FRIENDS--AND A HOBBY

"A set of dull, conceited hashes Confuse their brains in college classes! They gang in stirks and come out asses.

Plain truth to speak".

Often it seems that Burns was right as we wonder with him "What's a your jargon of your schools?" Many men even graduate from college without a clear idea of the value of their four years' experience and some, looking back afterwards, have to ask themselves if there was any real meaning to the whole affair after all.

To some, college is an amusing four years, to some it means a Phi Beta Kappa key or an education, and to still others it is only four years of dull preparation for a life of banking or insurance. The last attitude has been increasing, to judge by the hue and cry recently raised about the passing of the old "cultural college". That business men, however, regard colleges as mere training schools for their assistants and successors becomes rather doubtful in view of Mr. Emerson's article in the current issue of "The Independent".

As vice-president of a New York City bank he states that no college man succeeds in business who would not have succeeded anyway. What is more, a course in Liberal Arts may even dull the business acumen and clog the mind with things not needed. But that is as it should be according to Mr. Emerson, for college trains not for life but for living. The four "wasted" years should not pack the mind with encyclopedic facts or change the brain into an animated Spanish dictionary. Instead they should serve to pile up a store, a credit account of satisfaction on which to draw in future years.

"What should a man aim to do in college?" the writer goes on to ask. How do some men obtain the true value of a college education--while others miss it altogether? The answer is four-fold. To gain the best a man should make friends, not casual acquaintances, but three or four close, lasting friends. He should learn thoroughly some one subject for its own sake wholly, apart from any material profit. Any subject will do--biology, history, drama--but let him be interested in it and take it out of college with him when he leaves. Those are the most important, but in conjunction with them should be a small library and the habit of perfect health. In short, the college graduate should be a healthy man with a few close friends, a hobby, and a few books.

It seems a small gain to repay four years of seeking. But according to the article it should bring distinction in college and the greatest personal satisfaction afterwards. At least it will train a man to higher self-expression in whatever he undertakes--a gift that in itself is no small recompense.