Brown and White Vol. 5 no. 35

              minstrel show the performance given by the students of this university last monday evening has been pro nounced by all present to have been the most successful of any given by lehigh men in recent years throughout the entire evening the audience was enthusi astic and many of the parts were encored this success is very gratifying to those who had the show in charge especially when it is re membered that the scheme was proposed only two weeks ago the help and interest of all in working up the minstrels to make it a good production and at the same time a financial success is now seen when it is announced that the ath letic association for whose benefit the show was given will receive almost 150 a result gratifying and surprising to all notwith standing the inclement weather a large and select assemblage of the people of the bethlehems was pres ent to see and hear the work of the college men as to the performance itself the programme printed in the last is sue of the brown and white was presented when the curtain went up for the first part the mandolin club made its initial appearance in public this year the selection was roundly applauded and an encore given then the curtain came down for a moment and af terwards again raised on a large chorus dressed as darkies arranged in a semi-circle who sang the alma mater song as the song ended the end men — symington james bradenbaugh and farnham dressed just as end men should be came on many original and amusing iokes and stories were gotten off while this combination was on the stage during this part smoot sang " the first wench done turned white aided by the cir cle which sang the chorus as an encore the circle sang in combina tion the tenors taking the above tune and the bases all coons alike to me later leopold and the circle sang just a simple piece of string and the last singing of the circle was ambolina snow jackson taking the verse heitschu sang as a solo " sweetheart i love none but you he was enthusiastically encored and then sang the march song from el capitan a quartet composed of hillman leopold jackson and smoot sang a combi nation of negro melodies which was well received by the audience as an encore they sang hear dem bells this finished the first part of the program the specialties were introduced in the second part marshall did the serpentine dance ; followed by brown and hillman the whistling coons great applause was given smith and reamer when they were junior oratorical contest the junior oratorical contest which constitutes the better part of the washington's birthday exercises was held in the chapel tuesday morning the attendance was good the nave of the church being well filled the exercises began with the chorus thanks be to god after which prayer was offered by rev f m bird the " national hymn " was sung by the audience and after a few remarks dr chandler who occupied the chair owing to the absence of president drown introduced as the first speaker harry anderson wilcox mr wilcox took for the subject of his oration should the united states acquire more territory the four territories most likely to be annexed are canada mexico cuba and hawaii the annexation of canada and mexico is still too distant a problem to discuss but with respect to cuba and hawaii the case is different the major part of the discussion on annexa tion has centered about these islands as a matter of fact we are already familiar with the majority of the arguments on both sides of the question we should in annexing hawaii be adopting a policy entirely foreign to our own government up to the present time and would open the way to new and dan gerous paths for future treading in consideration of the part played by the united states in deposing the queen and establishing the new government we should in an nexing her be perpetuating an already existing fault and accept ing a country irom the hands of usurpers alaska has been under our flag since 1867 and not yet has she been furnished with a proper form of government plow much more could we do for cuba or hawaii were they annexed on acquiring territory,we should be adding to the number of com plicated issues in congress and increasing the number of unintelli gent ballots cast wherein lies the greatest danger threatening our nation the second oration was by george loomis robinson ; the subject of his oration the influ ence of the american newspaper all social development depends upon an interchange of ideas which may be effected in many ways of which the press is undoubtedly the most important of the differ ent publications represented by the term press the great daily exer cises the greatest influence it is a medium of exchange of all mat ters pertaining to the growth and development of civilization and a most wonderful power if properly conducted to prevent friction be tween the different social states the newspaper is wakeful rapid and drives the machinery of events with all the force of a ponderous piston its power is shown in the attempt made by the spanish leaders in havana to destroy the presses of the newspapers advocat ing autonomy it has practically become the thinking governing and controlling agent in this great country of ours at present there appears to be little regard for truth in the news paper world and as we are de pendent upon it for many things we should not follow too closely these publications but endeavor to have an ideal paper whose influ ence would place us all in a posi tion to take an active part in our country's destiny after mr robinson's oration mr wolle entertained the audience by an exquisite rendering of alle gretto cantabile by weily the theme of the next orator william lathrop meaker was " the influence of the press before the invention of printing in the early part of the fifteenth century the only means of trans mission and preservation of thought was by writing at present one of the chief promoters of our civil ization is the increased communi cation among the people brought about by the newspaper which has become a social necessity the newspaper exerts a power ful influence upon the business of the country but the influence is what might be called mechanical in comparison with the influence upon society by penetrating remote regions the newspaper tends to heighten the intellectual standing of the people by bringing them into contact with the outside world but on the other hand sensational papers by their articles more startling and roman tic than accurate and by their ex aggerated illustrations produce a restlessness among the masses we hear the cry for pure politics and social purity and yet this medium of crime and vice the sen sational newspaper is left unmo lested by some means the masses must be elevated but this can only follow the purification of the news paper the last speaker robert farn ham jr took for his subject the life and times of henry clay we have in clay one of the grandest orators and statesmen that this or any other country has ever seen born in 1777 he became early an orphan and was not even accorded the privileges of a com mon school education as a youth he was subjected to much manual labor ; at the age of twenty one he made his early regular study of law which lasted a year he es tablished at lexington ky and by the power of his genius soon won respect and consideration from all continued on second page in 180 he entered the senate from which he departed in 1842 lehigh university south bethlehem pa thuesday febkuaby 24 1898 vol y n t o 35 the brown and white calendar sunday feb 27 meeting of y m c a at 6.15 p m monday feb 28 — meeting of agora saucon hall at 7.30 p m notices re-examinations entrance geometry and senior astronomy march 5 in physical laboratory at 9.30 a m senior kinematics and all c e subjects feb 26 at 8.30 a m french and german feb 26 the 1900 class banquet has been postponed until some time in march notice of the exact date will be given later sophomore and freshman essays are due feb 28 meeting of the agora in saucon hall on monday feb 28 at 7.30 p m doing their tumbling they were called back two or three times id the next specialty " the chicken song george caused quite a sen sation when he allowed the live chicken to escape and then tried to dive across the stage after it stuber had to repeat his banjo solo piel bier and sour krout white and hanscom not to men tion the donkey afforded much merriment when they the dutch three came out hr their turn the part was concluded by a selection by the mandolin club the last part represented a plan tation jubilee ; here about forty of the company sports gemmen and ladies were seen on parade buck dancing was introduced by mc gavock,liudsey roper and dortch later a number took part in a grand keg walk as a finale a grand parade was given by all members present farnham was manager and h james stage manager ; and wett laufer symington holderness middledith grace and chamber lain ushers wright wood and rainey furnished the music for the keg walk those who formed the circle areas follows tefiors — knight abbott emerson leopold payne brown reddig forbes adams and . white basses — satchell jackson home luckenbach robb rainey george sanchez and heitschu the partners in the keg-walk were : farnham and bradenbaugh george and evans forbes and satchell sanchez and robb roper and lindsey acted as judges of the walk «. the new register will be out in the course of a couple of weeks it is estimated that the minstrel show cleared over 150