isa-normaladvance-1914-00020

Description:	20THE NORMAL ADVANCECxcfjange ColumnABE MARTIN sez Mis Dried-Apple Moody sez thet her sister-n-laAV hez her house renoviated evry spring. The exchange column hez bin renoviated. We have laid in a new supply of clean yellow paper, refilled our foun¬ tain pen (the E. i. C.—short for editor-in- chief—forbids the use of pencil), furbished up our stock of ideas and prepared to do things differently. Ruskin diATides books, that is, printed matter, into two classes, books of the hour, and books of all time Charles Lamb makes another diATision and gives us books which are books and books which are no books  DeQuincey, to be original, tells us of the liter¬ ature of knowledge and the literature of poAver. We haA-e often been accused of having a vacuum in our head Avhere the faculty of ob¬ servation is supposed to be located, but in spite of that Ave haATe at least been observant enough to figure out an entirely neAV classifica¬ tion Avhich seems never to haATe occurred to those worthies of England, a classification so simple that no one else has ever announced it to the waiting world. We, too, divide books or, printed matter, into two classes, namely, books which are read and books Avhich are hot read. Among the latter Ave would mention the genealogies of the Bible, the catalogue of ships in Homers Iliad and the exchange column of The Normal Advance. Conscience and a due reA^erence for age forbids us to tam¬ per with either the Jew or the Greek, butagainst the Hoosier, Avar is from now on de¬ clared. We hereby announce to all men (also Avomen, gracious suffragists) that our purpose holds to lift the exchange column bodily from the unblessed society of books which are not read into the halloAved company of those which are. It has been too long a mere filler-in, a list of empty, meaningless names. This is un¬ just, both to ourselves and to those that send- us their papers. In courtesy to them, and con¬ sideration of ourselves, a change should, and shall be effected. We shall try earnestly and honestly to make the exchange column an in¬ tegral part of the paper, and a part, too, which eArery one Avill feel a desire to read. Perhaps we flatter ourself, but Ave can at least try.Unfortunately, this month affords us little material on which to put these new-pledged resolutions of ours to the test. Our exchanges have just begun coming in, and at the present writing Ave haAre received only two: The X-Ray, a cleA^er little paper from the Ander¬ son High School, and the Mission House Aero- lith, from Mission House College, Sheboygan, Wis. Both of them contain excellent ideas Avhich, AArlth a little alteration, might bear transplanting to our own paper. But of them more anon. Just watch for next months ex¬ change column and youll learn all about them  for this is only the beginning and, if Ave may take liberties Avith an ancient slang phrase, the best is yet to come.
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/32456
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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