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Kansas University Weekly.
The habit of cursorily glancing over the daily newspapers in the library is probably of as much importance as a regular course in the University. As we live in the world and in fact are a part of the world, it is well to keep in touch with it. Isolation tends toward stagnation. The influence of current events is a potent factor in the development of character.
SOME INTERESTING data concerning a medical school in the University have been collected, and will be published when time and space permit. Suffice it for this time to say that with but little additional expense a medical school, second to none west of the Mississippi, could be established here by the opening of the next school year. In fact a medical school is as much if not more necessary for a true University than a law school,a pharmacy school or a school of music.
THE OPINION which we have lately heard expressed, that debate can take the place of oratory in Kansas University is certainly very erroneous. The Kansas-Nebraska debate should in no wise lessen the interest in oratorical contests. Debating and oratory are not identical in their aims, nor do they require the same sort of talent. The successful debater is frequently not the best orator and vice versa. Both oratory and debate should receive more attention here than they receive at present and neither should be neglected for the other.
THE Lotus for February by far excels any other number yet published. The illustrations by Borie of the Chap-Book and Charpiot of the Chicago Echo are very fair. A pretty narrative, "The Legend of Guadalupe" by Mrs. J. K. Hudson of Topeka deserves especial mention. The art plate in eleven colors accompanying this number reveals great beauty and delicacy of expression. The poetry, although of a light character, is very entertaining. The literary matter of the Lotus is in old Jensen type, reduced, and many of the advertisements are in Caxton type. This imparts to the magazine a very attractive appearance.
IN Popular Astronomy for February the leading article is, "A New Theory of the Surface Markings of the Moon" by Prof. E. Miller of the University of Kansas. There have been three theories current regarding the markings of the moon but Prof. Miller introduces a fourth which seems more reasonable than the other three. The article is very interesting.
THE INDISCRIMINATE use of the word professor is much to be deplored. In daily life we hear of Prof. Smooth, the patent medicine man or of Prof. Bolero the tonsorial artist. Even students are very lax in the use of this title of distinction.
Associate professors in our own University and even assistants and instructors receive and sanction this title as a mode of personal address--and in fact seem to enjoy it.
It would be worthy of the democratic spirit existing in the United States and especially in the University of Kansas for all our University instructors to discountenance the use of this term and recognize only the plain but honorable title of Mr. Even the president of the United States is satisfied to be called Mr. President.
WHAT STUDENT has not made a mental classification of the instructors in the academy, college or university which he attends. There are plodding professors, whose tenure of position is considered by bright students to be either an anomaly or a joke; student professors, who are held in the highest esteem by all students; and pyrotechnic professors, who are little known or little respected by the students, but who like to pose before the public. Last of all, there are the professors who are well and favorably known to both the students and the public—who are genuine professors and men of the world combined. If there were more instructors of the latter class in the colleges and universities of the United States, we should not so often hear the remark, "Even a college professor could understand that."