Project Editor: Anastasia Smallcomb, UCARE, 2007

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Early Literary Contests of the Palladian Society.

The early literary contests of the Pal-
ladians were generally held with the
Union Society. The contestants from
the Palladians were usually chosen by
ballot by the society, after nominations
from the floor, though sometimes there
was a committee on nominations. But
after one or two of these nominating
committees had managed to present all
the names of their own members, this
custom fell into innocuous desuetude.
Places upon these contests were eagerly
sought for, and regarded as the reward
of faithful, earnest work in the society.

The first of these contests occurred
less than three months after the founding
of the Union Society, and was held in
the chapel in the winter term of 1877.
It resulted in a tie, to the greatest disgust
of the more active partisans on both
sides. Some of the friends of the con-
testants did not hesitate to say that the
judges were afraid!

A second contest in March, 1878, re-
sulted in a similar decision. This second
contest was enlivened by a mock program
gotten up and distributed gratis through
the audience by adminring friends of the
"performers", as those were called who
took part in society exhibitions. The pro-
gram and the "take-off" were about as
follows:—

GRAND JAMAREE!

• Sermon 1st, Joshua Old Style, Wahoo. Text: "It seems to me the beginning's on the wrong end."


• Sermons 2nd, Ce Em Stratton. Text: "Down in a Coal Mine: let there be Light"


• Lullaby "He's soft on me."


• Problem "Shall we buy eight dollar uniforms? No! Once bit, we're Twice shy."


• They all du et Ran Rogerson. "Moonshine on a Hog's Back."


• Fillibustering: "Is there a Hell? The bulldozing Contaminators swears there is, but Alfred, at the suggestion of his girl, says no".


• A Quart yet:


• >"I've found my darling girl at last


• >She's in her little trundle bed.


• >And fleas are falling thick and fast


• >And gently hov'ring round her head."


• "Unsolved Problems or Bi quadratics under the Radical (trite)," by the beardless youth from Nebraska City.


• There will be weeping, and wailing and gnashing of teeth when the judges—Dublin Jack, Bobby Mitchell and Logician McAllister—dish up their chin music.


• Pugilists enter the ring at 7:30 Wheelbarrows ordered at 10.


• P.S. Should the judges disagree, Profs. Baily and Woodberry will bowl it off the tie in a ten pin alley.


• N.B. Ladies need not fear to bring their infants, as the University String Band has been let out to grass.

In these early contests there was no
system of marking such as now prevails,
and the judges simply had to give the
contest entirely, or such divisions as
they might designate, as oration or es-
say or debate, to one society or the other
with no such alleviating slave to wounded
pride as is now furnished by the thought
that the other side only won by five or

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ten points, as the case may be. So one's
sympathy rather goes out to those poor
old judges who so often dodged their on-
erous responsibilities and found safety in
a tie vote! But what small consolation
that tie vote was to the ambitious contest-
ants who had used the approaching con-
test as an excuse for poorly prepared les-
sons and non-performance of society and
other duties!

The first contest of the Palladian so-
ciety with any organization outside of the
University was the engagement with the
Hesperian society of Doane College in
May, 1882 The Palladians chartered a
train and went down in a body, accom-
panied by the cadet band and many
members of the faculty and a goodly
number of interested citizens. The liter-
ary part of the program was as follows:—

The decision of the judges gave the
recitation and oration to the Palladians
and the essay and debate to the Hesperi-
ans—a decision which seemed to satisfy
neither side and was greeted by many
groans from the Palladians. The mid-
night train to Lincoln brought home a
crowd somewhat less exuberant in spirit
and perhaps wiser for their experience.

A candid historian of these early con-
tests cannot truthfully say that they pro-
duced much good beyond the training in
composition and public speaking which
they brought to those on the programs.
They added to the unnecessary and often
hurtful rivalry between the societies and
interfered with quiet, earnest work in
the class room.