to these, the histories of our classmates since that
day when all stood on that chapel platform togeth
er and bade the good-bys before starting, each
man for his own sphere, we have the completed
picture to incite beautiful thoughts and pleasant
dreams.
WE are led to believe that the students of
State College do not have sufficient self
confidence. They are too timid about
submitting their ideas and convictions upon a sub
ject, to the public. Their contributions to the
student’s paper are few indeed. They certainly
cannot be under the impression that the Free
Lance is not their paper. If they place the
standards of writings which should come before
the public, above their best efforts, they show a
serious lack of confidence in their own ability.
It is right to place the standard of communication
as high as possible ; but let it not be so high that
it is reached by so few Let your contributions
be the result of your best endeavors, and you sub
ject them to the criticism of a very few.
ONE of our leading colleges has adopted the
plan of taking Monday instead of Satur
day as their weekly holiday. At first
thought this would seem to be an inappropriate
arrangement of a week’s work, but where the
fcl'.en.e has been put to trial it is said to effect a
needed improvement.
It is a most common thing to hear students
.speak of Monday as if it, more than any other
day of the week, were ill-favored and opposed to
his honest endeavors. It may be true that Mon
day is a blank upon the student’s calendar; but
whether it is, or not, it all comes from the lack of
preparation and this chiefly from lack of op
portunity.
Saturday, under the generally existing system is
the one day spent in recreation if not in the com
pletion of some work that has been allowed to drag
during the week. There are very few instances
THE FREE LANCE
in which the recitations for Monday receive the
attention which is given to those of any other day.
If the work be allowed to pass over Saturday,
what time is there remaining for such needed
preparation ? No student can honestly allow
himself to commit such a wrong as to make up on
Sunday his neglect of other days. But the temp
tation is great and experience with students will
lead us to believe that there are some who have
just such a careless and thoughtless makeup. The
scheme mentioned and now being tried in differ
ent colleges can do away with this by having Mon
day’s work done at the close instead of the be
ginning of the school week.
ONE of the most serious problems that the Col
lege has had to deal with during its recent
rapid growth, has been how to make suit
able provision for its library, which contains
nearly eight thousand volumes, half of which are
of recent purchase, and the best works obtain
able in their several departments. They are cata
logued on the “Dewey” system, and thus made
available for ready and intelligent use; but the
present rooms are not large enough for the books
already possessed, and there is no more space now
available in the main building As soon as the
new engineering building is completed, it is pro
posed to use some of the space thus vacated in the
main building to relieve the over crowding. While
nothing definite has yet been determined upon, it
is probable that the Public Documents and such
books as are least frecjuently called for will be ar
ranged in the rooms opposite the Reading Room,
as a sort cf annex, and the main library converted
into a general consultation room, leaving the pres
ent reading room for magazines, periodicals,
standard dictionaries, encyclopedias etc., and fit
ting up the general library room in such a way
that it will be always available for use. It is not
designed to be a circulating library, but to be so
conducted as to have all the principal works avail
able, at all times, for reading and research.