health. He dare not neglect to dust and air his
room thoroughly and regularly, and yet expect to
go unpunished. • Fresh air, a proper temperature,
clean rooms, clean bed clothing, freedom from
dust, are as much the tools of the sedentary
worker—the student—as are the ax and the saw
tools of the woodchopper.
Now that the unhealthy season of the year is
coming, let each remember that more Than half the
"ills of life" are brought upon us by the most sig
nal and inexcusable—yes criminal carelessness.
No indifferent blunderer is likely to retain a vigor
ous physique beyond the age of thirty-five, much less
find that freedom from physical discomfort which
is necessary to the vigorous and effective use of the
mental power he may have. And don't forget
that a radiator is only a little more necessary arti
cle of furniture than a thermometer. "The closer
the warmer", the clartier the cosier" is not only
not true, but sadly misleading.
THERE is a continuing apathy among our stud
ents concerning the work of the two literary
societies. Though we by no means wish to
imply that these societies are not doing much good
work, we do say that the work is not so fervently
and actively performed as it was some years since,
and that students do not seem to hold the literary
society so essential to college life and training as
they once did. This is unfortunate, though not
without its cause. Our courses have become more
technical than they were ten years ago, and make
increasing demands upon the student's time and
energy, at the same time that, through the growth
of Fraternities, and a more active prosecution of
athletics, our college life has become more com
plex and insistent than it once was.
Nevertheless, we cannot but remember with re
gret the good old sociable days when everybody
knew everybody, and in order to get a sufficient
number of performers the preparatory student was
eagerly buttonholed by the college student, may
hap a senior, a few weeks after he arrived upon the
THE FREE LANCE.
scene, and informed that his intellectual life or
death depended upon the wisdom he showed in
the selection of a literary society. Then, the stud
ent who did not actively take part in one or the
other society was regarded as a social outcast, and
candidate for a position as a curiosity in some cir
cus. It was very generally understood that there
was something uncommon and morbid in his men
tal operations, and he was sure to be expostulated
with for his intellectual terpitude. Let people
sneer as they will about the days when there were
eighty students here including both preparatory and
college, when Friday evening came, every one was
in an expectant and attentive mood, which seemed
to permeate everywhere, and invest the meetings
of the literary societies with a halo of soulfulness
which the student of to-day can little understand—
torn away rudely, as it is by our later life. And
the work done by those devoted little bands is not
only not excelled at present, but not approached.
The Cresson or the Washington hall as beheld then
must smell sweet in the memory, of the older work
ers, and the training obtained must be proving very
valuable indeed.
While we would not exchange the advantages
we now have for the poverty of the equipment of
that day, can we not have some of the earnestness
with which was attacked the problem of literary
training ? It is just as much a central problem to
day as it was then.
FRANKLIN'S motto :—"Resolve to perform
what you ought, and then perform without
fail what you resolve," can never be excelled.
Those who can do this, or approach doing this,
have greatness within their grasp. Those who
only resolve, and seldom perform, are predestined
to days of small things, are ineffective to the last
degree.
Remembering this thus early in the session,
some whose fates have begun to waver in the bal
ance may yet by method and pertinacity strike the
blows that will win at its close,—or so to speak,
4
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