and worthy hearty support. The uniform
promotion of college journalism can only be
brought about by the combined efforts of all.
Different methods and ideas can be looked at
in different lights and thoughtfully studied
for the benefit of all. The inexperienced can
profit by the experience of those who have
long been engaged in such work.
AMONG the other formidable problems that
meets the student of today is the one of
how much time shall be given to outside read
ing., In what proportion shall a student di
vide his time between his books and the daily
news of the external world ; just how far shall
he allow his interest in the affairs of every
day life to encroach upon his very valuable
time ? Some prominent educators advocate
entire abstinence from miscelldneous reading.
They maintain that the true discipline for a
man's mind consists in a strict application
along one line of study which
. alone should
be examined, pondered over and learned, ex
hausted in every detail and applied in every
example, to the utter exclusion of all extrane
ous matter. The entire devotion of all thought
and habit to the particular subject chosen they
recommend and insist on as the ideal life for
a student.
In the present progressive stage of the
world such an idea is untenable. When the
rational scholar attempts to take this as his
principle and guide he finds himself balked
mid thwarted at every turn. All his duties to
mankind, to country and to self rise up and
oppose his progress. Narrow mindedness at
one period in history made men geniuses ; it
does yet to a certain extent, but it will no
longer secure their prosperity. The time of
narrow gauge, no grade, straight, track, men
tal railways, so to speak, is past ; and the
broadly learned, thoroughly cultured, standard
gauge mind of to-day sweeps up hill and down
dale, across chasms of bottomless theory, and
THE FRE
LANCE.
around towering mountains of opposition and
restraint to the grand central station of suc
cess. It is well enough to pursue a certain
course of study and work ntaking that the
chief aim and object of life, but at the same
time it is absolutely necessary to keep up with
the current events of the clay through the
medium of our books and newspapers.
The American newspaper is an institution
peculiar to itself. Nowhere else can its par
allel be found. It presents its subject matter
in a thoroughly characteristic manner. In
the same column will we find an account of a
murder, a church convention, a political fraud,
a divorce suit, and a scientific investigation.
Many articles are highly colored to pander to
the public taste. Much of the matter is wish
washy in character. Some of the editorials are
partial and personally reflective. Yet amongst
it all there is much, very much, that is, need
ful, in many cases of vital, intellectual im
portance. The American newspaper and
magazine is a training school in itself, and
must be respected as such and used in its
proper place, or its absence keenly felt. How
many learned scholars discourse ably on .ihe
respective deeds of Aristotle and Thucidides
and yet are ignorant of the actions of their
Own representatives in Congress, or lugubri
ously meditate upori the murders of Borgia
and the assassination of Caesar while unmind
ful of the crimes expatiated in their own coun
try and day. Such men but make a laughing
stock of themselves in the display of their
deep concern for the events of the past arid
their complete insensibility to the happenipgs
of the present. The fallaCious doctrine that
a man can shut himself up in his hermit's
cell of studious habits and remain utterly ob
livious of outside action and still be a repre
sentative citizen and a typical man, has been
entirely dispelled by modern ideas. A college
student should unquestionably devote a proper
proportion of his time to the reading of news
papers and magazines.