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Kansas University Weekly.
The history of the drama and of the stage; the study of dramatic literature from artistic and technical standpoints; the art of play-writing, of acting, of "make-up" and of stage direction; all this would be the province of the proposed club. The drama is a grand and historic style of literature, and acting is a noble profession; both deserve study. The Drama, studied in all its departments, should have a prominent place in every college curriculum. And ought not every college have its dramatic club? There's the question. Dramatic work is so very alluring; it is likely to become proportionately absorbing; but the benefits to be derived from organized pursuance of the same ought to outweigh all the concomitant dangers.
SHOULD DEBATE replace oratory at Kansas University? In view of the fact that oratory is decadent here, we are of the opinion that intercollegiate contest along this line should be abandoned forthwith and forever. It is profitless, wasteful and lowers our institutional rank in the eyes of unbiased Kansans who adjudge us great according as we prove ourselves superior in public contest. Despite the burden of wordy argument to the contrary, the experience of recent years has proved that oratory at Kansas University is degenerate, beyond resuscitation and positively harmful rather than merely fruitless. Granted that oratory should be given up; how can it be most advantageously replaced? Debate possesses most of the virtues of oratory besides characteristic merits of its own. The avowed end of oratory is the acquirement of ease, elegance and force in public speaking. There is no style of composition more studied in its force and more artificial in its elegance than the oration; no manner of address more hampered and strained than the so-called oratorical kind. Not that oratory is without its benefits,—our meaning is far from that. We simply seek to convey the warranted belief that oratory is not conducive to ease and effectiveness in public speaking, and incidentally to suggest the inference that this is exactly the peculiar office of debate. There are occasions for oratory in debate, for both prepared and spontaneous flights; but in unadulterate college oratory spontaneity is barred. Debate, too, is the natural vehicle of originality and unaffected plainness of thought; while the oration almost requires stiffness and grandiloquence, and invites plagiarism. In short, the oration is infinitely more confining than the debate. Wherefore, let us center and redirect our literary energy; let us make interstate debate its focus.
PROF. STERLING as treasurer of the Alumni Association has issued an urgent call for annual membership dues. There should be no delinquency in the payment of them. The dues are light and the only regular source of revenue.A knowledge of the disposition of funds may be conducive to prompt payment thereto. The following paragraph gives the requisite information.
Three years ago, by action of the Alumni Association at the June meeting, the sum of $125 then in the treasury was turned over to the committee in charge of the Students' Loan Fund, where it is being constantly used in the assistance of needy students. Last June, when a similar surplus had accrued, the Association pledged the sum of $100 a year to the maintenance of the D. H. Robinson Memorial scholarship. This is a general undergraduate scholarship, open to juniors and seniors of the Schools of Arts and Engineering, and is not to be confounded with the D. H. Robinson Graduate Latin scholarship established by Professor D. H. Holmes of the Latin department and wholly supported by parties outside the Alumni Association. It is to be noted that the scholarship of the Alumni Association is an undergraduate scholarship, and has nothing more to do with Latin than any other department, except that it is a memorial to our lamented Latin professor and bears his name. The present holder of the D. H. Robinson Memorial Scholarship of the Alumni Association is Mr. R. R. Price, of Hutchinson, a senior of the School of Arts. The maintenance of this scholarship is and will continue to be the chief item of expense of the Association for some time.
SPIRITED INTER-CLASS contest in the preliminary debate which recently occurred was a refreshing manifestation of awakening interest both in debate and in matters of class pride.