partment assemble in their seminary-room with their professor, for specially advanced work. Original studies are reported on by the members, and papers are read upon themes previously announced. All confer together in a friendly enthusiastic spirit for the mutual good of the members and the furtherance of scientific progress in the department. All conveniences, such as books or apparatus, for reference or illustration, are near at hand. These hours are full of suggestions for original investigation. Many a learned thesis has been evolved from some dark, irrelevant question that has troubled these circles. For those who will carry the war into Africa there is always some region of the dark continent still unsatisfactorily explored. Another resort of the students is the club; not one of those defamed thoroughly-equipped homes for bachelors, but a retreat where one can find pleasant company, or spend an ostensibly idle hour in a quiet corner over the latest magazine. Here are celebrated now and then the festivities of the Kneipe. The bibulous scholar boldly takes his plunge into the foam of old Gambrinus; and some venturesome comrades go down in the billowy sea, while the remorseless crew howl their requiem in barbarian song. It is given out that on rare occasions the forms of these unfortunates are caught from the depths in a comatose condition, and arranged supine upon the long table, whereupon the Babylonian or some other ancient and startling burial-service is intoned over them in all its severest and most classic detail. But we have not seen or heard this thing; and it may be a canard.
Athletics receives a fair and hearty recognition. The gymnasium is well patronized throughout the year. Base-ball, lacrosse, foot-ball, and the full round of field sports are cultivated at Clifton. Match games are frequently made up with other college teams, and the backing of the home-men is quite spirited. The exhibition of games and various athletic contests in the spring on the Clifton grounds arouses a lively interest, and is worthy of the enthusiasm that sustains it.
One's annual expenses as a student here are moderate. Probably the greater number spend between five and six hundred dollars. Some whose circumstances make it expedient engage as "coaches" for other students, or find academies in which to teach, or else deliver public lectures while they continue their studies. These give but an incomplete view of the many means by which deserving young men may meet a part of their expenses.
Such is our life. It is new in a number of ways. We have no encumbrances of legendary custom to burden or handicap as. We are as free as an Olympian runner in the first heat of his race. We cannot tell what this university's social life may be alter fifty years have passed away. But we are willing to think it will be much as it is to- day. It is natural to suppose that as teacher or student friend passes away to meet those whom we already mourn, a mysterious body of council will appeal to our spirit of conservatism, and the words of every memorial tablet will read as a binding clause on our conduct.
