Mr. Miller makes Mr. Sprague's statement appear absolute when in fact it is here only relative.

Mr. Sprague's error to which Mr. Miller refers in the last paragraph of his second letter seems quite natural since Mr. Miller referred to himself as a "salaried executive," and the letter-head of the school states that it is "conducted jointly" by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States and several other organizations.

The other side of the picture comes from Ramsay Oppenheim, publisher of Western Advertising:

I am writing to commend the publication in your September issue of the article "What Price Organization?" This hits at one of the abuses in modern American business life and I am glad that SCRIBNER'S had the courage to publish it.

THE EDITOR ASKS ONE

The editor of the Port Huron Times Herald has been hounding William Lyon Phelps. Mr. Phelps has a genius for asking questions. His one about the cow's horns in the September number aroused the editor's ire. He says in his columns:

He spends his summers right here in the Thumb district and we look upon him as our neighbor and friend.

He may be found almost any day in the company of Eddie Guest on the golf course at Pointe aux Barques.

He has played with Eddie day after day, season after season.

Here you are, professor:

Is Eddie Guest a golf player?

The professor answers with emphatic affirmative in a long letter printed in the paper two days later. To which the editor

retorts:

Just the same, we're still from Missouri and this goes for the professor, as well as Eddie.

Last summer they accepted our challenge to a golf match, day and date fixed, and we haven't heard a word from them since that time.

Maybe Eddie's a golf player. Maybe Billy Phelps is a golf player.

But we have to be shown.

Lillian Gay Berry, Latin department, Indiana University:

I found many things to admire in the article-the historical background so finely presented, the present aspect of the subject so philosophically and clearly set forth, the forceful and fitting English-I do not know of any better statement of this problem, and I have read many articles on it by the best thinkers and writers.

C. M. Wood, Superintendent, California Preparatory School for Boys, Pasadena:

Please permit me to thank you for your article in SCRIBNER'S for August, 1925. I wish it might be reprinted in all the leading magazines and newspapers of the country, or at least some means found for getting it before the parents of all children in the schools, both public and private.

A letter from the professor a few days later says: Editor Weil has accepted my challenge to meet Eddie Guest and me in a golf match at Huron City on Tuesday, July 13, at 2.13 p.m. Eddie and wear blazers in action, and are known as the Blazing Scribblers.

Consulting the calendar, we find that he means

1926.

RELIGION IN THE SCHOOLS

Henry Noble Sherwood has received a great many letters of comment on "The State and Religious Teaching." We are reprinting selections from a few below.

In my opinion you have fired an important shot and have hit the bull's-eye. If the educators of the country could only be brought to see the truth in that respect, and to have the courage of their convictions as you have had, something worthwhile would soon be accomplished toward bringing the Bible back into the schools. SCRIBNER'S is to be congratulated not only on finding you but in opening its pages to what I suppose many persons would call conservative," if not something

a

worse.

Hugh S. Kerr, Pittsburgh, Pa.:

I was deeply interested and instructed by your timely article in SCRIBNER'S. happen to be president of our Presbyterian Board of Education. This adds to my interest. Do you have available the data you summarize concerning the colleges that began under church auspices? The facts you give are of vital interest to me. Perhaps you could give me the sources and I can look up the figures and facts for myself.

And, again, here is the reverse of the shield:

DEAR OBSERVER: Mr. Sherwood's article in your August issue treats an important subject very inadequately.

Granted that the Bible is good literature, would it be taught only as such in the public schools? Hardly possible, I think. Some student would be sure to ask: "Is every word in the Bible true?" How would a conscientious teacher answer such a question? In most cases her answer would have to be in the affirmative. Then how about the thousands of parents who do not believe in the infallibility of the Bible? These parents would feel it their duty to tell their children differently, and in that way the child's faith in his instruction at school and the wisdom of his parents at home would be undermined. No, the present attitude of church people toward the Bible makes it impossible to use the Book solely as literature in the public schools.

When the Christians themselves can agree on an interpretation of the Bible that will satisfy all sects, then it will be time to consider the introduction of the Book into the public schools. How can a book that confuses even Christian scholars be of help to the average child? The place for religious instruction to the child is at home. If the parents

Dear Observer: Cut in stone over the door of the Hong Kong post-office are the words: "As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." SCRIBNER's is the good news, and for us in the Orient, America is the far country.

In a long chair in our cool sala, with Sabino near by to bring me an occasional lemonade, I have just spent a delightful Sunday afternoon reading the July SCRIBNER'S. The Perfect Servant, Cap'n Quiller, The Professor and the Pink Lady have entertained me. I have had fireside journeys over Katahdin and through Mongolia, have compared Caroline Camp's antiques with my own, and have enjoyed it all, from Heredity to the Field of Art.

SCRIBNER'S is always the same-it satisfies; yet it is always different-it is better each year.

HADWEN HARRY WILLIAMS.

Pasig, Rizal Province, Philippine Islands.

BARNUM, PATRON SAINT

A flamboyant advertisement from the Birmingham (Mich.) Eccentric for July 31, 1925, announces the thirty-sixth annual tour of John F. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Mr. Stowe is described as "The Barnum of Them All" and "The Only Living Nephew of the Authoress, Harriet Beecher Stowe.' A smaller advertisement in the Detroit News for August 20 proclaims that "Stetson's Big Uncle Tom's Cabin Company-The Barnum of Them All" will play at a leading theatre for two weeks. We are indebted to Lee A. White, of the Detroit News, for these invaluable bits.

DEAR OBSERVER: In the midst of hilarious recounting of the appearance of Uncle Tom's Cabin in my home village of Birmingham, I was apprised of your comment on the Tom Shows in the "What You Think About It" page of SCRIBNER'S for June. In the interests of "the greater truth" I enclose herewith the evidence. In view of the announcement that this is the largest and best in the world, I'd like very much to see a second company.

While this remarkable little tent show was playing to a crowded house in Birmingham, Stetson's was showing in Flint, Mich., a city of about 100,000, in a theatre. The smaller enclosure is a clipping from today's Detroit News, showing the Stetson troupe is to play in one of our leading Detroit theatres for two weeks beginning Sunday. I regret that the wild woods are to receive me for a fortnight, during the run, and will prevent my attending.

The tent show was unbelievably rich. The "special train of motor-cars, trucks, and trailers" was a hiccoughing lot of little Fords, one of which carried the lighting plant that smothered lines at critical moments during the show. The gas engine died during Eva's struggle against death, and nearly put the show on the blink. The band which played on the streets at noon, gaily caparisoned, was, as you might imagine, made up of the troupers. There were no bloodhounds, though there was a trick dog which performed as an entre act. Parts were not merely doubled but tripled, one gal playing Eliza, Eva's mother, and a nigger wench in the auction; playing all badly, and without time for change of makeup-so she was a white Eliza, to the confusion of my daughter, aged 8. Those unfortunate enough to die during the show picked themselves up from the boards as quickly as possible and joined the orchestra. One crack of the whip, butt end, sufficed to kill Uncie Tom. There was no ascension. Two years ago Eva fell when the rope broke in a Tom Show here, under canvas, and it seems to have dampened their aeronautic ardor.

You might imagine the patronage here evidence only of a sense of humor. But tears were shed and hearts thrilled, nevertheless, drying only when Eva left her heavenly home to pass through the audience selling pictures of herself "for her musical education."

It is 15 years or more since I have had a chance to see Ten Nights. I hope it is revived locally.

EAVESDROPPING ON THE BRAIN

All of us were interested in reading in despatches from Paris about the experiment in receiving radio waves from the human brain. O. E. McMeans sends us a clipping with a very interesting letter linking up the idea with an article of his in SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE.

The newspaper clipping enclosed gives new impetus to a vague idea which I have had for many years while working with radio communication. This was the feeling that, some day and somehow, a definite connection would be found between electro-magnetic, or "radio," waves and the action of the brain and nervous system.

This idea was expressed in the last sentence of the article, "Eavesdropping on the World," which SCRIBNER'S was kind enough to publish in August, 1922. The sentence ran:

"Will the radio give us a hint to lead us forward on the trail to the understanding of that greatest mystery confronting the human mind, the nature of the mind itself? Who knows?"

If the more complete publication of the results of these experiments which is promised substantiates the preliminary announcement, we may look for an epochal discovery touching the very springs of life itself.

Radio waves emanating from the human brain, either normal or under excitement from any cause, can of course never be interpreted in any sort of code or language, artificial and arbitrary as these all are. But the knowledge of the physical basis of mental action and nerve stimulation will open up avenues of research and the possible understanding of phenomena which have hitherto been matters for vague speculation and the wild imaginings of pseudo-scientists.

It is impossible to foresee the vast extent of the fields upon which such a new door may open. We may hope that there has not been an error somewhere in the experiments or the newspaper account.

ANOTHER DOWNINGITE

DEAR OBSERVER: I subscribe to the magazine for the columns of Professor Phelps and Royal Cortissoz. Therefore you may be interested to know that although I had come to think of my truly interested short-story reading days as over, I was compelled from the opening lines of J. Hyatt Downing's "Closed Roads" to read and enjoy with surprising absorption. Because the story lives with me yet I decided to tell you my impression. Needless to add, I await eagerly further work of his. J. GRAHAM.

Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

OPEN-MINDED, MANY-SIDED Edward H. Zabriskie, who has charge of the Contemporary Civilization Course at Rutgers College, writes:

I read with much interest your SCRIBNER'S monthly. The pertinent questions and problems which are treated in your periodical, the open-mindedness you show, and the many sides you present, all in search for the truth, are indeed 2 high tribute to any public-speaking organ. And I am sure that many people come to a more accurate understanding of the truth of many perplexing issues through your monthly

pages.

***

We know of no better thought to leave with you. THE OBSERVER.

For the last year or so SCRIBNER'S has been printing some of the liveliest articles on college subjects that have appeared in America, and we would infer that the policy is to be continued-especially so after reading this issue, and then noting in the New York Herald Tribune the following announcement: "Stuart P. Sherman will have an article for SCRIBNER'S soon, for which he will be burned in effigy on every college campus in these United States. ... Yes, and in the first person, too, if they catch him."

Dr. Sherman's article, so referred to by the Dallas News, appears in the Christmas number of SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE. With Mr. Williams's "I Went to College" in this number, and others to come, you may well judge that the "policy is to be continued."

NEW FICTION The Christmas number, too, is noteworthy as marking the beginning of John Galsworthy's new novel, "The Silver Spoon," his first fulllength fiction since "The White Monkey," which

scored a tremendous success."The Silver Spoon' is a novel of modern life, a compelling story, spiced by Mr. Galsworthy's keen observations upon the young people of to-day.

Five other stories by such writers as Mary Raymond Shipman An

international relations. Dr. van Dyke's many friends, who have followed his writing for years, will likewise welcome him back to the fold.

Carol Parks, whose satiric sketch of the gogetting "President Vergilius Alden Cook" at

drews, McCready Huston, Thomas Boyd, George S. Brooks, and Margharite McLean (who is a newcomer to the ranks) make the Christmas SCRIBNER's a real source for those who enjoy the American short story.

Henry van Dyke's "The Newness of New Zealand" and Raymond Recouly's "The Social Upset in France" will interest students of

tracted such attention in the September number, will have another in the Christmas number entitled "Bread and Stones." It has to do with a certain type of worldly minister of the gospel.

AMERICAN ART

The Art Division of the General Federation of Women's Clubs stresses in its national programme "Study American art" and "Hold fast to the beautiful in everything." Royal Cortissoz each month discusses American art and the most beautiful of the foreign works that are being exhibited in this country.

From the number of communications we receive asking for further information upon the articles mentioned on this page and expressing interest in The Corner, we are assured of a large amount of interest in our undertaking. Mrs. Curtis Brown, President of the American Women's Club of London, for example, writes us: "The Club Corner, I am sure, will be of very considerable value to the club." We do not attempt to prepare club programmes. We point out coming articles and stories in SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE which seem likely to interest club members.