of a new element on our list than to the
exit of the old. We venture to remark
that the scope of treatment will bear
considerable enlargement before some
of our homiletic dispensers will exper
ience the dangers of novelty.
THE general tone of the rhetorical
exercises is not what it ought to
be. The order has been poor, the
audience inatt, entiveand the tendency
to hesitate on the rostrum is on the in
crease. No part of the college curricu
lum should receive closer attention than
these public performances, since no
part is so effective in securing to the
student what he most needs—ease and
confidence in facing those with whom it
will be his lot to deal.
Above all, one should know the
selection thoroughly before he attempts
to speak it publicly. There is no excuse
whatever for a lack at this point. Can
the student not realize that the strain
of interrupting silence is even greater
upon his audience than upon himself?
Accordingly this fault partakes some
what of the nature of an imposition.
Next, proper accent, gait and
spirit are the pillars of appropriate dec
lamation. All are aware how tedious
is the show of him who, in speaking,
hiving neither the accent of oratory,
nor the gait of oratory, recitation or
common parlance, so harangues and
stammers that one might think one of
Demosthenes’ pupils was speaking,
THE FREE LANCE.
but not speaking well. All great
speakers have passed through this
stage ; but then the walls of caves and
solitary haunts have been the only re
corders of their stuttering sounds.
THE inspecting tour made by the
State Senate Committee, last month,
to all institutions which have been ask
ing pecuniary aid from the State, will,
no doubt, result in a wise disbursement
of the State funds for such purposes.
A visit from such a committee has been
the one, of many things, needed by this
institution for years past. No institution
in the United State has suffered more
from gross misrepresentation due to the
prevailing ignorance of its aim, and its
facilities for attaining that aim, than has
the Pennsylvania State College. The
almost unanimous and agreeable sur
prise expressed by the members of this
committee at the appearance of the stu
dents, the college and its surroundings,
is sufficient evidence of the ignorance
which prevails throughout the State
concerning this institution. As one of
the senators wittily remarked, it is the
opinion of many that a P. S. C. student
is a raw-boned farmer boy, who could
be seen with a straw in his mouth
watching cows or breaking stones. But
to his admitted surprise, he found our
mouths strawless, and that weAvere not
engaged in watching cows and breaking
stones, but rather in the pursuit of
“such branches of learning as are relat-