214
Kansas University Weekly.
of entering and all are working hard on their orations. But orators are not the only thing necessary for a good contest. A large audience is one of the greatest inspirations that a speaker can have. The committee is making special efforts to secure a large attendance and it is to be hoped that it will succeed. It has long been said that oratory is dead in K. U., but this is beginning to be disproved. The interest shown in the Kansas-Nebraska debate this year points to brighter thidgs for K. U. in the future in the oratorical line. We have by far the largest college in the state and it is foolish for us to take a back seat in any line. We have the material for orators in school and all it wants is to be developed; and all it needs
to develop it is for the students to show by their presence at the contests and by their support of the winner that there are honors really worth striving for in this line. In the smaller colleges of the state the oratorical contests are the events of the year and the students are thus encouraged to strive for the honors. While we cannot hope in a college the size of ours to see oratory outstrip all else, yet it is certainly a great accomplishment and deserves to be in the front rank. Then let every loyal K. U. student be present at the contest, prepared to cheer the victor, and it will not only encourage the present participants but give oratory a great impetus for next year. P.
Lilqraqq.
The Price of an old Levant.
A young Oxford student was walking slowly back and forth in front of the cases of mellow old volumes that filled the sides of one of the almost innumerable second hand shops which may be found in the side streets of London. He scrutinized the titles of such books as still had legible titles on their backs, and from time to time took down a creamy parchment-bound volume or an old brown levant and fondly turned its dog-eared pages, stained, and scribbled with the microscopic emendations of some old pedant who had died of erudition two hundred years before. At his elbow followed a young girl clerk—but evidently not indiginous to this musty old corner—who talked with him about the books and answered such questions as she could.
"I am very sorry that my uncle is not in," she said, "but he will surely return shortly. I came here only a week ago and I don't know the books very well yet, and uncle has forbidden me to sell any of them until I know better what they are worth."
"Here is one that I should like to have," said the young student as he carefully turned the leaves of a venerable tome apparently on the
point of dissolution. The title of the book was "The Spider and the Flie, a Parable." It contained a very rare full-length portrait of the author, one John Heywood and bore the date 1556. Its thick leather covers were almost black with age and handling. "What a jewel!" the student mused to himself. Then handing the book to the clerk: "Don't you suppose you could tell the price of that?" he asked. "I can't wait much longer. Perhaps it is marked."
"Yes," he answered, "nine shillings. A little high but I'll take it."
The girl opened it at the front page and sure enough up in one corner was the figure nine marked plainly with a pencil. "That must be it," she said.
"Oh, but I dont know as I dare to let you have it," replied the clerk. "Perhaps that isn't the price after all, and I don't know what uncle would do if I made a mistake. Can't you wait a little longer, or come in again?"
"I can't come in again because I am going out of town this afternoon. But I will wait five minutes," answered the student. He sat down with the book in his hands. "By George, that's a bargain," he whispered under his breath.