The Aurora, 1880 The Aurora
6-1880 The Aurora 8.4 Iowa State Agricultural College
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Vol. VIII.] Iowa Agricultural College, June, 1880. [No. 4.
SHAKESPEARE FOR CULTURE. not see recurring under some new phase, in PROF, W. II. WYNN. some unexpected subtlety of out-break, I. some uncatalogued display of goodness of vice. Look over this vast mass of human Shakespeare, I may say, is the most acces life, surging round our planet like a living sible and the most available means of cul sea. Conceive for one moment of the emo ture in the English language. The older tional heaving of this mass, the joys, the divines were accustomed to rank these plays sorrows, the loves, the hates, the plans, the next to the Bible, often _advising.the young intrigues, the sighs, the heart-breaks, the candidate for orders to hold them of equal night-watches, the prayers, the oaths, the authority in their respective spheres, and long stretches of human feeling that sweep find in them a value exceeding that of all like whirl-pools through the ages and in other books. If you want to know the spir volve whole nations in their wake-the itual nature of man, his capacity for wor magnitude and intricacy of the theme will ship, his longings, battlings, defeats, and vic immediately appear. tories, in the attainment of a higher life, you Literature as distinguished from science will study, profoundly, David, Isaiah, Paul, and religion finds here its legitimate sphere. and John; if you want to know human na Poetry, fiction, the fine arts, are supreme ture in its subtlest workings, its passions, here. The novelist has a wide range here, its foibles, its meanness, its heroisms, the aw and his industry has been prodigious. ful grandeur of its desperate ambitior1s, and Masterpieces of fiction in countless numbers the tragic solemnity of those moments when in all modern literatures have flooded the it bows before the storm, you must read world, and yet the ·mines wiience these Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Henry I,.Vth., spiritual treasures are digged betray no King Lear. · Indeed, there is not one of the signs of exhaustion. Love and hate, the thirty-two or more plays of Shakespeare'_s lust of dominion, the genial coalescence composition that does not embody some and· sharp collisions of human wills, soul special phase of human nature, besides struggles, hopes, fears, all the• springs of throwing many side-lights upon the fathom feeling that are stored np in the words, less abyss. home, country, kindred, lover, friend, foe, The deepest terrestrial problem with are as prolific in resource, and as unfailing which we grapple is the human heart. · You in interest, now, as in the days when Cer can fathom the sea, but there is no plumet vantes painted his infatuated hero in insane that will sound the infinite depths of the chivalric adventure, and Fielding traced nature of man. The meanest subject you his Tom Jones throughout an obliquitous may put before me confounds all philosophy. career. Goethe, Victor Hugo, Dickens, There is no one of the emotions that I shall George Eliot have drained none of these SHAKESPEARE FOR CULTURE.
channels dry. Their sources are perennial. ant, the elocutionist, the mere actor, who But the one being whose penetration was has not aimed to grapple with the play in deeper than all others, whose intuition was the deeper currents of its meaning, may be quicker, who saw and responded most uner lavish in his judgments, talking flippantly ringly to the subtlest workings of the human of its alleged defects, or beyond all bounds heart in every variety of situation, was exiravagantly in its praise,-his opinions Shakespeare; Let us see that this is no mere are worth nothing, because there is no cul form of words, no empty shout of literary ture back of them to give them force. cant. Stand in the vestibule of this great And precisely this it is which reveals drama, and the marvelous powers of the Shakesp~are, and this it is, also, which poet will not appear. You will be disposed Shakespeare supplies. • I mean culture. to ask: "Is there not a species of,,.literary Shakespeare, in this regard, takes rank with craze about this hue and cry,.~_;,"'furo, in all the great masterpieces of antiquity. the wild excitement ot some pagan':-f~tive They are approached by culture. They day, one voice, and then a thousand, would' will not expose their treasures to the vul • be raised in the acclaim, • Great is Diana of .gar gaze, but they pay back a thousand-fold the Ephesians!' when, obviously, Diana of the labor and the pains expended in their the Ephesians was not great?" How comes search. The task I have in hand is to it that this one man, " the divine William," make this plain: the obscure Willi am, rather, the almost per We shall easily agree that at the root of sonally unknown play-wright of the city of all just conceptions of culture, is the human London, nearly three hundred years ago, izing element, the notion of soul being when restored learning was just dawning brought in contact with soul, the commun on our modern world, ana for aught that ity of sympathy which all refined fellow appears, the little that was then in vogue feeling must seek and enjoy. In all efforts was unknown to him-should build himself toward culture the quest is man-ward. It a monument in the world of letters that has is not God-ward, for that would be religion. no rival in any language on the face of the It is not earth-ward for that would be sci earth? Is there not some mistake about ence. Culture has its own specific sphere. this; some lurking suspicion, at least, that We see that, when we .have no favorite the an epidemic of national vanity has made a ory to maintain, and no fast and loose lines god out of an ordinary man? to adjust between it and religion on the one The only answer we can give to this rna hand, and between it and science on the soning, in which the novitiate often indulg other. Matthew Arnold will· have it that es, is: you must not measure the poet from culture and religion are one and the same an outside estimate of him, from any hear thing; but he stands alone m the absurdity. say of bis merits, from any other data than A more popular movement is that made by what your deepest study and your evolving the speculative scientists of the day, who taste will supply. You must push your way are in a mood to push every species of intel into the fane of this man's genius, actually lectual effort from the field that will not con finq. access to the adytwm of bis tragic and form rigidly to the formulas of science. Of comic muse, before you can have the faint poetry they speak patronizingly; at the an est conception vf the grandeur of his work. cient Greek and Roman classics they laugh That done, all misgivings will cease. Here outright, There is nothi:hg in Homer, or is Hamlet. I want no opinion of the mar Virgil, or Dante, or Shakespeare, that can vels of that piece of literature from any man be wrought out in the laboratory, nothing who bas not threaded it through and through that can be analyzed into elements that we with the web of bis reflections, seen and can see, or touch, or taste, or smell; there studied all its characters in their varied fore the venerable old books must be given interactions, weighed well their language. over to the philologist and antiquarian to be and wrought powerfully at the psychologic valued, as Mr. Huxley advises, for the light al enigma which lies at its heart. The ped- they throw on "the paleontology of man." .POE. 57
The student must not brood over them for the attributes and propensities of common any intellectual furniture he will thence de mortals. rive. He will get nothing for his pains, un Prominent among the names in this . less it be an evanescent pleasure ·which is strange order of beings occurs that of Edgar dissipation if indulged. Allan Poe. He combines in a remarkable degree two elements of mind seldom found Mr. Huxley has undertaken in an ingen~ m1ited-analysis and imagination. These ious and captivating essay to show our constitute the groundwork of his genius; young men that every advantage in the way they are the source of his wonderful power. of mental stimulus and equipment absurd No two faculties could be more opposite in ly claimed for the classics, may be found in their effects. Their union in him give to the sciences, with the astounding difference many of his subjects the effect of what can that the advantages are real in the case of only be expressed by the contradictory phras the sciences, and only imaginary when they are thought to pertain to literary work. It es of the spiritually material. He treats . the most ideal themes in the most realistic is hard to restrain impatience with the one sided, heady doctrines of these men. They mamwr. He is both poet and mathmeti cian. He conceives with all the vividness are wrong. They are flushed with the of the former, but he reasons with all the s pl en did physical discoveries of our day, and coldness and precision of the latter. He is would subject everything to the brute su livhlg fire hedged in with ice. He reduces premacy of blind force. the wildest play of passion to the most ex But here is a consideration it were well to act order. He unites the severest logic to weigh. What does man as a social being the most exuberent fancy, the heat of pas require for his happiness above everything sion to the coldness of reason. else? Be honest in the answer. 'fake Home A too close observation of the poetical to the crucible, and see what it will yield. and ideal part of his nature, has gained for The prattlings of childhood, the precipitan bim the appellation of dreamer. He has his cy of youth, the cooing of lovers, the whims moods of abstraction, but he is not the typic of old age, the mailed warrior breaking al dreamer. His piercing acuteness, his mi hence for the field, the birth, the funeral, the nuteness of detail, his subtle distinctions, budding of manhood, its untimely whelming his refined reasonings, all separate him in darkness and defeat, wife, husband, from the purely meditative mind. The parent, child, all the great sympathies and dreamer is passive; Poe is active. The antipathies that crowd around this most dreamer diffuses his faculties; Poe concen intimate relation of human life, what has trates them. The dreamer revels in the science to do with these? Yet it is precise mysterious; Poe will have nothing to do ly in this region that our Shakespeare is with it, only as he can explain it. The high priest. Are these things of no accoun1i dreamer surrenders himself to contempla to us, because, forsooth, protoplasm is the tion and reverie, till his own individuality physical basis of life? is lost in that of the objects around him; Poe never loses himself in his abstractions; POE. he is most keenly alive when most absorbed. Mark the contrast between the strength, FIRST PRIZE ORATION OF INTER-STATE clearness and precision of his intellectual, ORATORICAL CONTEST BY L. c. HARRIS. and the wild disorder and disease of his moral and resthetic faculties. He naturally 'fhere have appeared at different stages possessed delicate perceptions and refined of the world's history, minds so anomalous sensibilities. But what do we find in his in their nature, so totally at variance with tales? A nature attuned to the harmon those surrounding them, so unnatural and eous and the beautiful, reveling in all that equivocal in their construction, that they is discordant and hideous; a mind intoxi have seemed more like errant spirits from cated by the fiendishness of his own crea the world beyond, than those possess.ing tions, indulging all that is self-destructive; 58 POE. all the natural, genuine emotions of the to be found in a peculiar tendency of his heart blighted and turned awry; hope driv nature-his morbid habit of introspection. en into the icy caves of despair; joy ban Hawthorne-the profoundest moral phil ished into rayless caverns of gloom; poetic osopher that America has ever produced fervor turned into maniacal fury; feeling has said that of all the practices in which frozen into frenzy; smites withered .into a mind may indulge, this one of introspec sneers. ln fine, the impression produced by tion is the most pernicious. Poe is a slave these weird compositions is that of a demon to it. His eyes are ever turned inward to a mounting to a throne of evil eminence on "heart gnawed with anguish." Here within the wreck of all that is pure and beautiful: this spiritual laboratory he dissects, ana and, having attained it, gazing down with lyzes, watches. He notes each passing fiendish glee upon the ruins below. The breath of emotion. He catches each fluc diseased condition of his mind we see mani tuating shade of feeling. He studies with fested in the unnatural delight he seems to painful minuteness the creeping sensations take in dwelling on the subjects of death of crime, guilt, sin, and remorse. He pur ·and decay. In one of his tales he says: "I sues with nervous intensity the darkest have imbibed the shadows of the fallen col thoughts as they steal stealthily through ums of Tadmore, Balbec and Persepolis, till the chambers of the heart. He loves to see my very soul has become a ruin." That is it. the delicate tendrils of the soul quiver with It is always beauty and grace dethroned; agony or pulsate with joy. And it was this shattered columns, crumbling walls and process of self-analysis, this peering into tottering arches;• the lingering smile on the the inmost recesses of the soul, this cold an lips of death; the false and treacherous bloom alytical dissecting of an emotion as the an on the features of disease; " the gilded halo atomist would a nerve, this lyina in wait hovering round decay,"-it is all these, that for the play of a passion, this trailing a his morbid fancy seizes upon with such thought through all its tortuous windings greedy avidity, it was this that shattered Poe's sensibilities He cares nothing for mere external objects and dulled his perceptions. His characters only as they excite his emotions. Therefore, are but the logical sequence of this intense he always chooses such subjects as are sug subjective tendency of his mind. In none gestive of melancholy and sadness. He ever of them can there be found a complete and represents love as in the icy clutches of harmonious blending of all the elements of death, not that he may show his affection mind and soul. They are simply the incar for the dead, but rather as a means of grati nations of a thought, mere abstractions of fying his abstract love of grief. He has a crime and guilt, frenzy and despair clothed morbid craving for unnatural sensations. with flesh and blood. All their sympathy, He feeds on mockeries. He taunts himself love and fear is absorbed by a single ani with the hopelessness of his despair, and mating principle. They have but little to takes a strange delight in this process of link them to humanity, and possess more self-torture. His most intolerable anguish in common with the denizens of hell than is his keenest joy; the more painful his with the inhabitants of earth. emotion, the more pungent bis pleasure; the The many conflicting tendencies found greater his grief, the more delicious his in Poe would seem to almost justify a 'be sorrow. lief in the duality of mind. He was a strange compound of opposites, a curious But bow shall we account for this per blending of harmonies and discords. In version of his nature? That a mind should him "fire and frost embrace." At times be indulge in all that is self-destructive, that was mild, gentle and affable; again, fierce, the very order and nature of things should passionate and moody. Now he would be be reversed, that out of cosmos should come charming or electrifying a circle of friends chaos, and out of beauty hideousness, seems by his wonderful eloquence; and now, sit a moral antithesis-inexplicable. The ex ting apart in some secluded retreat, mut planation of this apparent contradiction is tering to himself in dismal monologues. STUDY OF HISTORY. 59
One moment holding you enraptured by his ed the lowest depths of wretchedness and visions of wondrous beauty; the next, laughed at his own misery; who made of chaining you, petrified with terror, among life a living death, and chanted the requiems his dismal phantasms, built up in forms of of despair over the dead hopes of his own "gloomiest and ghastliest. grandeur." To soul. The melancholy and gloom in which day, soaring away into far-off realms of he enshrouded himself has tinged with sad imagination; to-morrow, wandering in the ness all that he has written or said. No ode gloomy labyrinths of his own soul. "At to the nightingale or skylark from Poe-his night, the hero of a drunken debauch; in the was to the sable-winged raven, the type of morning a wizard of song, whose weird and his sorrow. He was ever pursued across fitful music was like that of the sirens. life's stage by the passions of his nature, Poe has often been called the Byron of like Orestes fleeing the Furies; and he will America. In many respects they are similar. ever hold a place in the memory of men Both are egotistical, passionate, arrogant; rather for what he might have been than both have a morbid love of melancholy, for what he was. Goethe has been called gloom and death; both are the victims of the poet of the universe, Byron the poet of passion and diseased self-contemplation. the individual, but Poe is the poet of the Poe resembles Byron in his ethical but not in his mental qualities. Byron is powerful, soul. ======· vigorous, synthetic; Poe is subtle, acute, THE STUDY OJ<' HISTORY. analytic. Byron treats of individuals; Poe E. only of principles. BJ ron is more objective; Poe more subjective. Byron was driven What were the causes of this difference into his own consciousness by forces from between the Moors and the other countries ·without; Poe entered his more from innate of Europe 't Shall we say with Mr. Draper, necessity. Byron is not only conscious of "It is due to physical causes alone. Man self-he feels the gaze of the whole world; is the creature of circumstance. He is sub Poe forgets the outward in his intense con ject to certain invariable laws of climate, centration on the inward. Byron broods and he can be nothing more than climate over his wrongs; Poe analyzes his emotions. will let him"? That will not suffice, for Byron dwells upon his so!-rows with mor those nations live in nearly the same regions bid self-pity; Poe dissects his with frenzied to-day that they did then. The Spaniards pleasure. In other points they stand in clos occupy exactly the same country to-day that er relations, but still remain apart. Byron the Moors did seven centuries ago, and yet is cynical, sullen, morose; Poe is gloomy, do not possess a tithe of the scientific knowl sorrowful, despondent. Byron is a misan edge that the Moors did then. Europe has thrope; Poe is a hypochondriac. Byron been very tardy thus far in,acknowledging wages war with all mankind; Poe is ever her indebtedness to the Spanish Moors, but contending with the elements of his own na candid minds are gradually awakening to ture. Byron has but little of idealism; Poe the fact that European civilization owes has nothing of sensualism. Byron has more much to them, especially for the part they of human sympathy; Poe has less of scorn took in breaking up the power of Rome. and sarcasm. Byron's passions come hot How did Rome obtain that power which and seething from the heart; Poe's are as enabled her with impunity to keep the cold as intellect itself. Byron crushes all king of Germany at the gates of the Pontif sentiment and feeling; Poe reverses them. ical Palace three days, asking for admit Byron seems like a " mocking devil, laugh tance; and to have in her hand the dispens ing at the world in rhyme"; Poe, like a scoff ing of the crowns of Europe; and by what ing demon, exulting in his own fiendish means was her power finally overthrown; ness. and the people freed from a politico-religious This, then is Poe, the saddest, loneliest fig rule? These are interesting questions, and ure in all literature; who gave the cypress such as mere superficial reading will never to love and the myrtle to death; who sound- bring out or answer. 60 STUDY OF HISTORY.
Again, the study of history makes a sym troops and reduced from affluence to beg pathetic man. By it we are brought in con gary, we can hardly help saying, even while commiserating their sufferings, "Served you tact with the good and great that have lived right! You should have maintained your in times past. There is nothing that awak cause; you knew, or ought to have known, ens a feeling of sympathy in a man quicker how Philip the Cruel would treat you. You than to know that others have suffered and knew he would keep the fair promises he struggled as he is suffering and struggling. made only till you were in his power." But what of him under whose guidance That man is past hope who can read of the remaining seven states grew in wealth the triumphs of an Alexander, a Cresar or a and were enabled to accomplish such glor ious results? l think none can read of his Napoleon, and not feel a pride in their suc life and character, of his wisdom and pa cesses, even though it be mingled with more tience, of his broad and liberal views as com tender feelings of pity for those who suffer pared with the narrow and illiberal views ed through their success. How we sympa held by the other prominent men of his day, without being lifted to a higher moral and thize with the Moors as they are driven intellectual standard and having his views from the beautiful valleys and hills of of men and opinions broadened and liberal Andulusia, and from the magnificent build ized. Can we wonder that all Netherlands ings and shady retreats that their ingenuity saluted him with the affectionate title of "Father William?" It is impossible for had erected. We can almost hear the voice any one. from a superficial reading, to grasp of the last of the Caliphs, as he bids fare the beauties of such a character and of the well forever to the beloved Alhambra. Who cause he was defending. And when we con can read, without a feeling of pity, of the sider that this was but the part of a con flict begun many centuries before, and that suffering of the Huguenots as they leave it was to end in our own land of liberty, their well-loved France and seek a home in we may partially grasp its immensity and lands where liberty of conscience is held as see how insignificant such a war is compar ed with the whole. But we do not get the the divine right of every human being'.' We full and compact idea until we grasp the are proud of the grand struggle of Henry intellectual and moral warfare as well as IVth. for liberty, and sorrow for him when the physical. These include the invention he turns traitor to the cause and throws off of the printing press, the discovery of Amer ica, the rise of Arabian plnlosophy, Scholasti the friends that supported him in his hour cism, A veronism, Luther's Reformation and of adversity. many other less prominent events and their Between France and Prussia lie several respective courses, all tending to aid the grand march of humamty towards a better small states that, only four centuries ago, civilization. were struggling for religious freedom Some one has said, "It is impossible to against the mighty power of Spain. As we know a man unless you first love him." peruse the history of this conflrnt we rejoice There is profound truth in this remark. with them in victory and sympathize with You can not understand any philosophy, or any subject, unless you are first in love them in defeat. We unite with them in exe with it. A deep and enthusiastic interest crating the man who, in the short space of in a study invariably carries with it an un eight years could sacrifice to a bigoted 'reli derstanding of the subject. This is as true gious creed, the lives of eighteen thousand of history as of any scientific study. When you love its spirit then and then alone you of their citizens. are able to understand the principles and When Leyden is besieged by Alva's sol laws by which man's progress has been made. The love of history cannot be ac diery, we read with great interest of the at quired by a mere superficial reading. It tempts to succor the ill-fated city; and when must be etudied as the physician studies the the wild waves of the North Sea dash human body, getting down to the deep seat through the ruined dikes, bearing with them ed structures. History is various in its forms and each the fleet of the Zealanders to the relief of may find some particular branch that suits the suffering city, we are willing to say it is him. The theologian may prefer one kind, the hand of Providence. And when. finally, the lawyer another, while the philologist ten of the seventeen states yield to Spanish will study history from the structure of the language. Each finds a part that suits him gold and Spanish arms, and are, in return and when found be loves it and studies it for t.his obedience, overrun by Spanish deeply. AURORA BOREALIS. 61 SCIENTIFIC. A UROR.A BORE.ALIS. T. B. BRIEFLETS. A part of St. Gothard tunnel, about three A kind of nebulous veil which rises slow miles from the south entrance, bas fallen in. ly about the magnetic meridian always pre cedes the appearance of the aurora borealis. More than one-half of the glass used in The sky along the horiz9n becomes darken the United States is manufactured at Pitts ed into an obscure segment over which stars burg, Penn. are dimly seen, and bordering on this is a The grain aphis (Siphonophora avanae) luminous arc of varying shades. From this bas appeared in unusual abundance through · arc, which sometimes undergoes a prolong out the eastem states. ed agitation, columns of light radiate and .A small electric locomotive has been con shoot upward to the zenith; and at times structed by Mr. Edison and is now on ex these columns unite into fiery flames. mag hibition in Menlo Park. nificent to behold. Around a certain spot in the heavens towards which the magnet It is computed that there is enough gold ic needle constantly points, the luminous ore in Utah to keep one thousand stamps busy for one hundred years. rays appear to cluster into a common corona. The aurora, however, seldom continues until Science 0ossip says that flowers will not the corona is complete on all sides, but it lose their color if moistened with a strong gradually fades, till, finally, all that remains solution of alum, previous to pressing. is the dark segment which first appeared in Pottawattamie county ha~ a soft maple the northern horizon. tree that measures twenty-four feet in girth It is difficult to determine the absolute at a height of five feet from the ground. height of the aurora, although, for a long The Russian Government is adding several time, experimenters thought it could be done ocean cruisers to her navy at a total expense by taking distant observations on the corona. of nineteen and a half millions of dollars. This point, however, has since been discov ered to be only an effect of perspective, in Prof. Bell has deposited a sealed descrip which the rays parallel to the dipping nee tion of an invention for "seeing by telegraph" dle appear to converge, and the appearance with the Smithsonian and Franklin insti of the phenomenon, therefore, depends on tutes. the position of the observer. Uranium, the metal employed to render With regard to geographical distribution, common glass flourescent, has been discov auroras occur more frequently and with ered in the Sacramento mining districts of greater intensity as we approach the higher California. latitudes. The zone of grandest displays is Mr. R. M. Brereton, Engineer-in-chief of in latitude 72 o N., on the north coast of the Great India Railway says that .American .America; thence 1t passes over the Great locomotives are decidedly superior to those Bear lake towards Hudson's Bay, which it of English construction in almost every crosses at lat. 60 ° N., and· extends over respect. the coast of Labrador south to Cape Fare Mr. Hannay's artificial diamonds are still well. Its further course is between Iceland under discussion by the scientific press; and the Faro Islands to the vicinity of some authorities asserting that tne attempt North Cape in Norway, and thence into the is an " undoubted success ;"while others re Arctic sea. Here it probably passes around gard it as "not altogether proven," and wait N ovaZembla, approaching the coast of .Asia for further developments. It is no more in the eastern part of Siberia, ar.d returning than justice to say that the latest evidence again to the frozen regions of America. seems to favor the former opinion; and yet, The Aurora owes its origin to the min we think, there is still room for more decis gling of electrimties in the higher divisions ive proof. of the atmosphere; and those electric dis- 62 THE LITTLE CARNIVORES. charges take place between the positive elec THE LITTLE CARNIVORES. tricity in the air and the negative elec C.R.M. tricity in the earth ; for as the air is charged with positive, and the earth with negative Frail.and senseless as it seems, plant life electricity, the laws which govern these occupies a station of no mean importance forces tend to neutralize them; otherwise, in the great economy of nature. Standing the electric states would acquire an infinite a little way above the inorganic world from tension, which is contrary to observation. which, for the most part, it derives its The recomposition is brought about either nourishment, it offers life in its nodding by the dreadful thunder-bolt, which is an branches and tempting fruit to the vast effect of the union of the accumulated elec world of animals above. tricity in the air with that in the earth, or it The plant is the factory wherein the crude is effected by the mixing of the negatively material with which it chances to be in con- · charged winds at the earth's surface with tact is taken up and changed into complex positive winds of higher altitudes. living tissue. In order to do this properly • But the hygrometric state of the air has the plant is supplied with two sets of active perhaps, the greatest influence on the man workmen-the leaves and roots. The func ifestations of atmospheric electricity. The tion of the leaves is to obtain carbon dioxide aqueous vapor in the polar regions is con from the air, while that of the roots is to stantly condensed by the exceedingly low absorb nitrogen and water from the soil. temperature; and the mists that are formed Now, so long as the leaves and roots are there from the humidity of the atmosphere, plentifully supplied with nourishment furnish a medium through which positive which they are allowed to take up and con electricity passes from the air and combines vey into the plant body, the plant will be in with the negative in the earth. The result a flourishing condition ;but if nature, by way is that there are currents consta'(ltly rising of neglect or punishment, should deprive it into the upper regions of the atmosphere of the use of some of its members, or place from different positions on the earth; and, it in a soil which refuses to yield its essen passing towards the poles, they return be tial food, the plant must either die or supply neath the earth's surface in the direction of itself with food from other sources. It may the points whence they started. Two sys die, but it will not die without a struggle tems are thus formed, in which the currents for life; if it cannot obtain its food by fair of the northern hemisphere go to the north means it will by foul, and so we find that and those of the southern hemisphere to the when a plant is unable to obtain nitrogen south. The existence of these electric cur through its roots from the soil, if it does rents has been fully demonstrated, and the not die, it must obtain it elsewhere. through conclusion arrived at is, that it is a conse its leaves. This latter method of obtaining quence of the re-establishment of equilib nitrogen is characteristic of the order Dros rium bet)Veen the earth anu atmosphere. eraw; the roots, when present, are but poor This equilibrium is broken in the neighbor ly developed and the leaves as a conse hood of the equator and restored by the elec quence are so modified as to entrap and tric discharges which take place between digest animals, and thus supply themselves the earth and the air. Currents of electric with nitrogen. The little carnivore with ity passing northward through the higher which we are most familiar is the Drosera regions and traversing the condensed va rotundifoliaor little Sundew. pory mists of the polar regions are discharg Sundew-It may be recognized by its ed and produce luminous displays, differ leaves being nearly round in shape, light ing in degree according to their intensity. green in color, radical in position and bear The attenuated mist brightens by the trans ing upon the upper surface many long mission of electricity, as the icy particles purplish filaments having at their apex a glow in the electric light. This lumination single gland. It is these glands that give and the degree of regularity with which the frozen vapor is broken up, gives the phe the plant its dew-like appearance from · nomenon of the aurora borealis. whicll it is named, Sundew. The little drops SAN BLAS CANAL. 63 as tliey sparkle in the sunlight are sngges century and since that time many interest th·P of i11no<'ence, itself; hut beware, little ing works have bePn published concerning fly, it iK hy]Jocrisy in 1li:-;g11ise; aml if you them amo11g which is Darwin's treatise on touch your tiny f Pet to a Ki 11gle drop, :-;adder Insecti voron;, plant;;. The presence of HHCh a will he your fate than that of your relatini great Hnmbt>r of demi imieds i11 tlw vicinity who c11tPred tl1P tapPstrirnl chaml1f'l'. of tl1P S111H!Pw :tll(l itH alliPs. was for a 1011g Altho11gh tlw glands appear to J,p hannle:.;s tinw q11ilP a prohlPlll to botani:,t,; mul it was il is thPy that KP<:rete thP tlni1l that 1locs the 1wt 1rntil Pxiern-ivP resm.n:h had l1ee11 made fatal work Tlw Jilanwnts or te11tadp:,; aK that tlwir tr11P carm voro11s habit waR dis soon a:.; t-ml!'hP1l. lw11d over thP l11ekl1>;;14 Yil' covPri>d. tim alHl at tliP H:tllH' tillw impart a similar impul:-P to thP otlwr tP11taelP:-. 'l'IH' glawl:... wh,i.;e Keen·t ion incn,aHPS as :-;ooll m; the tell '!"!IE l'IWPO:-;Jm S.\); BL\S C.\.XAL.
fades hPgi11 to 1110\"P, pour forth thP visei AT the beginning of this term, a more THE AURORA. efficient organization of the lecture com PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE mittee was determined upon, and, according ly, a constitution was drawn up and the LITERARY SOCIETIES committee organized as the Lecture Associ• OF THE ation. The Association set to work vigor Iowa Agricultural College. ously and procured a lecture for May 22nd. The lecturer came well recommended and delivered a good lecture, one of considerable EDITORIAL STAFF. thought, and one that benefited all who J. F. SAYLOR, '80, - - Editor-in-chief. C. H. McGREW, '80, - Literary. heard it. But scarcely one half of the stu F. E. FURRY, '81, - Scientiftc. dents attended and as a matter of ·course NELLIE M. BELL, '81, Local. the Association came out behind. · The fact that the lecturer was, in some degree, un BOARD OF DIRECTORS. known to us was probably the camie'of the G. E. REED, '80, P1·esident, - CRESCENT. indifferent attendence; but it is certain J. s. DEWELL, '81, Treasurer, - BACHELOR. C. I. WRBEER, '82, - PHILOMATHEA:!<, that the Association cannot long sust!\in NELLIE M. COE, '82, - CLIOLIAN. itself under such encouragement, and· if the students wish to have a seriEJS of lectures TERMS_ during the year the next must be sustained One year,in advance,$1.00. Single copy~twelve cents. better than the last has been. THE AURORA will oe forwarded to a.ii subscnbers until ordered discontinued, and all arrearnges -paid. Now, while we are on this subject we wish Book notices given free, of all books sent us by to say a few words about the usual authors or publishers. Address all communications to commencement lecture. Last Fall the soci THE AU.RORA, AMES, IOWA, eties engaged one of the best lectlll'ers in ======;::;:::======·,,the West, and proposed to pay him by IT is with feelings of greatest pleasure that charging an admission fee. This was oppos we read of the success of Iowa's represen- ed by the Board. and Faculty, on the tative, L. C. Harris, at the Inter-State Con- grounds that it was unprecedented, and test and we heartily unite with his college that the public expected that the exercises in giving him the victor's welcome. This of that week would be free. Granting that is the first time Iowa has taken the first precedent is in favor of free lectures; we , prize, she has, however, taken four minor must not loose sight of the fact that the prizes in the previous contests. · majority of our lectures have been second We know of no reason why we as a col- and third rate, and we hold that what is lege, may not enter the contest of next year precedent in such cases is not necessai·ily with a good prospect of success. ,Our Ora- precedent when a first-class lecture is pro torical Association has been placed under a cured. The matter was compromised by constitution which, if lived up to, will give the Board voting to pav two-thirds of the us a good home contest. The change of the expenses. They then passed a resolution time for the meeting of the Iowa Collegiate to the effect, that if the societies should here Association from Fall to Spring, while it after have a lecture during commencement throws out the present senior class, is an week it should be free. advantage to the next class, as it gives them We know that if the societies could clear the Winter for preparation, if elected in the enough from the lectures during the year, Fall. There is only one thing lacking to they would be willing to have a free lecture enable us to compete successfully with at the end of the year; but this action of other colleges and that is a good teacher in the Board compels them, if they hold a Elocution, and we notice that much of Mr. lecture, and precedent has established that Harris' success is ascribed _to his good elo- they shall, to either pay for it by subscription cution and delivery. But these things can- o:rfrom the.societies; funds. And we think it not be acquired without thorough training is an unwarranted attempt to control soci llnder a competent tea!)he:r. · ety matters and funds. One word more 66 EDITORIAL. and we are through. •·Consistency is a they are studying. lt is evident that tJtey jewel", and if the Board and Faculty pro have the same rights as young men in the pose to limit us in this matter let them sup same family who do not choose to study. port us during· the year by attending our :!, The decision does not touch the case of lectures. It is a matter of fact, that hut students who have no parents and have uo few of our professors ever attended. As "home" in any other place than the one examples, allow us to cite you to Carleton's where they are students. lt affirms that and Wendling's lectures· last year and any student may elect to have his residence Steck's of this year. ""e recognize the fact where he studies, and hy taking the prescrib that they are not compelled to attend, hnt ed oath can vote there. "lf, when he {\'an we also recognize the fact that to be con tlerpoel) went to Iowa City, or any time sistent they should not object to any legit thereafter, he intemletl to make that place imate means of paying for the lecture itt his home a111l residence such vlace was aml the eml of the year. ThPtW are plain words became his plaee of resi -One of the Seniors served as a walking -The Aurora Association has procured a advertisement for a dyeing house in Boone, case and had it placed in the printing office. by wearing into the dining room a coat, It is divided so as to have the exchanges in half of which had been through said estab the upper half, while the lower half is de lishment and half of which had not. voted to the use of the editoI's. It has long -Long did that Junior wait, during the been needed, and the exchanges can now be Professor's lecture on the moon, trying to seen by all the editors. gain courage to ask a question; seeing that -Students can easily excuse the use of he should fail he cautiously begged of his slang in their own conversation, when such neighbor to ask for a description of the phrases as the following are common among honeymoon. the Prof's: "I don't care a fig!" "He's just -Some of the boys, much engaged on giving you taffy." "You'll have to scratch Romeo and Juliet, 3:sked one of their num gravel if you get through!" "If you were ber if he wouldn't like to have his body down off your throne, old fellow, I'd wax made into little stars when he died. "Why, you. yes," suggested one, "His feet would make -We deeply regret the loss of Prof. Wynn's regular ,Jupiters." services in our Sunday exercises. For sev -The College band and military company eral yearsh is ministrations have been a are to furnish the music and police force for source of pleaaure and profit to the students the State Fair. A large wing of a building of the institution. Prof. Wynn has been has been set apart for the college exhibits. truly earnest in his work, and has obtained It is the intention of the authorities to have a deep and lasting hold upon the students every department well represented. under his charge. ~We are told of some ladies not a thous -The present issue of the .A.uRORA has and miles from here who, when two notes been entii'ely under the management of of invitation were left at their room to be Mr. Reed. Many thanks and much credit delivered, let their curiosity overcome them are certaioly due him for the efficiency with and xead the notes, intending never to say which he has labored for the paper during anything about it. But "murder will out,'' the absence of its Editor-in-ehief. was proven when the owners opened them -The chapel organ has a faculty of pro and found each in the wrong envelope. ducing a very inharmonious squeak every -The lecture by Rev. Charles Steck, on "He time it is played and of giving out, entirely roism, Recognized and Unrecognized,'1 was on all important occasions. We would generally well received by those who attend suggest that an appropriation to procure a ed. The subject was handled 1n an attrac new one would not be out of place. tive manner and the lecture well delivered. -Mr.Schrader is very enthusiastic in the It did not prove a financial success a.s many study of entomology, and although not tak of the students and all the .A.mes people ing a special course in it, he spends much of failed to favor us with their presence. his time gathering specimens. He has al · -We have had as a guest for the past week ready mounted about 400 specimens; among Gen. Stephen A. Lee, President of the.Miss. them is one species never before found here. Industrial College, which will open in Oc -The plans and specifications are made tober. The General is taking a tour through out for the new buildings to be erected this the North, vi.siting like institutions and summer. The Agricultural, Veterinary and gathering all the facts possible concerning Botanical Laboratory, a two and a half story their management. His visit is · of special brick building, 40 by 70, is to be placed half interest to us from the fact that he and way between Prof. Budd's house and the General Geddes were several times engaged Horticultural building. The c<1ttage is to be in the same battle during the war, the one a placed north of the Laboratory. 'Mr. F. S. Confederate, the other a Union commander. Whiting, of Des Moines, has the contract. Tl:\e societies invited him to deliver a leo- LOCAL. 69 ture, Friday evening, on "The New Educa Senior, rushing into the post office: "Have tion at the South," as he is not a public you anything for Burns?" speaker he declined to do that; but kindly Post Master, (sympathetically): "Yes, sir, . consented to give a half hour talk on, "Its here is some salve." (Exit Burns with a present Situation and Future Prospects," dainty letter.) to which all listened with interest. Saturday A Maine paper speaks of a prayer recently morning he received students in the parlor offered before the Legislature of that state and courteously answered all questions as "spicy and full of practical suggestions." asked him on the same subject. The Gen A dispute about precedence once arose be eral considers that the fnture prosperity tween a bishop and a lawyer and after some of Miss. depends on Northern immigration, altercation the latter thought he should and says he is trying to impress this idea confound his opponent Ly quoting the fol on the citizens of his state. It is not often lowing passage: For on these hang all the we have an opportunity of listening to ·a law and the prophets." ·'Do you not 'see,· gentleman directly trorn the South and be said the lawyer in triumph, that even in lieve it is the general feeling among the this passage of scripture we are mfmtioned . students that if General Lee were a repre first\'" " I grant you," said the bishop, "you . sentative of that section, there is no reason hang first." why speedy reconciliation should uot take place. ·why the nine of diamond,; is commonly called the course of Scotland· is thus ex SOCIETY NO'rES. plained: J)iamonds, being an ornament to the crown, were merely a work of royalty. The Cliolians have purchased curtains It was a legend that every ninth king of for their hall, which will add much to its Scotland was a tyrant who, by civil wars attractiveness. aud intestinal commotions, involved his The Trustees have remembered the Phi country in trouble and division; hence the los in the shape of a $75 appropriation; saying. which they will use toward preparing the Freshman recitation room for a society hall. COLLEGE NEWS. By way of variety the Clios spent last Saturday evening in reading the "Merchant Blaine graduated at Washington College, of Venice." 'rhe ladies who took the parts Pennsylvania. It is said that during his of Shylock, Portia, and Gratiana read par four years he never rriisse1l an exercise. ticularly well. Seven Columbia Seniors are debarred The programme in the Crescent society from their degrees on account of chapel ab on the evening of May 29th consisted en sences. tirely of orations. All were pronounced A student guild has been formed at Cor goon; the one by Miss Henry, on the "Po-wer nell, which includes nearly all the students. of Work," was particularly well spoken of. The object of the society 'is to defray the expenses of the sick and poor, each member CLIPPINGS. paying seventy-five cents per year. "·what quantities of dried grasses you Of the four hundred and twenty-five col keep here, Miss Stebbins! Nice room for a leges and Universities, one hundred and donkey to get into." " Make yourself at eighty-three admit lloth sexes, three are for home," she responded with sweet gravity." ladies only am1 the rest are for gentlemen Charles:-" Will, why is a man about to only.-Ex. But a good many besides ladies be married like one going to a celebrated and gentlemen manage to smuggle in. French city? In answer to postals soliciting sullscrip W-ill :-" Because he·s going to Havre." James;-"No! he is going to Rouen." tions to the AuuoRA several of letters qave Charles:-" No' vou are both wron'!: he been received, all of which are intnesting is going Toulouse." - ns giving information of old students. PERSONAL. 70 PERSONAL. EXCHANGES. '.rlw Wabash is one of onr heHt. exchanges. '81. ~fo,s Lon ,vright i:.; at Jwr honw ill IIK rnlitorinl~ are good, anrl we fully agr<·e with th<· writ<'r of the articlt• lwltling thnt c0-educu 1-\ioux Cits; :.;he expn'SSPR hemp If a:,; ]w ing anxiom; to hear of.. he1· clm,s-mateK tio11 iH hy far thP lll'Ht. W<· :11·1· .!J:latl to Hee a growing inlt•rPKt. on tlH' Huhje<"t. Tlw literary and snh:mribe:,; lwrsPlf a" Big Foot." 1l!•p:n·t lll<'llt. goo1l. tlH' ar1 i!'h-H Hhort. '80. ~Ir. ,J. F. 1-\aylor, e ALUMNI. '76. Alnrnr Hitchcock is one of the seven orators chosen from a class of a hundred and twenty-live to orate at graduating ex ALUMNI REUNION. ercises of the Law Class at Iowa Uity. 'fhe almuni re-union is to be held at the '77. From Couucil Bluffs we hear from College, ,June 30th, and is expected to be a F. W. Booth; he expects to visit the large and enthusiastic gathering. In onler College some time this Summ·er. to facilitate arrangements, those expecting to come are requested to inform the presi '7li. H. N ..Sllott of the firm of S<'olt Hro's dent of the committee, E. W. Stanton, of wishes his paper sent to.Mapleton, Ia. tneir intention tu be present. If vou cannot '71l. Canie Carter sl:'nds best wishes for come, write a Jetter telling whei·e you an/ SUCCl:'SS an«! prosperity of AURORA arnl and what you are tlomg. a dollar to secornl the wish from Lewis, The following is the programme: Cass Co. ::;, Y: YATES, '74. Oration. W. ~I. ScoTT, '79, -- Poem. 'W. C. P. Maheu is partner in a Heal Estatl:', I. W. SlllTH, '7:l, History. Law, and Collection firm, Garner, Ia. SUPPEU. · 'fhe students should hear Carleton on his Let every one of the Alu mm IJe present "Science of Home," ,June 26th. antl let it be a time to be remembered. • Kf'f•p it in mind that Will Carleton will lecture 011 Saturday evening, ,June .26th. '77. W. A. Hl:'lsell writes from Odebolt en Dont forget that Will Carleton will tlt> clo.,ing one dollar for the A UROltA. We liver his •new lecture "Science of Heme" re,ul as a uote heacl-"Zane & Helsell, .June 26th. Attorneys and Counselors-at-law." Try cream soda water at Bosworth's drug ·12-'7ii. Mr. awl Mrs. -Luther 1<,osler, of store. Mo11ticl:'llo. with their t\\;O little tlaugh tt>rli, passed through Ames the otper day Ladies' and gents' fine shoes at Thomas, on then· way to Des Moines. T11ey will Soper& Son. return in time for Alumni meeting-. Ornament your room with an easel and a picture from Bosworth's clrug store. 'ill. George Faville, who has ,IJeen taking a lli.Jt'cial course in Veterinary Science, has New goocls will arrive next week at left school for awhile:· 'He will take the Thomas, Soper ancl Son's. 1:emms. Everything in the line of gents' linen and '78. 1Iiss Lucy Shephard has been making pa1ier collars ancl cuffs can be found at a final visit to Alina ¥rtter before start Thomas, Soper & Son's. ing for California, w1'iic!re she is to engage in teaching schop1. ,'J;l}e.AURORA wishes REPUBLICAN her success in all all lief i.mdertakings. , ~ i ! ', l BINDERY. '79. F. N. Field is at work for the B. & S. The mnst eomplete establishment or tile kind in ceu- W. n. R. in Missonri, as Topographical trnl Iowa. ,J. C. PARKER,.Proprletor. En;;ineer on one of theihiew lines. RULING, BINDING, AND BLANK-BOOK MANU '79. F. II. Friend, President of the AURORA I<'ACTUlUNG IN ALL ITS DEPARTJ\'IENTS. ARsaciati;m'.P,f last year, is now in the Our a11·m11i-ements are now fully completed. Mr. Pnrker Kt.ands uuexcell•·d as a most thorough and ex office of tlu:dl.namosa Eureka. perienced maMter in his .profession. and the best of work guarnntee