eriod,
although the _Michiganensian_ has a gallery of ancestors which, at
least, establishes its lineage. In the very earliest period, whatever
literary efforts there were, were lost or preserved only in the
manuscript papers of the early literary societies, which provided the
only practical outlet for the student who wanted to write. Paper and
printing were too expensive for actual publication, so it was not until
June, 1857, that the first real student paper appeared, with the
impressive title of _Peninsular Phoenix and University Gazetteer_, a
semi-annual four page sheet whose first page was devoted to lists of
University officers and secret-society members, while its existence as a
gazetteer was justified by a very few "connubial" items.

The title of this publication was truly prophetic for its successor,
_The University Phoenix_, arose from its ashes the following
November,--in the form of an eight-page monthly, the first number of
which was largely devoted to a long editorial, an article on the
University Museum of Arts, and another on the Detroit Observatory. This
was published by Green and Company, an organization which consisted of
one S.B. Green, a student of the class of '60 who was a printer, and a
non-existent company, though it was supposed to have the support of the
three literary societies. Another publication which had appeared between
the two issues of the _Phoenix_ was the one issue of the University
_Register_.

Though a list of fraternity men was published in all of these sheets,
the fraternities were not satisfied and decided to establish a paper of
their own. Thus was born, in 1859, the _Palladium_, a four-page paper
which for some time appeared semi-annually. As the first issue was
apparently listed as number 2, it is probable that it was considered the
reincarnation of the _Phoenix_. In the issue for December, 1860, the
editor reveals the fact that 800 copies were printed at a cost of $85.
It was then a booklet of less than 50 pages, bound in glazed paper, with
almost no literary matter included, although the first number did
contain a "Freshman Song," the first bit of Michigan undergraduate
verse. Eventually, as we have seen, it became part of the
_Michiganensian_.

The _Palladium_ was not long without a rival, which came with the
establishment of the _Independent_, "a small quarterly of some forty
violently written pages," illustrating "not only the bitter feeling
between the societies an