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Kansas University Weekly.
THERE ARE a few alumni—perhaps more than a few—who are always interested in what is being done at the University. We are glad to hear from such, especially when they have suggestions to make on affairs of the day. The following "plea" is especially pertinent at this time.
Editor of the K. U. WEEKLY,
Dear Sir: It does an old Alumnus good to get your eighth-day comments upon current events on Mt. Oread, and to know that the faithful are still combating the powers of darkness from that vantage ground; but once in a great while it does appear-to an old Alumnus--that you have failed to recognize a camp of Sweetness and Light.
Now improvement is a very good thing, and so is blue grass, and a brass band no doubt accompanies the onward march of civilization; but really, Mr. Editor, North Hollow is not of a piece with darkest Africa, and the Kentucky Cardinal himself would tell you blue grass is not to be secured at the cost of violets and anemones, besides giving proof from his own sweet throat that there are other sounds than the croaking of tree toads and the singing locusts to be heard in North Hollow. Did you never hear him there, Mr. Editor? nor the robin, nor the blue bird, nor the wood thrush? For a moment I thought the printer had played you a trick in paragraphing, and that the "Verily it may be said of us also" should have begun at the bottom of the page.
Now far be it from me to oppose improvement. Let there be a University band, by all means—but wouldn't the hill-top, where the players would never get out of wind-be the best place for the band stand?
And improve North Hollow if you know how. But there's a deal of sweetness and light there now, Mr. Editor, and it would go hard with some of us to see it turned into an end-of-the-car-line park. What we old fogies beg for is conservatism, and should we come back some spring to find the violets beheaded by the lawn mower, the wild crab apple thickets thinned out of existence, and not a nodding anemone head out of all the hosts of former years to give us greeting, I very much fear we should find no consolation in smooth green turf blossoming into such sentiments as these: "Please keep off the grass." "Lunch boxes and papers must not be left in the paths."
or a mourning dove deep in the underbrush. In short our education might not prove liberal enough to keep us from preferring the beauty of nature to a certain sort of artificial beauty.
And even with a brass band in full career we might long for a red bird tilting in the elm top,
Think it over, Mr. Editor, please, and see if you aren't after all inclined to use your influence to keep North Hollow from being civilized off the face of the earth. M.
THE Hesperian of Nebraska University calls its local oratorical association a "ghastly white elephant." This expresses the condition to which our own Association will degenerate if some means is not found to secure more support for it from the students.
The present officers of the Association are doing all they can to awaken interest in the coming contest, but they meet with very little encouragement from anyone. Has not the time arrived when an entire change in organization is advisable? Are not the share-holders in the Association willing to sacrifice the small amount which they have invested in a share, and which they will probably never see again anyhow, for the good of the cause of oratory? If they are, then why not throw the membership open to everyone in the University, reduce the fee for admission to one half or one fourth what it now is, and admit stockholders to the contest free? Nothing could be lost by this, for as it is no student ever thinks of going to a contest unless he has a "comp."
On the other hand much would be gained. There are surely two hundred in the University who would pay twenty-five cents each to place the Association on its feet again, and out of debt. We are aware that this scheme will not meet the approval of the politicians, who would not be able to "fix" things so nicely under the new system; but anyhow they will soon have nothing left to "fix" unless a change is made. We invite suggestions and discussion in regard to this matter.
SPENCER INSISTS that it is a man's duty to live long, and be healthy. There is such a thing, he says, as physical morality. People do not usually look at the matter in this light; but Spencer may be right nevertheless. If he is, the world is a good deal more sinful than the common belief would indicate.