The southern argus., 1891-06-18

Sence OF what is known as ''claSs spir-
it, which, he believes, is the almost
necessary consequence of the very
mixed class relations of most students
in the earlier years and of the diversity
of courses and wide range of electives
IN later times He finds that it is the
fraternity which has been by far the
most important unit within the
university, both in society and
in politics.
Prof. d. Ii. Robinson, of the chair of
Latin and the senior member of the
faculty, contributes a chapter of remi-
niscences of his twenty-five years con-
nectiOn with the university. His first
Renaissance is of the first call made
by Prof. Snow and himself upon Chan
cellor Oliver. He thus describes this call:
I'VE desired from the Official head of
the university definite instructions in
relation to opening the institution the
coming week. Greeting us very kindly
the chancellor invited us to his study.
The air was thick with tobacco smoke.
Regent Starrett was present, smoking
| pipe with stem about six feet long.
Six or eight similar pipes and large
pouch of tobacco were lying on the
table. The men were evidently hail
| fellows well met, and were having the
| jolliest kind of a time. Our coming had
broken off one of Starretts best stories
and he could tell good ones. Politely
declining to join in the smoking, farther
than was absolutely necessary, we
tried to state our business But
hot 1r1fo cd
be finished. 1t was good story and SO
well told that we had to have another
to match it. The fun then grew fast, if
not furious, one story provoking an
other in rapid succession, and the air
| all the time growing thicker and bluer,
until we, poor fellows, half sick, finally
! insisted that we could stay no longer
i and asked what preparations we should
make for the opening of the university
think we expected, in rather vague
way, some general instructions about
the reception of students from high
schools upon examination and from
other institutions upon certificates. Our
genial chancellor, after considering
moment, kindly gave us our instruc-
| tions--the most unique, presume, ever
given by the head of great institution
| to his colleagues Speaking with
| strong Scotch accent which / shall not
| try to indicate, he said: L would adj
wise you, young gentlemen to go to
Mr.. Jaedicke's gun shop and hire
some guns, and to Mr.. O'Connor's livery
stable and hire some saddle horses and
go away back on the hill and hunt
prairie chickens. You may be gone two
or three DAYS. This will be as good
| preparation for your work next week
as you can make Saying this he dis
missed us. We were somewhat sur
prised, to say the least. This advice,
| though somewhat congcnial to our in
clinations, seemed, however, scarcely
to fit the question. We were not yet
sufficiently experienced in university
work to see the relation between hunt
ing prairie chickens and preparing
| questions for entrance examinations
Bowling to our chancellor's wider ex-
| perience we took our departure, none
the WISER
In regard to the opening of the ses-
sion Prof. Robinson continues:
'At last the expected morning came,
September II, 1866. The faculty were
all present early. No one else, how
ever came for some time, except two or
three noisy carpenters, who were at
work on the stairs. Soon a few boys
and girls from town came struggling
in, and after awhile a few more.
Later still came those from greater
distances-from Grant, Wakardsa, Kan
waha, and some, think, from far-off
Palmyra. All townships in Douglas
county. After the devotional exer-
cises, which were led that morning by
Chancellor Oliver, the students were
sent around to the several professors
for examination. Then began our
search for those college classes. SEN
Tors and juniors were given
up at the first glance. If
any were present they were surely
in deep disguise; for the student look,
which comes only from years of work
over books, was not there. We might
possibly have few sophomores and
freshmen, but appearances were
against even this. began my examina-
ton. None had studied Greek. Six,
however, wished to begin. So that sub
iect was soon disposed Of In Latin |
Jared somewhat better. Six or eight
had slight knowledge of the Latin
grammar and reader, and were indif-
ferently prepared to begin the
study of Cesar. Fifteen or twenty
wished to begin Latin. The ex-
aminations in other branches showed
similar lack of knowledge. We
had examined in all, forty students.
As the net result, instead of the ex-
pected college classes, we had few
candidates for the lower forms of a
rather indifferent high school. What a
fall from our high expectations! Still
some of the material seemed fairly
good and we hoped for better results in
the future We now saw the wisdom,
the true inwardness, as It were, of our
chancellors advice about hunting. 1t
was now clear that he knew the kind
Of university we were about to open far
better than we, and that hunting