STATE COLLEGIAN'
Published on Thursday of each week during the
college year by the students of The Pennsylvania
State College in the interest of the Students. 1 , ac
ulty, Alumni and friends of the college.
Entered at the Post Office, State College, Pa.,
as second class matter.
EDITORS
T. F. FOLTZ, 'O6, Chief
F. K. BREWSTER, 'O7.
H. D. MASON, 'O7.
A. K. LITTLE, 'O7
R. B. MECKLEY, 08.
J K. BARNES, 'O9
BUSINESS MANAGERS.
W. J. DUMM,
S. H. YORKS, 'O7.
B. W. SCRIBNER, 'OB
SUBSCRIPTION
$l. 50 per year or $1.25 if paid within 30 days after
date of subscription.
THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1906
EDITORIAL
Spring vacation closed on VVedries
day of last week and immediately
we were launched upon the third term
on, figuratively speaking, the home
stretch of our college year. Doubt
less many of the fellows used vaca
tion to rest up from strenuous college
duties while many others are now
resting up from the strenuous duties,
social and otherwise, of vacation.
Communication
To the Editor of the Collegian
You have in your paper a column
which you very appropriately head
with the title, "Kicklets. "The fol
lowing is not a "kicklet," it is a full
grown kick, and it is registered
against what seems to an observer
to be al amentable lack of college
spirit on the part of the college body.
We hear a great deal about "State
spirit." What is this much vaunted
spirit, anyway? How should it mani
fest itself? In our teams it is the
spirit which "fights to the last
ditch." which never gives up, which
makes a man go ihto a game forget
ful of self, thinking only of Alma
Mater, and fills him with a deter-
tlik, STATE COLLEGIAN
mination to win. No one can have
any criticism of our teams in, this
respect; they have and display' al
ways the true State spirit. But how
should the college body show their
spirit? By supporting the college
organizations, by turning out to the
practices, by standing on the side
lines during games and cheering on
the teams when they 'are winning
and by cheering twice as hard when
they are losing, in a word, by sup
porting each and every one of the
college organizations in every possi
ble way and on every possible occa
-1 sion.
Now right here, some of you are
patting yourselves on your several
backs and flattering yourselves that
you are as full of State spirit as an
apple is of juice. You are saying,
"Don't I go out the practices?
Didn't I howl myself hoarse at
Williamsport? Surely, I show the
true spirit." My dear friends, let
me ask you a question. Did you
go to the Band Concert in the Audi
torium on the 24th of March last?
There are about five hundred of you,
students and instructors, who will
be forced to admit that you did not.
Why didn't you? Because it was
Lent? Not one in fifty of you ever
had a thought of that. Because
you could not afford it? How
much did you leave behind that
same evening at the Drug Store, at
the Tobacco Store, at the Lunch
Room, at the Billiard Room? You
didn't have a conceivable excuse for
not being there, and you know you
didn't. Would you like to know
the real reason why you stayed
away? You did not have the right
sort of college spirit.
Down on the main floor that
evening, there were not above two
hundred people,and a goodly portion
of them were not students. In the
Balcony were perhaps three fourths
that number, mostly students.
Those who were in the Auditorium
that evening had a big treat. They
heard a concert better than any that
has-been heard here in the last four
years, at least. The Band had
worked hard, and the results were
evident. The two excellent over-
tures were rendered with precision
and finish. The "Selection from
the Prince of Pilsen" was well-nigh
perfect. A friend of mine, who
has heard that particular opera five
times, said he never heard the music
rendered better. In fact, there is
scarce a word of criticism that can
be offered on the whole program.
One does not expect "Sousa music"
from a college band, but those who
attended the Concert were more
than agreeably surprised at the
quality, not to say the quantity, of
the music they heard that night;
music that made one feel ashamed
to have paid only a paltry "two
bits" to hear it.
. Now my self-satisfied friends of
the muchness of State spirit, let me
add'just a word or two more. The
Cadet Band is a college organization.
It works just as hard, in its own
way, as does any organization in the
College. It is just as much entitled
to your support. You go to the
foot ball games, the base ball games,
the basket ball games with regular
ity, and claim that you show your
spirit in so doing. You DO NOT
go to the Band Concert and can give
no good reason for not going. The
Spectator is forced to this conclu
sion; that your college spirit is a
matter of dollars and cents. You
pay an athletic fee which entitles
you to go to the games with no ex
tra charge, and so you go to get
your money's worth. When a col
lege organization which deserves
your support equally with foot ball
teams asks you to pay twenty-five
cents to hear the'results of its hard
work—that is a different story, and
your muchvaunted State spirit goes
up in smoke. ,
THE SPECTATOR.