Newspaper Page Text
THE UNIVERSITY BUMBLE-BEE.
I STINQ WHERE I LIGHT — I LIGHT OFTEN.
VOLUME IV.
ATHENS, GA., JUNE 16, 1897.
NUMBER 1.
DEDICATION.
From those we leave behind us
On this Commencement Day,
From all the ties that bind us
To what has passed away,
There comes a cry for truth and right,
And answered it will be
If we can only bring to light
The faults which we can see.
To a deeper, truer knowledge
In Georgia’s Wisdom Seat,
To the love we bear our college
We dedicate this sheet.
TO THE CHANCELLOR.
It being the purpose of this paper
to call attention to the defects ex
isting in the management of the
University, and oft course in the
agents that direct her immediate
affairs, I have thought that it would
not be amiss to enumerate elements
of your character that totally in
capacitate you for the position you
hold.
Your ability I think is unques
tioned. But something more is
required of you than a mere knowl
edge of the department over which
you preside. You are the recognized
head of the University. So closely
are you identified with her that al
most every act of yours has some
effect upon her fortunes, either for
good or for bad. With a full reali
zation of this fact, do you always so
act as to advance her interests and
promote her general welfare? I
assert most emphatically that you
do not.
As the head of the University a
certain amount of tact is required of
you. In this particular you are
entirely deficient. Your manner of
prescribing the regulations of
the institution is so offensively
aggressive as to challenge their vio
lation. The false dignity of your
bearing excites animosity to such an
extent that your very presence in
Atlanta almost negatived the efforts
of the University in securing “the
appropriation that was so greatly
needed.’' . Your dogmatic intole
rance that iwas exemplified in your
unnecessary tirade in the State
Legislature against the ministers of
the Baptist and Methodist Churches,
has in this instance not only harm
fully affected the University in the
minds of the people of those par
ticular denominations; but has caused
the institution to be looked upon
with disfavor by many other liberal
minded people throughout the State.
The nature of your duty ne
cessarily demands the exercise of
great discretion and good judgment.
’Tis said, “That to err is human;”
and on that principle you are the
most human piece of humanity that
it has ever been my misfortune to
encounter. So warped is your
reason by bitter and vindictive
feelings that- you almost invariably
fall into error. And once set in an
obstinate opinion, the most forcible
reasoning is powerless to pierce the
dense incrustation of prejudice that
enshrouds your i
sight to everything which is right
and just. Grant for the sake of
argument, and for that only, that
your purposes are sincere. Then
if it also be true that ‘ ‘The streets
of Hell are paved with good inten
tions, ” you, since your advent into
this institution, have contributed a
goodly portion of material for the
pavement of those infernal avenues.
But very little consolation can be
derived from the reflection that you
meant well, when considered along
with the disaster that your unerring
misjudgment has wrought.
You have not the confidence or
respect of the student body. Why,
I shall not attempt to say. But
this I will say; that though isolated
instances of this feeling towards you
may be ascribed to individual cases
of discipline, yet when this senti
ment is so universally prevalent, no
reasonable man can attribute it to
personal animosity.
I desire to remind you that the
almost unprecedented success that
has attended the last few years of
your administration cannot by any
flight of the imagination be attri
buted to you, but rather came about
in spite of you, and only serves to
suggest the glorious era of prosperity
she would have enjoyed if your
baneful presence had been removed.
So much by way of premise.
Now I have a piece of friendly
advice to offer you. Since you have
clearly demonstrated that you are
incompetent, do a manly and un
selfish act and gracefully retire from
the Chancellorship. Then will this
institution flourish like a beautiful
flower, that freed from the thralldom
of Winter’s pall, bursts forth into
vlorious bloom, at the gentle touch
of the balmy breezes and sunny
skies of Spring.
If you disregard this advice, and
if our efforts to show you and your
incompetent satellites up .in your
true colors prove fruitless, we will be
disappointed, but not discouraged
or dismayed. Each graduating class
adds recruits to those that have
passed out before from' your in
glorious rule. Soon their influence
will be felt, and their single purpose
is to hurl you and your unworthy
associates headlong from the lofty
you now disgrace.
OUR PROFESOR OF ENGLISH (?)
In the following criticism of Dr.
Benjamin Franklin Riley, preacher
in a church at Hominy Grove and
nominal Professor of English at the
University of Georgia, we are act
uated by no feeling of personal
malice but solely by our love for the
University, and our desire to expose
an unmitigated fraud to those whom
it may concern. Fully realizing as
we do that we can accomplish
naught unless we adhere to the
truth, we solemnly aver that every
important statement contained in
this article is based upon fact. But
throttled as we have been for four
long years into a forced silence by
the hand of despotic control, forced
to mutely observe that which we
knew to be false, compelled to en
dure without a murmur that which
we felt to be unjust, we may be
pardoned if our emancipated utter
ance is tinged with bitterness and
our loosened tongue edged with
sarcasm.
As being a man totally unfit for
the position which he occupies and
utterly incapable of discharging the
duties incumbent upon him, Dr.
Riley has been most judiciously
chosen. The high position to which
he has been elevated reflects no
honor either upon himself or the
University, but only makes more
noticeable those defects which other
wise might have passed unchall:
enged, and renders him a shining
mark for ridicule, if indeed any rar
diance may be said to spring from
one so darkly ignorant. In order that
our readers may not accuse us of
making charges which we can not
substantiate, we will give some con
crete instances of ignorance taken
down ver-batim in the class room;
for instance, while floundering
a pitiable attempt at a criticism of
Paradise Lost, the following lines
were read by Dr. Riley to the class:
“ As when to warn proud cities war appears ‘ -
Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush
To battle in the clouds,
At this point this erudite scholar,
this master of English,- this man in
short who passes for a well educated
map .of tn-day*.-..checked his lecture
(farce didT say ?/attd with sonorqw
gravity delivered himself as follows:
“It is a remarkable fact that
Heavenly Lights have been observed
to be of particular brilliance just
previous to many great wars, among
others our own civil war. Whether
this is a warning or a presage we do
not know; in fact it has never been
satisactorilly explained.” Such
simple superstition might have been
expected in a peasant in the middle
ages or even in one of our old
“mammies” of to-day, but is ludic
rous in a professor at an enlightened
institution. Why did he not include
the Great Comet seen over Charleston
just before the war in his presages
and warnings? Why in short did
he not insult our understanding by
placing it on a level with his own,
and detail to us all those many
superstitions of negro lore to which
he no doubt gives credence, or else
j spare us altogether this childish
j twaddle about “warnings” and
I “presages”? Again: While reading
: Macbeth in the class room a
| reference was made to “Bellona’s
bridegroom,” and when asked to
whom the passage referred Dr. Riley
| replied that “the reference was sim
ply to one of the characters con-
I nected with the Celtic Court. ’ ’ A
member of the class, who strange to
1 say was better informed than Dr.
1 Riley, candidly told him that