}
COMMUNICATIONS.
CHAPEL RHETORICALS.
It could hardly have been expected that the reintroduction of chapel rhetoricals would pass without protest from the Juniors and Seniors. It is a step decidedly contrary to what has been the general policy of the University for the past five or ten years. The freedom which has been allowed to Juniors and Seniors in the selection of studies can not be interpreted in any way than as an encouragement to specialization. Or becoming a Junior, the student is allowed to choose a course of study which he intends to pursue throughout his Junior and Senior years—his major course. In a great many cases, the student selects his major course in the line of his future profession. He devotes to it his chief energy; he selects his other studies from departments which will throw light upon it; and writes his for-enceons on subjects chosen from that department. In the case of forencecs the faculty permit him to substitute for his regular work, thesis in his special line.
In this way many students have been enabled to enter their chosen field of work immediately upon graduation; whereas union leaving an institution with a required course of study throughout, they would have to spend a year or two in special preparation.
So far, so good. But now comes a resolution from the faculty saying, you must not spend your whole time in specialization. Give us an oration. To the student in political science, history or English, this comes not amiss, but not so the rest. It is hard to write an oration on advanced psychology, logic, physiology, botany or entomology, and we understand that the faculty have not yet decided to admit orations on German or Greek. But it is not, we believe, as a movement against specialization that this step has been taken. Students are continually graduating and entering upon life without the ability to address a public meeting in a creditable manner. It is to supply this want that rhetoricals have been established. That they will supply this want to a greater or less extent, cannot be doubted. We deplore the fact, however, that their establishment must necessarily interfere more or less with specialization. Indeed we are inclined to think that the mistake is not in requiring them, but in requiring them of Juniors and Seniors. The University occupies, so to speak, a double position, the freshman and Sophomore years constituting the college proper, while the Junior and Senior years form the University. Oratorical training certainly belongs more to the college than to the University.
Nevertheless we believe that chapel rhetoricals for Juniors and Seniors are better than none at all. They cannot fail to give the students greater ease upon the platform and at the same time to raise the standard of oratory in the University. When an oration becomes an every day occurrence, bombast will not long continue to be mistaken for eloquence and we can expect that it will soon be an acknowledged fact that true eloquence is always simple. S. A.
A REPRESENTATIVE PAPER.
The necessity of a paper which will represent the interests of the student body, instead of the interests of a few secret societies, is obvious to every thoughtful mind in the University.
That the University has had no representative paper is well known to the students themselves, but to outsiders, who are ignorant of University conditions, it seems that as there is only one paper at the University of Kansas, it must be a representative of our institution. Therefore, it ought to be set forth and proven to outsiders that until now, the University has been practically without a paper, and that the purpose of the new paper is creditably to represent the University. The fact that a paper published here goes forth with the claim of representing the students, though, in fact, published by a self appointed few, should not, and does not, meet the approval of the student body. Over 400
of the students desire a paper which shall be published in the interest of the University, not in the interest of sixty or a hundred secret society people.
The new paper should not claim to have the support of all the students, but it can say it has the best wishes of four-fifths of the students. It is almost impossible to unite all University factions on any project, but if four-fifths of the students can agree, they can say with much justness that it represents the University.
Then, has not the new paper, with four fifths of the students supporting it, a better right than any other to be called the University paper? And, although the paper is to be controlled by the nonfraternity students, yet as they greatly preponderate, there is no good reason why it should not be called the University paper. R.J.
WILL HE RESIGN?
Recently a meeting of the freshman class was called for the purpose of electing officers. A few days previous to the election a caucus was held. A gentleman from the southern part of the state, by his own exertions and by his professing to support "majority" principles secured the support of the caucus. By his professed position on the "barb-frat" question he was elected president. Now forgetful of his boastful assertions as being a "barb," unmindful of the treachery toward those who elected him he wears a secret society pin. That his resignation would be acceptable to the majority of the class is certain—in fact it should be requested. He owes it to those who supported him. He owes it to his honor. What will he do? "A Ferguson."
From Larva to Fly.
"I know nothing more curious or interesting in nature than the development of the dragon fly," the professor said. "Any one who, in the early summer or late spring, will look down into the depths of some quiet pool or reedey pond, where he can see the bottom, will see many curious forms of insect life—creeping things, darting things, swimming things; big beetles, armored like ships of war; fierce looking wormlike creatures, and others so closely resembling the frightful centipede as to have eyes that possess them for the flat feet. Many of these hideous looking things are the larvae of what later on become familiar and beautiful winged creatures, some that delight the eye all summer long, and others that sport in the sunbeams only a few hours.
"One among the formidable members of that subaqueous insect community will particularly attract the eye of the observer. It is a broad shouldered creature an inch or so in length, and with a big, angular head, with a big, brilliant, bulging eye at each upper corner of the head. From the two lower corners project a pair of strong jaws, incurring like an elephant's tusks. The face is covered by a singular contrivance which resembles a mask, and which, however curious it may seem, is actually a part of the creature's under lip, the other hand is the mouth, forming a way against its stomach. Six active legs, three on a side, hang from the shoulders. The body tapers in eight short segments to a point, and to the edge of each segment is attached a short, sharp spike. From the tail project in a cluster five needle pointed spikes flaring apart at the points, the bases meeting around an aperture no larger than the point of a pin.
"That's right; get's his lip on. Amazing as are the other appurtenances of this unique subaquean prowler, they are but ordinary mechanism compared with that under lip of his. It is folded up against his stomach something as the carpenter might fold his rule. On its extremity is a pair of nippers, sharp and strong.
"It has inside of itself a pair of oxygen extracting gills, not on the outside as the commonplace flieses wear theirs. It has also stowed away among its machinery a suction pump and an ejecting valve. The insect is constantly pumping fresh water into itself through the spike defended aperture in its tail, extracting the oxygen by its interior gills, and then ejecting the exhausted water through the same aperture. In other words, the creature breathes through his tail. If it be a moment at rest in the porous medium, it may move down in the gentle wateraking of the ejector as it forces the water out. Frighten the creature, or let it see some prey he covets, and it shoots the stream of water from its body with such force that it impels the insect forward like a flash, sometimes a foot or more. When this insect makes a rush of that kind rest sure that whatever it has aimed at it gets its lip on.
"As time passes some startling changes come over, this aggressive water denizen.
His head begins to swell and his back to hump itself. The more his head swells and the higher his back is elevated, the harder he works, for his appetite increases with his apparent importance. By and by, if you watch him closely, you can't help but notice that his head is tense and strokes of health. Physical distress of some kind is getting its clutch on him.
"Any one who has ever had the asthma or seen some one else have it will be struck with the fact that if anything ails this erstwhile stalwart despoiler of his fellows it is the asthma. When he exerts himself it is easy to see that he can scarcely catch his breath. His eyes bulge more than ever, and he labors hard for the insufficient oxygen he manages to pull in. You can almost imagine that you hear him wheeze. He knows that his only hope is change of climate, and at last he seeks it. He climbs up the staircase and enters or water plant and leaves his native element for the air. He ascends the stalk a few inches above the surface of the pond. He seems to have taken the third degree of that tired feeling. He clutches the reed with his six legs as with the grasp of death. He rolls his head and swaits his body and struggles for breath.
“Keep your eyes on him and presently you will see him hump himself as if for one supreme and final effort, and crack! goes something. If ever any one was ripped up the back he is. But he did it himself, and by it has conquered relief. His clothes had become too small for him, and he is emancipating himself from their clasp. There is a glistening sheen at the head and shoulders he now rears sloft, and the big eyes are as brilliant as diamonds. It was a hard struggle, but he breathes again. His girls have given place to lung power, and he will never have to separate oxygen from water again in order to live. He rests awhile, and then you see that he sticks his finger into his mind. Pretty soon he taps at himself again, and you can scarcely believe your eyes when from that chucky, segmented thing that a few moments before was prowling on the pond bottom only an inch length is developed a slender trunk more than two inches long, gleaming in brilliant hues. It resembles nothing so much as a humped back mosquito wriggler, enlarged many times.
"But that big humped back has its duty to perform. The great clublike insect still clings to the reed stalk, and its mind is still agitated by a vague unrest. Presently from each side of the rounded hump something slowly moves outward, until at last it has unfolded gradually into two wings. This wing can be used to gossamer wings. For a moment longer this strangely transformed creature rests upon the stalk, and then sails away in erratic flight among the reeds and rushes and over the waters of the ponl—the dreaded devil's darning needle of your childhood, whose sole mission you thought it was to pounce upon you and sew up your ears. In reality the harmless and beautifully transformed, and going forth to prey upon and destroy its millions of noxious insect pests, which but for the dragon fly's persistent and tireless pursuit would make the life of man scarcely worth the living."—New York Sun.
The Sea in Miniature.
A model of ocean currents is to be exhibited at the World's fair which will possess great practical value. This model, which is a huge scientific tank, is made to represent the surface of the earth spread out on an area of thirty feet square, the ocean and seas being shown by actual water. Small streams of water are ejected through pipes under the model so that the whole body of water moves exactly as the ocean currents move. The direction of the currents is shown by a white powder on the surface of the water. Near the model will be placed a large map giving the fullest details of the force, volume and direction of the various ocean currents. New York Telegram.
The Mount Washington Searchlight.
The placing of the 100,000-candle power searchlight upon Mount Washington has been somewhat delayed, but in a few days its searching rays will be darting over the country roundabout. It is expected that every hotel with fifteen or twenty miles of the mountain can be illuminated at night from the summit when the beam is thrown upon them. It is claimed that the light will be seen on clear nights from 100 to 150 miles from Mount Washington.
Six different lenses will be used in the way of coloring the beam of light, thus introducing the prismatic colors, making a display that will put the so called northern lights into a secondary position as regards brilliancy. The movement of the light will be controlled automatically by electric motors at some distance from the lamp. Some electric novelties will be introduced, including a diverging lens, which will produce a fantail appearance and spread over a large territory in the vicinity of the mountain.
Pedestrians should take note of the fact that the searchlight will be in readiness to pick up the unfortunates on short notice. They are especially requested to lose themselves and test the powers of the great beam of light. Tuckerman's ravine or a trip over the northern peaks is in order, especially if it is very cloudy.—Among the Clouds.
Getting Back Home.
Saw you ever a place in your wanderings quite so beautiful, one-half so comfortable, one tenth so welcome and one hundredth part so dear as this plain looking house, with the dusty door steps, the close barred shutters, an area lawn not six feet wide, and a lovely garden in the back yard paved with bricks! The very dog, delighted to get home makes a rush for his kennel, a thousand laughs to the minute in his vibrant tail. With nervous eagerness he futters here and there, investigating dismantled caches of half remembered bones, while now and then a yelp of indignant renunciation announces the discovery that much despised and intensely hated cats have had the outrageous effrontery to invade his domain during his absence. In the greater house, with much the same dismay, the good wife, foolishly seeking for things she does not wish to find, proclaims the invasion of the moths. What a nervous tension in every heart as the good man, trying with most stupid transparency to veil his own eagerness under a clumsy assumption of deliberation, unlocks the front door!
Everybody says, "Oh, pa, we could have had it open fifty times!" So could he if he wasn't so eager to get in. When it is opened, just wide enough for one person to squeeze through at a time the entire family make a rush to march in abreast. The household flows through the long deserted rooms like a living torrent, a torrent and a half, or two torrents. Vainly does the commander-in-chief endeavor, by word of command and clutch of hand, to restrain the household troops. They will be a well disciplined garrison in a day or two; just now they are ruthless invaders. It is her natural desire to have the first look in every room, to make the first orderly investigation in every quarter. —Robert J. Burdette in Ladies' Home Journal.
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