EDUCATION.

AN N interesting experiment combining the elements of socialism and communism, is being tried near St. Anne, Ill., about sixty miles south of Chicago. There, what is known as the People's University has been established on a section of land (640 acres), under the management of Walter Thomas Mills, well known as a lecturer on temperance and other social and economic topics. The central idea is simply to provide an opportunity for study for those who are willing, by their own toil, to take advantage of such opportunity.

The land is cultivated co-operatively by all (teachers as well as students), the proceeds are sold for the benefit of all, and the property of the community is kept in a common storehouse.

The community started with a capital of $4,500, invested in tools, machinery, and live stock. The school has asked for no gifts, and does not expect to secure any endowments. The students and teachers are working with their own hands at the construction of the buildings, and are carrying on the agricultural work of the school, all of which is done without compensation. Their labor is employed directly in producing the food, clothing, fuel, and shelter necessary for their own comfortable existence. When this labor has provided these necessities, the balance of their time is devoted to study.

They have built five miles of fences; planted fruit trees and five hundred grape vines; have set out an immense garden of about ten acres; have fields containing twenty thousand sweet potato plants, twenty-one acres of Irish potatoes, eighty acres of oats, two hundred and fifty acres of corn, forty acres of sorghum, twenty acres of millet, and twenty acres of buckwheat.

The form in which the buildings are constructed is that of a small village, but there is no subdivision of land, and no sale of lots. The school will hold, in its own name and for its own use, all land, houses, shops, and implements of every kind. There is no way in which any person can secure a speculative or even legitimate business interest in any of the work of this school. There is no plan for admitting for residence in this village anyone who does not come solely for an educational purpose.

The promoters of the school expect that in a short time it will be absolutely self-supporting.

Illiteracy among negroes in the United States is notably decreasing, as shown by statistics recently gathered for the department of education.

It may be said that in 1860 the colored race was totally illiterate. In 1870 more than eighty-five per cent of the colored population of the South, ten years of age and over, could not read and write. In 1880 the percentage of illiterates had been reduced to seventy-five, and in 1890 the illiterates comprised about sixty per cent of the colored population of ten years of age and over. In some of the colored states the percentage is even fifty per cent. The District of Columbia leads in intelligence among its colored citizens, "the illiteracy there being rated at thirty-five per cent.

In thirty years forty per cent of the illiteracy of the colored race

has disappeared. In education and in industrial progress this race has accomplished more than it could have achieved in centuries in a different environment, without the aid of the whites. The negro has needed the example as well as the aid of the white man. In sections where the colored population is massed and removed from contact with the whites, the progress of the negro has been retarded. He is an imitative being, and has a constant desire to attempt whatever he sees the white man do. He believes in educating his children, because he can see that an increase of knowledge will enable them to better their condition. But segregate the colored population, and you take away its object-lesson.

As proof of the above assertion, statistics show that where the colored population is greatest in proportion to the total population, or where the colored population is massed, as in the "black belt" of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, there the percentage of illiteracy is highest.

There are now in the South 162 institutions for the secondary and higher education of negroes, thirty-two of which are colleges and seventy-three normal schools. There are over 27,000 negro teachers in the Southern states; and the number of these, as well as the enrolment of negro pupils in common and higher schools, is steadily increasing. During the last twenty years the sixteen former slave states have appropriated nearly $80,000,000 for negro schools.

MUSIC AND THE DRAMA.

A NEW musical farce entitled The Geisha, by Owen Hall and Henry Greenbank, music by Sidney Jones and Lionel Monckton, was successfully brought out at Daly's theatre, New York city, about the beginning of the quarter.

The story tells of a beautiful geisha (singing girl) employed in a tea house in Yokohama, Japan, whose charms fascinate a British naval officer. He is, however, betrothed to an English girl; and the geisha, who is in love with an officer of her own race, is not deceived. The English girl reaches Japan with a yachting party, and disguises herself, becoming a tea-house geisha; and in that character she is purchased by a wicked and powerful marquis, who wants to make her his wife. His villainy is, however, foiled.

The Mandarin, a comic opera, by Reginald de Koven and Harry B. Smith, authors of Robin Hood and Rob Roy, was successfully running at the Herald Square theatre, New York city, in November.

The Mandarin of Foo-Chow has twelve wives, all the law will allow to anyone in China, save the emperor. He falls in love with the wife of a carpenter in an adjoining street, and, putting on a car

penter's costume, calls on the lady in her husband's absence. The husband, later, comes home tipsy; and the police, who have followed him, search his house and arrest the disguised mandarin. The servants of the mandarin, on the other hand, take the carpenter away with them and treat him as if he was their master. When he awakes the next morning, he desires to go home to his wife-which announcement causes a commotion among the twelve wives, who were ignorant of the existence of a thirteenth. The emperor appears on the scene, and declares that the mandarin must be punished for having one wife more than the law allows. The thirteenth wife cannot at first be found, but she soon turns up in search of her husband, who is ordered to execution. All complications are unravelled in the last act.

The Fool of Fortune, a three-act comedy, by Martha Morton, was presented by W. II. Crane nad company at the Fifth Avenue theatre, New York city, December 1.

The "Fool of Fortune" is at the outset a prosperous, "nervy" Wall street operator, who by the treachery of a supposed friend is financially ruined and physically wrecked. The turn of the tide eventually bears him on to fortune again; but the good luck comes too late to the crushed, broken creature; and though he momentarily exults at his triumph his joy dies out miserably, overcome by excite

ment.

Other specially noteworthy productions of the quarter were: Brian Boru, an Irish romantic opera in three-acts, music by Julian Edwards, libretto by Stanislaus Strange, brought out by the Whitney Opera Company at the Broadway theatre, New York city, October 19; The Sign of the Cross, a four-act drama, by Wilson Barrett, at the Knickerbocker theatre, New York city, about November 9; Andrea Chénier, a four-act musical drama by Umberto Giordano, libretto by Luigi Illica, at the Academy of Music, New York city, November 13, by a company under Colonel Mapleson; and The Girl From Paris, a musical

Vol. 6-62.

comedy, by Ivan Caryll, libretto by George Dance, at the Herald Square threatre, New York city, December 8, under management of E E. Rice.

At the very close of the year comes the important announcement that the services of Dr. Antonin Dvorák, the great Bohemian composer, have again been secured as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York city. He first assumed the directorship in 1892 (Vol. 2, p. 427), but resigned in 1895 to give his personal attention to the education of his children. His most noted works composed while in America, are the symphony From the New World (Vol. 3, p. 863) and The American Flag (Vol. 5, p. 463).

The violin playing of Master Bronislav Huberman, a young Polish boy, has attracted attention to him as a remarkable musical prodigy.

The failure, in December, of the Imperial Opera Company, organized by Colonel Mapleson, is an incident worthy of note.

ARCHEOLOGY.

IN October general interest was aroused by the announced discovery of the ruins of a vast prehistoric city in the mountains in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. The discovery was made by William Niven, mineralogist, of New York, a life member of the American Museum of Natural History and a member of the New York Academy of Science and the Brooklyn Institute. Full details of the find will be awaited with eagerness. The ruins are said to be scattered over an area of nearly 1,000 square miles, and to include temples, pyramids, and other remains indicating an advanced state of civilization.

RELIGION.

The Catholic University.-An event which aroused much discussion in this country, was the resignation, on September 29, of Bishop John J. Keane as rector of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C., in obedience to instructions dated September 15 from Pope Leo XIII. The letter of recall intimated at the same time the intention of His Holiness to promote Bishop Keane to the rank of archbishop.

No authoritative statement has yet been made public as to the reasons which prompted the retirement of Bishop Keane; and the conjectures which have filled columns of the press would be out of place in this review. We may be permitted merely to state, as a matter of record, that the Protestant papers generally regard the bishop's removal as a virtual rebuke to what is popularly known as the "American School" of Catholicism, of which Archbishop Ireland and Bishop Keane are leading representatives. Another explanation offered is that it was brought about by German ecclesiastical influence. Few of the journals of the Roman Catholic faith, however, attach any such special significance to the bishop's retirement. All unite in speaking of Bishop Keane and of his work in the university in the highest terms. The inception, the remarkable progress, and the partial completion of the great institution, were largely the personal work of the late rector. On December 5 Bishop Keane sailed from New York on his way to Rome in the double mission, it is said, of consultor to the Congregation of Sacred Studies and to the Congregation de Propaganda Fide.

On November 20 was announced the appointment of a successor to Bishop Keane, in the person of Rev. Dr. Thomas J. Conaty of the Church of the Sacred Heart, Worcester, Mass.

CONATY, REV. THOMAS J., D. D., new rector of the Catholic University of America, was born in Ireland, August 1, 1847. His parents came to this country when he was three years old, and settled in Taunton, Mass., where he received his public school education. In 1863 he entered Montreal (Que.) College, where he remained four years, passing in September, 1867, to the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass., from which he was graduated in 1869. He went from Worcester to the Grand Seminary of Montreal, and in 1872 was ordained a priest of the diocese of Springfield, Mass. He served for a time as assistant pastor of St. John's church, in Springfield; and in 1880 he was transferred to the new parish of the Sacred Heart, in South Worcester, of which he has been pastor ever since.

He was the founder and first president of the Total Abstinence Union of the diocese of Springfield, and has been president of the national Union. He was also identified with the relief measures for Ireland in this country, and was treasurer of the Parnell parliamentary fund. For several years he has been president of the Catholic Summer School in Plattsburg, N. Y.

Dr. Conaty is the publisher of the Catholic School Gazette, and is regarded as a firm supporter of the parochial school. He represents the conservative element, but has not taken a very active part in the discussions.