Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-10-09


Wequote the following paragraphs from
an excellent editorial i'll the ChriStiOH at
Work, on "The Regenerated College"
The tendencies here noted toward better
and higher things, on the part of the Amer
lean college student, must be welcomed
with gratitude by all who are interested
in the growth and success of our educa-
tional institutions:
The opening of each new year is Il fit
time for a higher departure in scholarship
and department And it is Il source of
profound gratitude tor parents as well as
of joyful satisfaction for educators that the
college world is all the while moving
toward nobler and better things. Presi-
dent Robinson, speaking for Brown uni
versity the other day, said: "lhere are
signs of growing appreciation among stu
dents of the value of Il college education,
and also evidences of a strengthening re-
gard for all the prophecies and obliga-
tons of life, The moral tone from year to
year becomes Increasingly satisfactory. "
These statements are, we believe, happily
true not only of Brown but of AL the more
prominent institutions of our land Ger
tainly the more brutal kinds of haZing,
ana the stale, old, violent and disorderly
tricks that used to be repeated by one class
after another, so as to become IA necessary
and are, let us hope, never to be resur-
rected
Those admirable changes are due to
several causes, which may yet be intensi-
fled to the production of still larger and
more eStimable results. First among
these causes may be mentioned health
Ter and more active public sentiment
created by the secular and religious press
on the subject of collegiate manners and
responsibilities. Some years ago the
newspapers began to claim with no un-
certain voice that the undergraduate
was under as many obligations to act de
Gently and honestly rs any other person
in the community. OF course the loud
expression of such an opinion took the
undergraduate at first by surprise fOl
no matter how discreet and becoming
had been his conduct at home and
elsewhere, he soon became so man
ipulated and deluded by class tradi
tons as to imagine that to him was
accorded an exceptional license to per
petrate rowdyism on his professors, anc
/ abuse lower class men at his own sweet
will. Nor was this all. Our young liter
airy barbarian supposed he possessed equa
liberty to raid the town, tearing dowT
signs ringing church bells filling the ali
with midnight yells, etc People outside
however, ceased to think these things
heroic; they even yentured to demant
that the law-breaker, whether student OF
clerk or mechanic, should be held answer
able to the law and the press urged col
lege faculties to turn over every wild
young violator of civil ordinances to tn,
civil authorities to he properly punished
To be sure the faculties were reluctant t
do this, but the very strong and public de
mand that it be done had IA wonderful
effect in holding the mirror of his actua
conduct up to the wrong doer, so that h,
saw himself as Others saw him, and CAV
up feeling quite so eXultant as formerl.
over his lack of manliness and self-re
spect
Again, athletic sports have no doubt act
ed often as a safety valve for letting OF
the superfluous eXuberance of spirits AM
energy with which young men, afte
sitting still for several hours are sud
denly afflicted. A pull on the river
a run in the ball game, a series o
CREATIONS III the gymnasium. are al
wholesome methods of so disposing o
pent-up activities as to prevent eithe
from bursting forth into midnight ma
raudings and brawls, These athlethies
therefore, if kept IN due subordination t
!, studious purposes and habits, are an eS
cellent aid TO college discipline, beside