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Kansas University Weekly.
WE NOTE that in many of the neighboring Universities and Colleges active preparations are already being made for the publication of the '97 Annuals. It is about time that another Annual somewhat more pretentious and dignified than Almanacs and Kwir Books be gotten out here. Annuals are successful financially in other places not so large as this; why not here? They are considered excellent advertisements by other Universities, and are the crowning work of the upper classes; why should not the same be true here?
In Nebraska University, and indeed generally, the Annual is issued by the Junior class. It is universally recognized that even without this burden the Senior's load of troubles is almost "too heavy for mortal to bear." We believe that it would be a good thing for all concerned if the Juniors of Kansas University would take charge of the Annual and issue it every year.
THERE is scarcely a book in the Library that is used to any extent by the students which has not been defaced by pencil marks. The persons who do this marking are probably no worse than thoughtless, and may even believe that they are doing both the author and future readers a kindness; the one by calling attention to his best thoughts, and the others by placing sign boards at such intervals as will show them the most pleasant route through what would otherwise be for them a wilderness.
Such "markers" should remember, however, that the thoughts which they consider the best are probably not the best; that the author could very easily have marked his book if he had wished it marked; and that there are some other people in the world who like to do a little mental exploring, and who do not like to be constantly reminded that they are on old ground by the presence of innumerable mental footprints. Finally there is to be taken into account the injury done the book itself, which no amount of erasing can repair. Mark your own books if you want to, but respect the rights of others in the Library.
WE HAVE, so far, refrained from saying anything about election; but now, almost on the eve of the great "bloodless battle," we wish to put in just a word. Many students are going home to vote and work for the candidates which they prefer. The men who are elected to the legislature and state offices this fall will control the most vital affairs of the University during the next two years. It will be in their power to make this University a far greater institution than it is now, to grant it the new buildings for which there is such crying need, and to provide for the upbuilding of departments now sadly neglected. The duty of the student is plain: to work for the friends of the University; the men who, appreciating the fact that good citizenship is founded on intelligence and man-hood, are warm in their support of the public school system, the top no less than the bottom.
The several hundred student voters exert a great influence and may be a power for good.
FREDERICK HARRISON's short work on the "Choice of Books" is an eloquent thesis on the inestimable worth of the classics, and incidentally a clever expose of the comparative worthlesness of recent literature. The student should read this book before deciding upon a course of collateral reading. In it the following thoughts are suggested.
Instead of squandering time in devouring the ephemeral verse of periodic publications, one could much more profitably expend mental energy in the attempt to assimilate a world poem. There are, however, those who are none the wiser nor better for having read Homer, Dante, Goethe, Milton. Little good can be gotten from the first reading of the Illiad; so grand a poem merits and repays the study which it requires. Classical literature is bewildering to the novice: grand thoughts therein stand out so thickly and yet so indistinctly that at first one can not " discern the wood for the trees."
The efforts of great men are sometimes puny. Therefore read only an author's best.
And so on—the book is replete with "food for thought."