The Tupelo journal., 1908-02-21

III dOIlCoLlC litc, IL Is III LHt HE OF Lille
State.
That the money which is thus carried
out of Mississippi is sufficient each year
to accomplish great things is another
reason for trying to keep it at home.
If all of my readers were women like
myself-women who had tried at some
time in life to mend some treasured gar.
ment, and had found out the difficulties
incident thereto-I could make myself
clearer. When a piece of goods is suffi-
GENTLY worn to need repair, a new piece
Is added to it. After a bit another repair
is necessary, and thus it goes, until after
a while the goods itself is gone and moth
ing remains except a lot of patches, put
on at different times, and perhaps by
different hands, and the whole thing is
Tit only for the rag bag. 1t is so at the
university. Thu old buildings have been
repaired so often and by so many differ
ent parties that there has been no sym
metry about it and practically no good
results from it. The whole thing is fit
only for the architectural rag bag. In
the law building, for instance, there are
great cracks in the walls, and a part of
one of these walls fell out some time ago.
Of course, a blind man could tell that
this building is unsafe as we'll as I'M
attractive. Indeed, the architect, Mr..
Hunt, has already condemned the place.
In the library there are so many things
to be complained of by a casual observer
that do not know where to begin. In
asmuch as this is a place for the keeping
OF DOCKS, let me remind you that the
ram comes through the roof in its own
sweet way, with nothing to modest or to
make 1T afraid, and only the books to in
tprepDt ItG nassau II wa, v-,r Io.-.u
to be IN the home of one of the profess
sors-Dr. Muckenfuss-and so old was
everything, so worn the building, so bad
the walls, so uneven the steps and 50 out
OF plumb the whole miserable structure.
that even the sweet spirit and beautiful
home-maklng qualities of his wife, Mar
garet Galloway, We're taxed to their ut
most to make the place anything of a
home.
As for the furnishings of the old uni
verslty buildings, a respectable kitchen
would shut its door in their faces.
A new order of things obtains now.
however, and things will be better. The
truth OF the whole matter is that a new
order of things will obtain throughout
the institution henceforth, and things
will be better all around.
L dislike to seem to see only the dark
side, so will turn to brighter things lust
here, and this is so bright, and made so
happy and hopeful for the university's
future, that | am impelled to rejoice thus
publicly over it.
OF course, all of us know that our uni
verslty-llke most other institutions of
its nature, where hundreds of young men
are together assembled-has been very
severely criticised for the evils common
to mems colleges, and we know, also,
that these criticisms have been at GER.
tain times all too well founded. There
has not always prevailed there the high
standard which Mississippi has a right to
expect in her university.
Things had reached a critical time
when the new chancellor took over the
affairs, in July, last, and determined,
with the help of his superb faculty and
the students, themselves, to wipe out the
stain which has rested on her fair name
for so many years. This reputation for
immortality, dissipation, extravaganza
and i%dleness, while not by any means al
ways just, was enough so to make it
very hard to contradict. And it had
gained sufficient ground in the State to
have become a great injury to the uni
versity.
Noting the material with which he had
to work, and seeing, with his wonder.
tul insight into character, that he was
dealing with gentlemen, he decided to
propose to them the honor system. To
this suggestion the students at once
agreed, and, forming a council of honor,
made up of representatives from every
class, they took over the control of the
affairs of the university wherever thew
pertain to the student-body, and they
have taken hold with a grip which has
in it the strength of youth and a deter
mination which might well do honor to
men OF maturer years.
In many ways already nave the stu
dents shown the worth of the new plan,
and in a remarkable manner have they
gone to work to wipe out the stain that
former wild" students have left on the
university's fair name.
Only the students themselves can do
this, and that they are doing it, and do
ing it etfectually, speaks admirably for
the fine young manhood of Mississippi
which Is gathered here beneath the grand
old oaks which shade the campus.
With this new rule in force there now,
and with an appropriation for the proper
equipment of the present and the cree
ton of new buildings, the young men of
this State need only one thing more to
make them 90 to the State University,
as now the girls go to their great school,
the l. /. & c., at Columbus. This is an
appropriation for the building of dormi-
tory accommodations, where the bows
may live in comfort for much less than
it is necessary for them to pay now at
the boarding houses in Oxford. This is
not meant as a reflection on the cost of
board in these boarding houses. Run, as
they are, on a small scale, and every
thing bought at retail, it is, of course,
impossible to get q lower rate. And the
Oxford boarding houses cannot
date anything like the number of stu
dents that ought to be at the university.
A dormitory, with dining hall and all the
ap%purtenances thereto, under the control
of the chancellor, would solve the oues.
ton of attendance for a great many Mis-
sissippi boys who are ambitious to go to
their States greatest educational institu-
ton, but nave not sufficient means to
do it.
Now, in conclusion, let me beg the
people to whom this great institution
belongs to right about face and start out
afresh to make it again what it once
was. In the days when only classical
training was given at any of the great
universities, our own, being on an equal.
ity with the best, sent forth sons, and
many of them who ranked with the best.
The long list of great men who had their
raining there, and went thence to fill,