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Kansas University Weekly.
THERE ARE in the University too many text book fiends, and too few real students. It is not a very difficult thing to swallow a text book but there is not very much satisfaction in it, and less good. The student who gets his knowledge in this way violates the laws of his own mind; he is a bungler in the use of the tools which nature has given him. Moreover the facts which he acquires are merely stowed away, piled up like potatoes in a bin. Most of them are entirely disconnected and unrelated, and are consequently all the time falling out through the cracks. The real student should be an independent critic of all that he reads. He might well forget for a while that there is any such word as authority. He should be always looking for relations between the old and the new in his experience. Association is now recognized by all to be the best and the most natural aid to memory. The first requirement of the student is of course that he work; but to succeed he must work intelligently
VERY FEW students have any idea of the many places of historical interest situated in and about Lawrence. Places about which are associated the memories of many stirring events of early days. Perhaps one half of the students know that a few hundred yards southeast of the main building, on the brow of the hill, may yet be seen the remains of some old breastworks thrown up in war times to serve as a point of defense in case of attack from the hostile guerrilla bands. Four miles southeast is Franklin which has decreased considerably in size since the fifties, when it was the scene of many exciting events. A few miles northwest is the place where Fort Titus was located and where perhaps the first bloodshed of the civil war occurred. There are many other similar places within easy walking distance of the University. The most of them can be located by referring to the histories, especially Dr. Cordley's History of Lawrence, but some can be found only by inquiring of the early settlers, a few of whom are yet among us. The Country Club we believe intends to undertake the
task of discovering some of these spots. The work will not only add interest to the excursions but will be valuable in itself.
A RECENT Chap-Book contains an interesting summary and criticism of the various answers given by the leading American newspapers to a set of questions sent out by Chicago University asking among other things, whether a journalist should have a college education, and what the relative values of the different studies are to one preparing himself for journalism. The New York Evening Post does "not believe Latin, Greek, French, German, Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology and History are of any value to a journalist, as a journalist, journalism being what it now is." To which the Chap-Book agrees, calling attention to the fact, however, that journalism is now in a "vicious condition." The Chicago Tribune thinks that a journalist is born, not made, that the most important knowledge for him to acquire is that of the English language, and that a "keen nose for smelling news" is the most desirable journalistic quality. This last statement the editor of the Chap-Book takes exception to, and in a paragraph of delightfully refreshing invective chastizes the "blackguard brood" of "domestic spies, eave droppers, and scandal-scavengers" who befoul the pages of the daily press. "A journal should be something more than a kinetoscope. It should stand for the purest politics, the best art, the best literature, and the cleanest sport." There is no royal road to success in journalism. "The successful journalist is a specialist," and should take up at least one subject such as politics, the currency question or dramatic criticism, and master it in every detail. Then he could write intelligently.
The University of Chicago will not be much enlightened by the very contradictory answers to its questions. It may be forced to conclude that journalism can not be taught. Certainly the press needs to be brought more under the control of cultured and concientious men, and it is well that universities should begin to do something more than they have heretofore done to bring about such a condition.