that when such an opportunity is afforded again, it
will be made use of by all the students. •
* * *
IT has probably been noticed by our readers,
that the staff has completely cut personal
jokes out of the local department, and have
devoted that portion of the paper exclusively to
news. Whether this will meet the approval of
every one, we do not know, but we feel confi
dent that it will raise of the LANCE above
the position of a mere medium, as it were,
of one person's publishing a senseless, and oft
times offensive joke on another.
It is extremely edifying sometimes to pick up a
college paper, turn to the News Department, and
then read a column or so of such remarkable
statements as "The Spring has come ; ask D---
why he went up the fire escape; where did you
get those Plymouth Rocks?" etc. We sincerely
hope that the absence of such a style of wit and
news, though we can say that in the past we have
fortunately been but little given to it, will not 'be
missed from the columns of the LANCE. it is the
intention of the staff to give more space to the
literary department and to discussion of college
topics than has been done in previous years, and
we hope that we will be seconded in our endeav
ors, by our friends. We will be glad to recieve
at any time contributions to any of the depart
ments of the paper, the literary and personal de
partments in particular.
OWING to the condition in which we soon ex
pect our athletic grounds to be, we have
not put any base ball team in the field to
compete with other colleges this year. This
should by no means discourage those who did so
well in our indoor sports last February. There
will be a field day this term and we are glad to see
that at least some of our athletes are practicing
for it. The jumping poles have been put up and
several men are trying to beat their records of
last term. Arrangements' for inter-class games of
THE FREE LANCE.
base ball and tennis have been arranged and al
though our outlook for base ball this season is
not as promising as it has been in former years
we should by no means let our interest in manly
sports die out.
There is no reason why we should not send at
least one man to represent us at the field day of
the Western University, to be held on the 3oth of
May. We do not incur any expenses in sending
off a base ball team this year, and surely it would
be worth the money expended for expenses, to be
represented among the Western colleges.
WHEN a person picks up one of the cata.
logues of our college, one of the first
things he will look at is the calender.
What a multitude of peculiar impressions are apt
to be made upon him when he finds that college
closes on July 2nd ? His first thought would
probably be that it was a Normal School catalogue
at which he was looking, and such perhaps would
continue to be his idea were it not removed by
the further contents of the pamphlet. When we
ourselves think of being kept here until July znd,
we cannot but feel that it is too long a time for us
to be held at hard work, especially during the
heat of the summer. The students here already
have more hours work per day, if we include drill
and practicums, than almost any other college in
the country. We also begin the college year a
week earlier and yet close two weeks later. All
the other prominent colleges include their colle
giate year between September i6th and June 12th.
It has been the experience of nearly all college
men that it is far more difficult to apply one's
mind to study on a warm summer day than on a
less pleasant day in an earlier season of the year.
We hope that in coming years the calender will
be so arranged by the college, that the students
will be off on their vacations in the heat of the
summer, instead of being kept at work here two
weeks later than almost every other institution in
the country.
*
* *