EXCHANGES In glancing over the last few issues of the Hesperian, it will be noticed that not a little amount of space and ability has been devoted to the department of College Fraternities, How much justice or injustice there may be in what is said we will leave those who are more deeply interested judge. But when a college paper, which is supposed to represent the body of students, and which is supported by the students is made subservient to the prejudice of one faction against another, then there is something radically wrong in the idea of what a college journal should be. In the first place there are two sides to every question. But judging by the Hesperian this theory is fallacious. In the second place, supposing there happens to be ample reason for disagreement, the college paper is not the ground upon which to settle every petty mis• understanding between class, faction or set. Better settle your disagreement first, and then give us the deep generous thoughts of the moments of " Peace and good will to all's rather than the bitter sarcasm of the moment of passion. The Nassau Lit. lies upon our table and as we glance over it unconsciously we ask the question, " Why are there so few that are like this one ?" Every article is entirely in har mony with student life, and as you turn one page after the other you feel more than ever that you are in the realm of college thought and that you are for the time being an in habitant quite foreign to the cold practical every-day world which the student so soon expects to enter. • In the Pennsylvanian we take from the lecture of Prof. Boyesen, upon "The Modern Novel " the following passages: "The influ ence of George Eliot " being the special sub ject under discussion. "The novel is one of THE FREE LANCE. the greatest influences on modern civilization. It is the novelist's duty to depict life as if is, to show the changing conditions and circum stances of life, the results of hereditary be queathments and the 'consequences of folly and wickedness. Art is but the perfect coun terfeit of nature." In this thought we have the novel as it should be, and to know where to turn to find it as it should be we again quote, " George Eliot scorns the commonplace of the usual novel. With her it is the cons cience that meets the conscience ; the worse soul coming in contact with a finer soul. The spiritual results are always the main things, for the sake of which all else exists." The Dickinsonian Liberal, which as usual is full of the live thoughts of the day, presents a point in argument upon " Railroads " and what their relation to the government should be, which is well worth considering. It says, " Probably a still more dangerous feature of this innovation," referring to the gOvernment taking charge of railroads, " would be the im mense extent of the patronage of the party that happened to be in power, and controlled for the time the employment of the hundreds of thousands of workers in the various divi sions of the railroad service." From an article in the University Mirror, upon "Literary Societies" we quote the fol lowing: "Why 'not occasionally devote a whole session to practice on Rules of Order, with motions crossing motions, motions filed on motions, motions fighting for the right of way through other motions, parties antagon izing each other for parliamentary advantage, decisions appealed from, explanations de manded, the very subsoil ploughed over, and the formation of all things laid bare ?" We echo "why not ?" In the literary society is the only place in college we have an oppor tunity of learning parliamentary usage and practices and as useful as this knowledge is, it is the experience of our own college that
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers