20
Kansas University Weekly.
THE RECEPTION in the East of crimson as our athletic color is not so favorable as it might be. We are considered as trying to imitate Harvard in this regard at least. Why not be original? Col. J. J. McCook, for instance, who gave us McCook Field and who is one of the strongest friends the University has ever had, suggests that we adopt crimson and black or crimson and blue as our athletic colors. Neither of these combinations is used by any other college, or at least by any other college of distinction. Again we remark, why not be original?"
WHAT a change takes place in the appearance and expression of a student during his Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior years. The Freshman, as a rule, is timid, reserved, and during the first part of the year clearly shows that he is not in touch with his environment. The Sophomore is more self confident and has learned to wear an academic air. The Junior seems to own the University, but the Senior at last begins to get a true comprehension of life, realizes that he knows but little and represents but a small part of the world. This transformation during the short period of four years is almost as wonderful as the metamorphoses of the butterfly.
THE first American flag unfurled in Kansas was raised somewhere in the northwestern part of Republic county near the Nebraska line at an old trading post called Pawnee. This trading post was established by the Spanish at a very early day and then abandoned. When Gen. Zebulon Pike was returning from his western trips of exploration, upon which he discovered the peak in Colorado which now bears his name, he found the Spanish flag floating from the deserted fort and replaced it by the stars and stripes. The fort gradually crumbled to ruins and even the location of it has been forgotten. Mention is made of Pawnee fort in the history of the Lewis and Clarke expedition. A very laudable effort is being made to discover the exact site of this fort in
order that the ground upon which it stood may be purchased, distinguished by a suitable monument and presented to the State of Kansas. If anyone knows where information regarding the exact location of this old fort can be obtained, the citizens of Republic county would be greatly pleased to hear from him.
Midland College at Atchison will probably be admitted to the state oratorical association in the place of the State Normal which has withdrawn from the association.
THE University of Kansas has a fair chance of winning first or second place in the State Oratorical Contest. As many of the students as can do so should accompany our orator to Topeka and encourage him in every way possible. Great inspiration can be obtained from timely cheering and the consciousness that your friends are listening to every word you say with interest and admiration.
THERE is something inexplicably strange in divers instances in the effect a collegiate education has upon students. Many boys and girls, at least, while obtaining a collegiate training if not in later years, become fashionable and blasé, and detest the common affairs of the very world in which they must live. Work, they think, is beneath their dignity and a man who performs manual labor, is considered beneath their notice. Perhaps they will not recognize such persons on the street. Labor is not a fault or a crime. Why not greet those who labor, and fellow students especially, with a cheerful smile, a pleasant word and thus help them onward and upward. If it were not for the many collegiate students who recognize and make daily practical demonstration of their relief in the universal brotherhood of mankind a collegiate education from this point of view would be undesirable. Let us all try to be fraternal. Distinctions built upon assumed dignity or self esteem are artificial and reveal only that those who believe in them are not broad minded.