coining in absorb these old ideas, and they are
perpetuated till they become almost traditions of
the College. It is especially bad . when the feeling
is directed against some student or instructor as is
unfortunately very often the case. •
Some unreasoning fellow conceives a dislike to
a professor who has in a moment of thoughtless
ness injured his feelings. He starts to harp on
his dislike and at every opportunity makes a parade
of it. Without waiting to inquire into the justice
of it, the others take it up, and it soon becomes quite
the fashion to dislike and speak contemptuously
of the professor, who may often be one of the fi
nest men in the faculty. A fellow who stands up
for him comes to be looked upon with suspicion
as one who is, trying to curry favor, and in ex
treme cases the student often becomes unpopular
himself from that very fact. This is not only
senseless. It is grieviously wrong, and we would
caution new men not to take these second handed
ideas. If you can possibly do so, wait till you are
in a good position to judge. You will often find
that your own candid opinion differs very widely
from the prevalent one, and, if you are a true man,
you will be glad you waited.
IN this issue we publish the first of what we in
tend to make a series of college songs.
With our ever widening life as a student
body, we should have our own distinctive State
College songs. We have our own favorite and
popular airs, but the words are not ours. That
beautiful negro melody, "Nellie was a Lady," is
one of them, and we might mention a number of
others. The boys take to them and seem to feel a
degree of patriotism and pride in singing the fa
miliar airs. How much better would it be if we
had our own songs, the words and thoughts of
our own men set to these Measures ?
It is true that our work is so purely scientific
and technical that we have little time and less
training to devote to literary work, and that we
thus suffer a disadvantage. Still we will try the
THE FREE LANCE.
experiment. We might add that we have a few
songs of our own. Those so called football songs
might be classed as college songs, but the airs to
which they are set, are so atrociously common and
worn out by use that they could hardly be digni
fied by that name.
It was during the fall of eighteen hundred and
eighty-one, that cards were sent out announcing
the engagement of Miss Julia Livingston, of New
York, to Mr. James Church, of Philadelphia.
I had known Mr. Church for years, and nat
urally received an invitation to his wedding which
was to be an exceedingly swell affair, to take place
in New York at the home of Miss Livingston, on
the twenty-fourth of October, at half past eight in
the evening.
When I received my invitation, I was living in
Albany, and, as it was such a short run down to
New York, I decided to obtain if possible, a week's
leave from the firm for which I was working, and
go down to the wedding. Naturally for such an
occasion as this, I was obliged to look over my
wardrobe and see what was needed, and as it was
necessary for me to leave Albany at one o'clock
on the twenty-fourth, I was very much hurried
indeed, as I only had one day in which to make
my preparations.
I immediately went to my wardrobe, took out
my dress suit, sent it down to the tailor's to have
it pressed and cleaned, and while waiting for it
made use of my time by packing my trunk, after
which I retired.
The next morning there was a knock on my
door which awakened me, and upon going to the
door, I found my dress suit on a chair in the hall.
I put it in my trunk and then went down. As I
walked into the dining-room, I noticed that the
family appeared to be very much excited, and I
could not account for it at first, but saw in a mo
ment that it was all owing to a telegram which
was at my place on the table. It looked as if it
UNE AFFAIRE .DE COEUR