0 uncertainty, and leave a vicious patrimony to
succeeding classes.
* *
THE oral examination ought to commend itself.
It is a great test, but one a student would
do well to undergo. Many subjects would
permit the oral examination, and give the student
a foretaste of the method adopted in the German
universities.
* * :I
THE election of ex-Principal of the Preparatory
Dep't, Prof. John W. Heston, '79, to the
Presidency of the Washington State Agri
cultural College, the duties of which he assumed
Jan. 4, '92, is no surprise to us. Gentlemanly,
scholarly, we have never doubted his reaching
high and honorable position.
His accession to the Presidency of the Wash
ington State Agricultural will mark for her a new
era of growth, fitting and parallel to that of the
State of Washington.
THE chess tournament recently held at Colum
lumbia College, the participants being Har
vard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia (refer
ee, Win. Stenitz) affords a suggestion. It would
permit a most interesting contest if several of the
Pennsylvania Colleges were to have such a tourna
ment about the close of the winter term, which
would in some respects be a better time than the
fall vacation, as there will then have been sufficient
time for practice, and determining what player or
players would best represent us.
The subject is recommended to the consid
eration of our neighbors. We could no more be
accused of borrowing the idea than our foot-ball
team could be accused of imitating other colleges
in playing foot-ball. It is wasting words to say
that chess is a great and wonderfully instructive
game, full of critical situations that test skill and
power of mind as nothing else can. In our vari
ous athletic sports we have contests of muscle, and
'Ht FREE
quickness, now let us have a contest of brain.
'We will be less one sided, and have our attention
ditected to a game, the playing of which is quite
as useful exercise to the brain, as gymnastics to
the muscles.
It would be well to organize with a view to be
ing ready should there be promise of a chess tour
nament.
FRIENDS of P. S. C. can confidently recom
• . mend its Chemical Department. Few in
stitutions present a more thorough course
in Chemistry, or one so highly satisfactory to the
student. The laboratory is commodious, the
equipment complete, and always at the disposal of
the student, who is wholly freed from annoying re
strictions and regulations in his use of apparatus.
Furthermore, laboratory fees are very low, com
pared with those of other institutions, so low in
fact as to perhaps lead one to think they are for
only a medium, instead of the very best outfit.
For a practical, a satisfactory, and an effective
course, Chemistry as presented here has few rivals,
still fewer peers.
HOW difficult it is to lock straight ahead, see
what you see, and then act logically. How
much we are held back by our own incon
sistencies, and the neglect of plain duties arising
from them ! And how revengeful these neglected
duties are. It may be that days, weeks, months
and even years after, they will worry us, and vex
us with extra steps, besides charging interest, in
asmuch as the business one may have in hand will
often be seriously interfered with. The habit of
mind which enables us to see straight, think
straight, speak accurately and act straight, enables
one to avoid miserable uncertainties, adds joy and
zest, and even years, to life.
ON Saturday evening, Jan. 2 ist, last, forty-three
students took advantage of the unusually
fine sleighing, by hiring conveyances and