To serve as editor of the college journal is one of the highest of undergraduate honors. I hon estly consider that an editorship, won through merit alone, is more to be prized than any athletic honor, whatsoever. This is a strong statement I know, especially in the present state of athletics, but most college graduates of a few years stand ing will agree with me. There is no accomplish ment harder to acquire and more to be desired than the ability to express oneself in correct, clear, forcible, elegant English. The technical specialist, who has no command of English, can never hope to rise high in his chosen profession. Habits of observation and experiment, which a scientific education include, are at a sad loss un less they are coupled with the ability to express results in clear, forcible language. It is the men who can write for their technical journals; who can address audiences concerning their work ; who can stand cross examination as expert wit nesses,, it is men of this stamp, who are carrying off prizes and commanding the salaries, But the ability to write good English" comes, like everything else worth having, from patient practice. The college journal is a golden oppor tunity for every undergraduate. If this is neglected the student has not only failed to do his whole duty by his alma mater, but he has thrown away something of rarest value. “But if everyone contributed the paper would be flooded and only a fraction of the articles could be pre sented.” True, but under such conditions publi cation would be a rare honor indeed, gained only by faithful work. I have seen a powerful college athlete actually near to tears because he failed in a competition for a place on his college journal. It is needless to say that when such a spirit pre vails the editors have only to pick the best from scores of contributions and that the college jour nal ranks among the best of its kind. But, what shall I write ? College editors have heard this ever since the days of Zacchaeus, who is the first man on record as having had trouble with the press. Study yourself as you THE FREE LANCE. open a college paper. You simply glance at the titles of the dry orations on “The Comparative Morality of Nations,” and “Logarithmic Func tions as Applied to the Diapason,” but you read every word of the timely editprials. The poems on “Hope,” “Beautiful Snow,” and “O, Gushing Spring” provoke a yawn if not something worse, while'your eye lights up over the nonsensical lit tle parody which ends, “And like Trilby leave behind us, Footprints on the wall of time, ” or the clever vers de societe, whose only excuse is a pun, or an odd conceit. The story of vacation experiences and the “sweet summer girl;” the story which wakes up and lo ! it is all a dream ; the story of the little brother who spoils it all; of the pictures of wondrous maidens and scenes all vaguely outlined in the smoke from a cigarette ; of the demon who crawls from the ink bottle, —all of these themes will never be worn out in college journals. The college Lits. are now calling for bright little farces after the style of Howell’s Mouse Trap. College life is full of humor and romance if you only try to catch it. A well-told story, with a supernatural setting, is welcomed even by the standard magazines. Write of some pecu liarities in the people and customs that you have studied. He who can weave a bit of local color, of local dialect, or local peculiarity of any kind, is sure of being read. If you aspire to verse procure a copy of Hood's Rhymster and study it carefully. College days with their Bohemian life, their romantic dreams, their freedom from responsibility ought to, and, in fact, do procure abundance of verse. Study the papers and Lits; of the other colleges; study the masters of light verse like Bunner, Dobson, and Holmes, and be quick to catch and use the passing fad, like Trilby, for instance. But I can't write anything good enough. Are you going to give up then, and become a tenth class man, or are you going to set your teeth and win even though it costs? Anyone by faithful study of the best English models and by constant
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers