THE KANSAN.
OFFICIAL PAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS.
VOL.I. No.47.
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, MARCH 25, 1905.
5 Cents per copy.
"RUSSIA IS ASLEEP."
Dr. A. E. Steiner Tells of Russia.
When Chancellor Strong introduced Dr. Steiner of Grinnell College, Friday night, he said there is no man in America more competent to tell of Russia and its problems.
Dr. Steiner said in part: "The Russian of today is impassive, unemotional and seemingly oblivious to his surroundings or his future. They have an entirely different nature from the Anglo Saxon. I have seen 2,000 of them drunk on a single boulevard at one time and not a single fight occurred.
The peasant of Russia is beaten and robbed by the autocracy, yet he does not resent it very violently or even give much thought to it. The average amount of land owned by the ordinary peasant is two and a half acres. The average yearly earning of a laboring man in that country is $126.00, forty-six dollars of which must go to the government for taxes.
Tea is worth sixty-eight cents a pound, 50 cents of which goes to the government in revenue The peasants are densely ignorant; in thousands of villages through which I passed there was not a printed page. Hundreds of the lower classes never saw the alphabet.
The Russian peasant has many strange customs; when a child is born into the home, if it is a girl the husband hides himself for two weeks, that he may not be jeered at by his fellows, but if it is a boy, he goes through the streets proclaiming that fact. Courtting is done in a matter of fact way. In northern Russia they have marriage fairs or markets where all the eligible women are placed on exhibition and the future husband comes along and takes his pick. Every marriage has at least forty guests present who stay a week with the bride and groom. The Russian cannot work very hard, for there are only 124 labor days in the year, the remainder are feast days and holidays. The Russian is very devout in a way, yet his leaders in religion are most often corrupt and ignorant. Over 20 per cent of the clergy cannot read or write. The principal duty of the priest is to drive out the devils from the homes once a year. For this he charges all the way from 50 copecks to 2 roubles.
Every student in Russia is a revolutionist. The men who have gone to Siberia within the last decades have been the educated men. They were spirited away at night. Every book and every newspaper of Russia goes through the censor's hand before it is given to the public. Whatever does not suit him is stamped out. Sometimes the newspapers appear with only
Continued on page 4.
GENERAL FUNSTON'S VISIT.
The Brilliant Career of the Colonel of the "Fighting Twentieth"—Anecdotes of University Life.
Brigadier General Frederick Funston and Col. Wilder S. Metcalf were the guests of honor at the University Thursday Morning. General Funston, who won fame and promotion as colonel of the "fighting 20th" Kansas Volunteers, has not visited the University since his student days ended about sixteen years ago.
The chapel was packed with students who greeted the general with the old "Rock Chalk, Jay Hawk, K.U." General Funston is a man of action rather than of words and his response to the greeting of the students of the University was in his characteristic brief, pithy manner.
"I had conflicting emotions, this morning, "said he," as for the first time in years, I visited the campus and traversed the
When war was declared with Spain in 1898. Funston was a private in the insurgent army of Cuba. He was soon called to the staff of the United States commander, as an advisor, for which position his knowledge of the country and conditions especially fitted him. Since that time his promotion has been remarkable. He was made colonel of the 20th Kansas volunteers, and it was while serving in that capacity that he captured Aguinaldo, the wily Philippino leader. This feat, coupled with the ability and gallant service of the plucky little Kansas colonel that won his promotion to the Major generalship.
General Funston has been stationed at Chicago with the United States regulars for the past year. He has recently been
care would be "Timmy."
It also isn't probably known to many people that when Funston was in Lawrence he incurred the mortal enmity of the negro bully of the town and on that account applied to the city council for permission to carry firearms. One day Dr. Snow after class asked Funston if it was true that he was a walking arsenal. Funston promptly reached under his coat tails and hauled forth two murderous looking forty-tours to show the Doctor he spoke rightly.
"LITERATURE AND THE COMMUNITY."
Professor Clark in his lecture on "Literature and the Community" said, "No element in the community is more vital than literature. The important thing in life is what we do with our leisure and it is with our literature that our leisure is chiefly concerned. What we shall read is not a pedagogical question. It is a question of vital sociological importance.
General Funston, Chancellor Strong and General Wilder S. Metcalf on steps of Museum.
halls of this old building, which when I was here before, was the only one on this part of the hill. I am gratified however to see some half dozen faculty members who were here when I entered the University in 1886. And they seem almost unchanged, save for the few gray hairs time has added since then. I have only to say to you that I am very grateful for the reception you have given me."
General Funston was entertained Thursday afternoon by the Phi Delta Theta, of which he was a member while in the University, and was the guest of honor at a banquet given by Colonel Metcalf Thursday evening.
Few men in the country have advanced more rapidly in their professions than has General Funston in the past few years.
transferred to the department of the Coast, with headquarters at San Francisco, and will assume command at once.
Protesssor W. H. Higgins was a fraternity brother of Funston when he was in the University and tells some good anecdotes of the student days of "Timmy" as Funston was called by his fellows.
He says there was no fellow in the University more absolutely awkward on the dancing floor than Funston. Try as hard as he might he could not master the terpsichorean art, but he had a queer idea that the best way for him to learn the "light fantastic" was to have a large girl for a teacher. So if anyone went to a dance and wanted to see Funston they would at once find the largest woman in the room and under her protecting
"The universal tendency today is toward the so-called practical. The question that is asked is 'What are we going to get out of it?' It is not 'Is it best, is it right, is it worth while?' 'No, the question asked all over the world today is 'What will you get out of it?' There is a universal tendency toward the so-called practical. The true scientist gives his life to giving men more light, to giving them more leisure. But do we take more leisure? We have less leisure today than we had before steam and the telephone were known. So far they have only made the world move quickly. They have simply made life hard to life. The chief fault of our University training is this practical' idea. The whole course is spent in preparing for life.