shortens the time hitherto allotted to our com
mencement exercises one day, and buts out one
day that formerly was useless.
As to the physical director, the Board has hand
somely answered the petition made to theni last
spring by the students and has directed the Execu
tive committee to procure, as soon as possible, a
suitable person to fill that position. We anticipate
with pleasure a great and needed stimulus to our
athletics by having a person in charge of them,
and in behalf of the students, we most heartily
thank the gentlemen of the Board for their action
in these matters which so intimately concern us.
*
:II
IN athletics, as in everything else, it takes prac•
, tice to, become perfect. A man cannot be
come a ball player, a sprinter or a jumper
without as heartily applying himself to the work as
•he would to any special text book study. Applica
tion is needed on the field and track, as well as in
the class room. The men in college to-day are
too apt, to think that, because another man can
beat them in some particular athletic contest, it is
useless for them to try to accomplish anything in
that line themselves. This is a vast mistake. To
such men we would say : show your pluck, get to
.work and practice hard, and then you may expect
to accomplish something in athletics ; but do not
sit down and bemoan that you have no,talents in
that line and that you cannot, with a month's prac
tice, compete with men who have become efficient
through years of work. We are developing no new
material in college at present, outside of base-ball
and ,foot-ball, and to this tendancy on the part of
the lower classmen may be attributed the fault. If
the men of the Sophomore, the Freshmen and the
Prep. classes would get to work and practice regu
larly in the branches of track athletics for which
they seem most fitted then, in the course of n
few years we would • have plenty of well trained
athletes to represent us in inter-collegiate contests.
Wake up, men, and show your vim and interest.
THE FREE LANCE.
THE lecture on "Burma," which the Rev. Wm.
Calder, of 'B3, delivered for the benefit of
the Athletic Association was a most inter
esting one, and was thoroughly enjoyed by all who
heard it. It was especially interesting, though,
from the fact that it came from one so well known
to us and from one who, not many years since, was
a student of our college. We are always glad to
hear thus from our alumni and to note such an in
terest on their part in our affairs as was shovin in
this case. Such actions on the part of our gradu
ates can never fail to meet the thorough apprecia
tion of our under-graduates.
Asubject which has met with much discussion
lately, is that of the propriety of the for
mation of State inter-collegiate and of
inter-state collegiate oratorical associations. The
matter was vigorously discussed at a recent meet
ing of the Central Inter-Collegiate Press Associa
tion and the indications are that in a short time a
movement will be made by some of the colleges
represented in that organization, toward forming,
in this State, an association of that kind. Through
the east there are as yet but a few of these oratori
cal leagues, but in the west they flourish in almost
every State and the contests are events of great in
terest, not only to the students, but to the educat.
ed public in general. Harvard and Yale hold,
yearly, a debate which is an occasion of great im
portance among the students of the colleges. Could
an inter-collegiate oratorical association be form
ed among the colleges of Pennsylvania it would
undoubtedly be a source of great benefit to all the
institutions concerned. It would awaken a . far
greater interest in the study of oratory in the sep
arate colleges than has hitherto existed ; for a man
speaking for the honor of his Alma Mater on the
public platform, in competition with representa•
tives of other colleges, would put forth far greater
energies to win the prize, than he would were he
only contesting with men of his own institution.
There would be a healthy rivalry, on the part of