The Cheapness of Honorary Degrees
By Editor
IN a speech at the commencement exercises of Hamline University, Hamline, Minn., Prof. H. B. Wilson, speaking of literary titles, said:— "The initials A. M., D. D., LL.D., or LL.B., may mean one thing or another, anything or nothing, as one may choose to interpret them. The appellative attachments to one's name are, in this fast and progressive age, exceedingly cheap; yea, they may be said to be dog cheap! We have in our mind, just at this time, one who carries quite a large proportion of the Roman alphabet in front of his name, and D. D. and LL.D. in its rear, who cannot spell or write our mother English with respectable propriety." Not long since we saw in a denominational journal on this coast, a "college," that is now defunct, highly recommended, because it had conferred in its short life-time more degrees of D. D. (honorary, of course) than many of the older Eastern colleges! If it had only lived a little longer, there need not have been a minister on the coast who could not place two capital letters after his name. Well, some men need them; we may say that they compose the chief part of their literary capital.