nterest in public speaking and debating has existed almost from the
first days of the University, though it was only after the establishment
of the Department of Oratory that instruction began to be given
systematically and consecutively. Before that time, some elocutionary
training had been given by Professor Moses Coit Tyler in combination
with his work in English Literature, and later by President Hutchins,
then instructor in Rhetoric and History, who introduced what was then
known as the Junior Debates. These were continued by his successor,
Isaac N. Demmon, who was to become in a few years Professor of English
Literature. The great increase in the work in composition and public
speaking which came with the broadening of the course of study in 1878,
however, led to the abandonment of these debates and instruction in the
subject fell to a low ebb until Professor Trueblood came in 1884 to give
one-third of his time to this work. His success in this field eventually
led to his appointment as Professor of Oratory in 1890.

But if the powers that be were slow to recognize the desire of the
students for instruction in public speaking, there were many more or
less unofficial avenues for those who desired to give vent to their
oratorical impulses. Two escape valves existed almost from the first,
the old literary societies, and the class exhibitions and Commencement
programs which have been mentioned. The first literary society, Phi Phi
Alpha, was organized in 1842, to be followed, after an internal struggle
in the older society, by Alpha Nu, which has survived to the present
time and has long been the oldest of student organizations. Adelphi, the
other existing society, was not started until shortly before the demise
of Phi Phi Alpha in 1860. The traditional programmes of these societies
were largely orations, essays, and concluding debates in which such
momentous questions as,

_Resolved_: That the benefits of novel reading will compensate for
its injuries.

_Resolved_: That we have sufficient evidence for belief in ethereal
spirits.

_Resolved_: That brutes reason.

_Resolved_: That woman has as much influence in the nation as man.

_Resolved_: That students should not form matrimonial engagements
while in college.

These societies also maintained literary papers. Phi Phi Alpha had the
"Castalia," Alpha Nu, the "Sybil," and Adelphi, "The Hesperian." In 1868
they established