Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-10-03
OUR COLLEGE BOYS.
They Are Class for the Country to be
Proud Of.

President Charles F. Thwing OF
Western Reserve University con
tributes to the current Harper
Weekly an analysis Of the article OF
Professor Barrett Winchell i'll the
North American Review, in which
Prof. Winchell held that college
students are Tia bbier today than they
were 80 years ago President ThWin,s
VINO is a native of Maine does not be-
lieVe it. and the refutatiOn may be said
to be complete. He notes the prejudice
that sudden wealth has affected the
first generation of its posseSsors and
that colleges no longer hold up the
virile standard of students in scholastic
work. DR.. Thwing says:
a certain hucolic brusquencss of
manner. certain rural simplicity ar.
indeed passing away. But the passing
OF brusauenesS and of simplicity does
not Intimate the coming of weakness;
mad insipidity. Robustness underlieS
| urban and urbane manners quite as
| constantly as it underlies bucolic
| bruSqueness. The expression Of hearty
| vigOr, intellectual and ethical, has be-
| come more human, More regular more
sane and more gentle. Iut the hearty
vigor itself is just as hearty ana just
| as vigorous. One should not mistake
| Quietness for weakness.
| Furthermore, the whole athletic
movement makes against fiabbiness.
Let it be at once acknowledged that
| this movement has bad. very bad.
| clements. But let it also be said rs
promptly that it has elements, as"
many. which are Very. very good. For
it does tend to create a manhood NOR"
| vigorous and conscientious. 1t
quicl1ens rhe will Of those who partici-
| pate in it to control appetite and pas
sion. 1t teaches endurance ana persist
ence. 1t magnifies hardihood and dar
| ing 1t aids in the control of temper
| and in the development of n worthy
temperament. But the athletic move
n,cnt. outside of those who participate
| in it's various forms. works against
| nabbiness through its duties, which it
| gives rlany college men in the proper
management of the movement itself.
| The managers Of those affairs are
| obliged to exercise 4 nigh degree of ex-
| ecitive skill. It is also to be said that
' t!'o -..ndency to give a college man
freedom tends to develop conditions for
|
| liberal and libera;izing movement
| develops self-resp0nsibility self
reliance and self-control. In this en-
| larged freedom of the college certain
men will he found unworthy of its OPP
portunitios. will misuse these opportu-
mites and will abuse themselves. But,
on tie whole such freedom represents
| the divine method. not only for control.
| :..l,- 4
| for the advancement of man.
| 1t is therefore, to nv thought clear
that the conditions of college life Of the
present and Of the last decades tend to
create a condition o. virlity the OPP
poste of nabbiness.
| But the question. vet more important
possibly. energies. What can and should
| the college do to keep its men ahSo-
lutely remote from ilabbincss that no cvi-
deuce can appear intimating that they are
| soft and faced?
| The first answer to he given is that the
/ colleges should cause their students 10
! work harder tpcn how little work the
student should go through his college We
should hesitate to say: but do know that
at some colleges the work is 50 slight as
not to merit the name of work, There
| are indeed be it at once confessed. rea-
SONS for establishing il the American col
| lcgc a merely Pass degree. l.. it IS
gued. Il man of Il or 20 does not wish to
study and if his parents do not car" for
him to study. why should the coll,g re
obligc him to study? Are there not other
advantages. and, some would say. richer,
| than those which the curriculum repre-
| sentS? What right has a college a& Il
public institution to keep a worthy fellow
| from forming the friendship. from cutter
Ing into historic conditions and from com
ing into certain general knowledses,
| which are not unworthy results of a col
1pCp b,..I
must be acknowledged grave merits. Men
who ind their chief contentment in such
processes and products are In danger Of
degenerating from gentlemen of leisure
into fellows of laziness. They come to
know their pipes better than their IIor
| ace. They grow to be reluctant to do or
to hear hard things. They lind them
selves becoming soft and pulpy. The
| men. also, who wark hard are not fire"
from serious dangers. They may be cdu-
Gated. but not cultured: trained but not
appreciatiNe and sympathetic with the
best. But such hard workers are not in
peril of iiahbiness at least. Their intel
| leCtnal muscles are hard. perhaps too
| hard. They have strength and they are
efficient.
College men also may aid themselves in
resisting a t"mpta zion to tlabbiness by the
reading of most vigorous biography. Life
| makes ife-weak life. weak life; strong
life strong. One need not multiply in
stances or name books dozen spring to
the memory. The autobiography. fo1 in
| stance u JcH1i .StIart Mill. VI tit YioS-
raphy of Charles Darwin. or OF HUXLEY,
| cannot but stir any young fellows Intel
lect to intellectual honesty. to intellectual
| patience and to intellectual agSrt ssive-
, ness. General reading is ceasinS in col
lege. THE authors" have lost their place.
Special courses demand special reading.
| Certain intellectual and ethical advant-
ages would follow from the return to the
earlier custom. For the college is set not
only to make scholars in English. but also
| Englishmen l am also sure that the
| presence of personalities who embody
| those qualities of chaa cter the very OPP
posite of fiabbiness would quicken the fell
, lows into vigor and vrilitv Character
makes character and personality becomes
like personality. What record Of men
| who have helped boys to become men is
set forth i'm the history of American col
| leges.
In securing the noblest results in char
acter the college man should. moreover.
be impressed with the seriousness of all
life and of American life in particular.
TO such intimations of seriousness college
men are cspe cially susceptible. The high
er the call which life makes the more
easily do college men hear and the more
eagerly do they heed 1t. Think OF the