniiversity is supported by the whole state, and, whatever individual men do, think or work for, the University as an organized body should be neutral. Political neutrality is demanded of the United States office holecars as office holders and every one admits the justness of the demand; no less justly can the voters of Kansas ask
that state institutions remain forever neutral on political subjects. If the University must remain neutral, and the papers published are to be representa tive of the school, they also must refrain from taking sides on political questions.
The shrill, shrieking tin horn has made its advent; the discordant, bellowing tin horn has accompanied it hither. They both are nuisances. They are not half as significant as Rock Chalk, that best of American college cheers. Those blowing the horns may find it easier than Rock Chalking, but when their neighbors are doing the work, they themselves prefer to hear the Rock Chalk. The press always speaks of Rock Chalk as indicative of victory, but it certainly would sound flat for the press to say the students for a long time blew on tin horns because their athletic team had won a game. That would suggest nothing to the mind but noise and confusion.
ALTHOUGH the illiterate in the United States is less than one-sixth of the whole population, yet more than forty per cent of the homicides in 1890 could neither read nor write. Thus is shown that education removes about two thirds of the probability that one will commit homicide, yet Kansas has spent only one-third as much on her University as on her penitentiary. Is this a rational way of using taxes? The University sends men and women out as aids to the state; what does the penitentiary do? If its inmates had first been students at the University very few of them would be where they are now. Kansas is in need of a reform.
The organization of political clubs in the University is a mistake. There is a possibility that it will injure the Universi- verity. If a large majority of the students were of one political party and organized, and the majority of the state's voters belonged to an opposition party, the University might go begging for funds to run on, or shut its doors and beforgotten. "Cranks" will not good-naturely brook opposition, and there may be "cranks" even in fair Kansas. They may be in power now, they may get in power after a while—it does not matter when they are in power, so sure as they control the affairs of the state and the majority of the students are an organized opposition, there are trouble days ahead for the University.
The victor in the foot-ball game between the Illinois and Kansas State Universities is entitled to be called the strongest team in the Mississippi Valley. The Illinois team has defeated all other teams in the Mississippi Valley east of the river; and the Kansas team, it is probable, is the strongest team in the Mississippi Valley west of the river. To be the strongest team between the Appalachian Mountains on the east, Canada on the north, the Rocky Mountains on the west, and the boundary of the United States on the south is, no insignificant honor. Furthermore, it is likely no team west of the Rocky Mountains could successfully compete with the best team of the Mississippi Basin; in that case, the victorious team of the Mississippi Valley would be the recognized champion of all the country west of the Appalachians.
THE executive committee of the Student's Journal has unanimously agreed that personalities shall on no account in the future be published, unless they really contain something which might be for the good of the public. The public is invited to use, not to misuse the columns reserved for communications. As long as the Journal exists, every one connected with the University may reach the public through these columns. All are urged to take advantage of the opportunity offered. It is to the best interests of the University that every one has an opinion on University affairs and expresses it freely. Such expressions of opinion quicker than anything else will untie all in the University into one compact body which will first consult the interests of our alma mater, and the interest of less important times later. But personalities will not aid in building up a public feeling; they seldom contain a public spirit. For that reason the Journal intends not to publish them.
LITERARY DEPARTMENT
Beneath a summer sky,
One satiled of old, in eager, earnest quest,
Who heard an unborn nation's voiceless cry
Afar, from out the west.
THE DISCOVERY.
His heart expectant swolled.
'the Christ, whose name he bore, his hope in
spired,
4 forces Dhius his onward course immelled.
A force Divine his onward course impelled,
His inner vision fired
He clect far wider sees
he clect his gaze. He heard the road.
Of wave that he heard, human doosts
Upon that farther shore.
The sweep of centuries
shows sails unnumbered following his wake.
Far more to men than pleasure, comfort, ease,
To bear those blows break!
Forever must they roll.
Forever must they roll,
Till all humanity has understood
That highest liberty means self-control.
And law meand a brotherhood,
MARY ISABELLA FORSYTHE,
Oct. 1872
THREE JOLLY TARS,
加油
"Lo the south answers to the north;
[and] the east answers to the west."
pretty.
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Anyone who has gone down the Missouri or the Mississippi in the summer time as cabin passenger on a floating palace of a steamboat can well remember the delight of that voyage. Scarcely less delightful, to him who is willing to sacrifice comfort and conventionalities, is the same journey in an open sailbottle. Especially delightful was such an outing to us three students who had been kept pretty close to our books for several months past. There was enough of danger and daring in a sail of nearly seventeen hundred miles to make it slurring. And we would have to rough it. We said to ourselves on starting that this should be no dilieante venture; we were in for it through thick and thin, so we flattered ourselves. But not many days were passed ere we had the mortification of being called tenderfeet by a waterman who looked quizzically at our outfit. Yet how could that ignorant light-tender know what students might have in their boxes?
We pushed off from below the dam at Lawrence on the morning of June 4th and floated leisurely down stream, watching the town fade out of sight. Then with tender adrius to the historic cty we hoisted sail and were off for the gulf and the sunny southland. Our first day's run was a succession of tacks through choppy seas in the bends, with a little straight sailing down long reaches, enlivened only by a narrow escape from a sanddredger at De Soto. We saw to the best advantage the pretty hills along the lower Kaw—hills barely seen by the rail way passenger. Yes the Kaw is very pretty.
It was not without a feeling akin to fear that we sailed out onto the broad Missouri. The feeling wore off in a few days, though we never did make friends with the river's snags and sandbars and "suck holes" and muddy complexion. At first the landscape was tame enough. ordinary low banksinterchanging with pretty trecovered hills. Gradually it grew wilder and grander, and the white and gray stone bluffs rose perpendicularly to the height of two or three hundred feet, until they ceased rather abruptly a little above St. Charles. Now they presented a smooth, massive front, now they were fantastically cut out into towers and turrets and battlements, all in a setting of dense green woods with scrubby pines and cedars thrown in on the top. And high above in the blue, the buzzards floated in solemn silence or the eagle broke the stillness with his discordant scream. Sometimes we would climb to the top of these monster rocks and rest on the blue grass under the oaks and view the land, and the river away down beneath us. From this lofty seat the沙 bars in the river were horribly evident, which to us on the water had been scarcely visible lines away off ahead. For the first few days we ran aground in these shallow sandy places. But after several encounters with these
horrible monsters of the deep, we be came wonderfully acute and could scent them at the distance of half a mile even when hidden under water. A rather uncomfortable feeling, that of sticking in the sand, especially if it be quicksand,—away out on the lonely Missouri. Our captain, the leading spirit of our company, was a rash fellow. He would persist in taking the shortest way across the bends with only an inch or two of water to run in. We would be gliding smoothly along, when, suddenly, without warning, on keel would grate on the bottom—a cold shiver passes up our several backbones—we plough along a few yards and stop. The wind is not able to carry us out; rowing and shoving with the caravail naught. We have to get out and by sheer strength pull and push the boat into deep water. Such was steering without a chart.
Then the snags! some were steady, stay-at-home snags, whose dealings were above board, and with these we had little trouble. Others—the skalawags—would stay under water, holding their breath, until we were near, when they would bob up spitfully and give us a smart trump. But these were incidentals. Our main theme was sailing, which we did like experts when the conditions were favorable. Ah! what an exhilarating sensation of power, sitting in the stern with tiller in one hand and sail-rope in the other, and eyes on the lookout forward, shooting through the water with scarcely perceptible motion, mile after mile! The gentle wake ripples pleasantly, the breeze blows through your hair,—and it's fun! Only when we pass a snag do we realize how fast we are going, for the banks are far away.
This, too is not always, and there succeed long hours of floating with the current; to be sure, 'tis no hard job when there are no steamboats coming. We get out our flutes or sing college songs or read, or lie lazily gazing at the sky above or the ever-changing prospect on shore.
And then at evening we get out and stretch our legs and sit down again by the cheerful camp fire and eat our frugal feed, associating companiably the while with ants and beetles and mosquitoes. Presently we turn in for we are tired. Glorious, sleeping on clean, warm, dry sand in June; ditto, under the oaks on the blue grass. No mists to chill. And all is quiet save for the fault sighing of a distant whippoorwill, or a heavy splash as a chunk of some farmer's cornfield tumbles into the stream. This silence on the flood-washed Missouri was awful, it was oppressing.
Speaking of washouts, the Missouri is a greedy devouring monster ever seeking new fields for the satisfaction of its restless ambition; cutting across necks of land in order to save time, but then, inconsistently, going the longest way round a bend, eating farther in, each trip. One evening, very late, tired and hungry, we were looking for a town and a camping place in a low monotonous region of willows on one side and deserted fields on the other, and at last came to what had once been a flourishing village. "Thar's whart the town used to be, out yander," said a lank, ague-racked native, indicating the broad expanse of river that lay as smooth as glass under the last lurid glow of the twilight. It was gruesome.
We are now on the misty Mississippi. We had gone several miles, however before we were certain of the fact. The junction of the two streams lies in a low willow-covered wilderness, desolate in the extreme. Now our first serious acquaintance with steamboats begins, naturally, rather constrained at first, but soon freer and less embarrassed on our part. We got to feel at our ease in their awful presence and to be quite sociable, sailing across their bows and riding gleefully in their wake. But, laws, how they did shake us to begin with! Their waves nearlivir killed our poor craft. "The Trifolium," on the rocks. To the sober going landlubber, the disturbance a steamboat makes in the water is outrageously disproportionate to the cause. To him it is a deep mystery how a stern paddle-wheel, twelve by twenty feet, say, can keep a mile's breadth of river in such commotion for a quarter or half an hour after passing. Great fun again to ride across these waves—away up and away down and our prow ships no water.
Next, the people we saw: from the simple confiding rustic to the smart-alceek of the city streets. The Philistine conventional traveler sees people, too; yet I fancy we saw types and characters rather rare in the common highways of travel.
Our trip ended at Cairo. We had gone nearly seven hundred miles. Down in that New World Egypt the mosquitoes were famished for want of some good red Kansas blood and rest for us at night was impossible. Moreover, we were told that the shores below that point were only monotonous growths of willows and cottonwoods. Discretion was the better part of valor; therefore we proceeded to return to resume the ways and habits of civilization. Nevertheless, the memory of that three weeks in the wilds will come as a freshening breeze to our heated brains in the long winter evenings, as, in the language of the stale time-honored phrase, we pore over "Greek roots and Latin verbs."
Is it any wonder that America has few authors and England many, when one really stops to consider the difference between the possible revenue of an English author's work, and that of an American author's work? The advantage in favor of the former is something amazing. Take a single novel by such an author as William Black or Thomas Hardy, for example. The first revenue comes from the English serial publication in such a periodical as the Illustrated News of London, and from this a large sum is derived. Then the India rights are sold—generally to a syndicate of newspapers. Then the Australian rights are disposed of. Then comes the American serial income, from one of the Harper periodicals generally. And all of this before publication in book form is thought of. When the story is ready for book publication, the same rights are again sold on a royalty basis, each separately. Then the French translation of the book is provided for, and after that Tauchnitz comes in with a snug little check for the German rendition. And in addition to all this, the Canadian rights, serial and book form will oftimes be separately disposed of. Here are not less than eleven different sources of income from a single book. American periodicals circulate abroad and the American writer has no protection against the use of his writings by foreign publishers. The American and Canadian rights are sold combined and this is practically his whole revenge.
“Kalevala, the epic poem of Finland,” in two volumes, John B. Alden publisher, translated by John B. Martin Crawford, has just been placed in the University library by the English Department. This is the first complete English translation of this epic ever made. The poem is divided into fifty parts called runs and contains altogether 22,793 lines. The title “Kalevala” means the land of heroes. It relates the ever varying contests between the Firns and the “darksome Laplanders.” The hero of the poem is Wainamoinen
This is quite an important epic and should become better known to American readers. Max Mueller ranks it along with the lial and the Nibelungenlied. It is especially interesting to us Americans as having suggested to Longfellow both the subject and the meter of "Hiawatha."
"Our Irish Visitors."
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Mr. W, J. Benedict, owner and managed of "Our Irish Visitors" was in town this morning making arrangements for the presentation of his play at the opera house here next Tuesday evening. This play is an old favorite here having made a great hit when they were here the last two seasons. Reserved seats on sale Monday.
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