human nature, and the plot-interest is well sustained to the end. Hindle Wakes. A Play, by Stanley Houghton. The John W. Luce Company, Boston. 75 cents. "Hindle Wakes," a play that parallels Galsworthy's "Eldest Son" in thought if not in scene or characters, ranks among the best of recent dramas dealing with the double standard of sexual morality. The play is strong, not merely because it is unpleasant, but chiefly because it contains much that is painfully true. In the gradual substitution of frankness and sanity for complacent sentimentality many widely accepted notions of what is right, perhaps we should say rather what is proper, are bound to be badly shattered. This play of Stanley Houghton': must have awakened in many minds that discontent with present conditions which is the first step in progress toward a higher ideal. Windham Papers (The). In 2 vols. Small, Maynard & Co., Boston. $10. William Windham died in 1810. He was a member of Pitt's first Cabinet. A hundred years have now passed since Windham's death, but no biography has appeared of him, though Lord Rosebery has called him "the finest English gentleman of his or perhaps of all time." He was the intimate friend of Johnson, Burke, and Fox. He was a favorite with the King; he was the political associate of Lord Grenville and the Duke of Portland, and of course of Pitt. His correspondence was extremely interesting, and the two just-published volumes, comprising it and an account of his life, include hitherto unpublished letters from Burke, Canning, Fox, Nelson, Pitt, George III, the Dukes of York and Gloucester, Lords Minto, Grenville, and Castlereagh. Among the most noteworthy of these letters are those in the series from Windham to Pitt marked “most private." They urge the Prime Minister to remove the Duke of York from the command of the British army in Flanders, and contain first-hand accounts of secret ministerial negotiations. More interesting still is a "most secret " letter discussing the desirability of having Engl nd undertake to protect the newly born American Republic by sea, lest that Republic build a navy of its own and so prejudice the supremacy of British seapower. It is a satisfaction to see in these letters that Windham was a friend to America at a time when such a friendship was most needed. If with regard to British politics we may feel that there is here and there a good deal in these volumes which the ordinary reader could dispense with, that feeling certainly does not obtain when it comes to the history of the struggling American Republic. Despite Lord Rosebery's emphatic use of superlatives in his introduction, a perusal of these volumes will, we hink, leave upon the reader's mind the feeling *hat, though Windham was an interesting and in many respects an admirable man, his political course did not disclose an ideally rugged independence. Collected Poems. By Austin Dobson. E. P. Dutton & Co., New York. $2. If numerous poets have flown higher and con tinued longer on the wing than Austin Dobson, there are certainly not many who have come so few croppers. Wordsworth, as A. E. Robinson says, "sometimes lumbers like a raft," Browning is occasionally choked by the rush of his own thought, Swinburne swept off his feet by the flood of his own music; but Dobson, carver of peachstones and painter of porcelains, works serenely on with never a quiver of his deftly flying fingers and few signs of flagging power. Perhaps, after all, there is some compensation in being able to say with him: If zealots burn, Their zeal has not affected My taste for salmon and sauterne." Negative praise such as this, however, is poor tribute for a poet whose every line is a delight to both mind and ear. Whether, from scraps of Boswell, he builds us a "Postscript to Goldsmith's Retaliation," or, in the fanciful meters of old France, makes verbal magic for our enchantment, "he touches nothing which he does not adorn." To him can be justly given the meed of praise he sent to Aldrich upon the latter's seventieth birthday: 46 Least-least of all, need we excuse The Bard who, backward-looking, views And yet, Sing on. While life renews This excellent edition of Austin Dobson's poems is a pleasure to possess and a joy to peruse. Cyclopedia of Education. Edited by Paul Monroe, Ph.D. Vol. 4. The Macmillan Company, New York. $5. Every new volume of this great work gives emphasis to what The Outlook has already said of its value in bringing together within easy reach for reference a vast range of information concerning a subject so closely related to all modern interests. History and biography, science, philosophy and religion, methods, statistics, institutions and laws, the family and the State, are all found in this universal intelligence office of education. New Industrial Day (The). By William C. Redfield. The Century Company, New York. $1.25. Labor futilely expended is a waste both of material and of human life. Mr. Redfield, the present Secretary of Commerce, himself a successful manufacturer, has written this book to show the possibilities of reducing this twofold waste. Such a reduction means more profit to the manufacturer, more wages and less toil for the worker, and cheaper goods for the consumer. Best of all, it means healthier relations between manufacturer, workman, and public. In the solution of the problem are involved such diverse questions as the tariff and the prevention of industrial accidents and diseases. Mr. Redfield leaves the details of scientific management to such writers as F. W. Taylor and H. L. Gantt. What he emphasizes is the necessity for the introduction of the scientific spirit into business management. There are many manufacturers and managers who would find the reading of this book a profitable investment of their time. My Past. By the Countess Marie Larisch. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. $3.50. The death of Rudolph, the late Crown Prince of Austria, has always been shrouded in mystery. That mystery is likely to be less if all the statements in Countess Larisch's just-published book may be believed. Many accounts, she says, have been written of the drama at Meyerling, where the Crown Prince and the Baroness Marie Vetsera were found dead. So-called eye-witnesses have given versions of the affair, and a tissue of lies has been woven around me in connection with the death of my cousin, the Crown Prince Rudolph. Hitherto I have not refuted the slanders circulated about me, as I deemed them unworthy of notice, but, as my oldest son shot himself on account of what he read in one of the lying books and my daughters' lives have been embittered by hearing so much that is untrue regarding the part I played in the drama, I have made up my mind to speak, after a silence of twenty-four years, and to acquaint the world with the truth as to what really happened before and after the tragedy of Meyerling. Just how necessary it was to fill a rather thick book with a great many details concerning this catastrophe will be a question in the mind of the average American reader. But, if not as interested in that particular feature of the volume as he might be, the reader may be more interested in another feature, namely, the part of the book devoted to intimate reminiscences of the late Empress Elizabeth of Austria. Countess Larisch, a daughter of Duke Louis of Bavaria, is her niece. The present volume will doubtless receive wide reading, if for no other reason than because of the chance to view the private lives of an imperial family in Vienna and a royal family in Munich through the eyes of one intimately related to both. Fundamental Christian Faith (The). By Charles Consisting in a critical exposition of the earliest creeds-the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian-this volume contends, as St. Jude exhorts, "for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints," even for their belief in the simultaneous resurrection of all the dead, and the ensuing judgment of all mankind, both the dead and the living, at the advent of Christ in glory. The point most stressed is the Virgin Birth of Christ, to which over fifty pages are devoted. On one tender point of strict orthodoxy Dr. Briggs goes over from ancient to modern theology-the extension of Christ's saving work beyond the present world to all who have not in this world deliberately rejected him -a doctrine which some thirty years ago brought the professors in Andover Seminary into a famous trial for heresy. Dr. Briggs is also constrained, as a critical scholar, to say that the Trinitarian formula in Matthew xxviii. 19 "comes not from Jesus." It can hardly escape notice that the "faith" which Dr. Briggs contends for is rather a form of faith. Social Idealism and the Changing Theology. By Gerald Birney Smith. The Macmillan Company, New York. $1.25. Poles apart from Dr. Briggs's view-point is Professor Smith's. He exhibits the fact of the ethical evolution that has taken place, and shows how an intelligent appreciation of it may promote the reconstruction of theology. The case is put thus: For many centuries ecclesiastical authority was a source of moral power. It has now, so far as held to, become a source of moral weakness, so that the Church has lost hold of a large section of society. In view of the moral challenge thus presented to the Church, the argument unfolds the ethical basis of the relig ious assurance essential to moral power, and the world's demand for the ethical transformation of theology. The ethical evolution here reviewed consists rather in an advance from tribal -i. e., ecclesiastical or group ethics--to individual ethics, than from aristocratic to democratic, as Dr. Smith holds. His work is one to be read and pondered by all who realize the fact that the moral leadership of the Church is now at stake. Youth and Life. By Randolph S. Bourne. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. $1.50. Most significant essays on life can be described as autobiographical postludes. Mr. Bourne's volume, however, if we are to judge it by his age and not by his maturity, must be called a prelude. He writes of youth from his current experience, and of middle age as of some still distant haven. The unusual view-point of the essayist lends interest to a book of distinct value in itself. Odd Farmhouse (The). By the Odd Farm-Wife. The Macmillan Company, New York. $1.35. So many people have found rest and contentment in the country, and such a large majority of them have been moved to record the fact in book form, that readers of this kind of literature have grown a bit blasé. The present volume, written apparently by the American wife of an English author living in Kent, is interesting because of the novelty of the scenes described rather than from any very unusual merit in the way the subject of country life has been treated. TO STOP INTERFERENCE IN WIRELESS A DISTINGUISHED inventor, Dr. Michael I. Pupin, who is Professor of Electro-Mechanics in Columbia University, has invented a rotating armature or inductor which, it is confidently predicted by specialists and engineers, will immensely increase the practical usefulness of wireless telegraphy-one scientist at least (Professor Elihu Thompson) believes that it will make it possible to send wireless messages from New York to Yokohama or even around the world. In a recent lecture, Dr. Pupin (who, by the way, invented the Pupin coil system which has done much to extend the possibilities of the telephone) thus describes his invention and what he hopes it will accomplish: The great difficulty with wireless communication has been that the electric waves weaken so that it is impossible to send messages many thousands of miles. Atmospheric conditions and other causes have limited wireless signaling to about 3,000 miles. By using balloons, Marconi sent messages 3,000 miles. Between land stations 2,000 miles has been about the maximum distance. I have invented a device by which the electric current is put in inductive relation with a rotating armature of a motor. When a signal is received, it acts at once on the rotating armature, and the rotating feature serves to increase vastly the strength of the current and the magnetic power, thereby assuring greatly extended communication. The rotator serves another purpose almost as important. It suppresses confusing signals. Take, for instance, a ship in the English Channel, a waterway where there is much interference in wireless communica tion brought about by the great number of ships and land stations using wireless systems. By the use of my invention a ship in the Channel could receive uninterruptedly and clearly and send with the same absence of confusion although one hundred ships and stations were signaling at the same time. My invention is an entirely new form of transmitting and receiving circuit. FROZEN COAL SHAFTS It was not until 1883, says the Scientific American," when Poetsch invented the “freezing method," that Holland's coal fields became of any practical value. The coal is found in the province of Limburg, and, what is more, the two mines near Kerkrade in that province were the very first coal mines operated in Continental Europe in medieval times. When, after 1860, the mining industry came to be more seriously considered, and several concessions had been given out by the Dutch Government, it was found that the coal layers could not properly be reached, for in every place, except in the two mediaval mines near Kerkrade, where coal is encountered immediately under the solid rock, there is a stratum of drift sand that contains great quantities of water. This condition of things made it practically impossible to build the shafts, which had to be of considerable depth. for the coal layers are encountered at a depth of from 300 to 1,000 feet. The freezing method, however, has successfully solved the problem, and Holland now has a flourishing mining industry. On the spot where the shaft is to be dug, from 25 to 30 borings are made down through the drift sand to the solid rock in a circle five feet larger in diameter than the projected shaft. Pipes are then sunk into these bore-holes, and through these is circulated, by powerful freezing machines, a chemical solution cooled down to minus 20 deg. Cent. In this way the drift sand containing the water is frozen as hard as a rock after the freezing machines have been working day and night for two months. In this frozen cylinder of sand a shaft is then dug and lined from bottom to top with strong segments of cast iron securely soldered together with lead. THE ELECTRICAL AUCTIONEER Auction sales are accompanied by a great deal of noise, and in order to do away with this, the Scientific American" tells us, an electrical method has appeared in Holland which seems quite promising, and the sales are now carried on almost in silence. It is now applied to selling eggs by auction. according to the custom which prevails in the agricultural centers throughout the country in the weekly markets. Eggs are auctioned off in 2,500 lots, and on the new plan each bidder has a numbered seat with a push-button and wiring. The seller is stationed in front of a large dial having prices ranged around it from lowest to highest. There is also a large board containing like numbers which can be electrically lighted. and these are connected to the seats. the proper announcement of the lot of eggs as to quality and weight, the seller starts the hand slowly moving around the dial. When After at any figure, the buyer presses his button and the corresponding figure on the board lights up, and his number is registered by an annunciator. As the hand moves on, the next bidder can register a higher number, and so on until the bidding is finished. The method is said to work very well, and no doubt can be applied to all kinds of auction sales. TEACHING INDUSTRIAL PHYSICS President Richard C. Maclaurin, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announces the establishment of a course that will be unique in educational institutions—one in industrial physics. This is the outcome of the need for men trained in physics for the solution of problems that present themselves to the industrial world. The new course is the outcome of a real need that has been voiced by President Theodore N. Vail, of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, who has said that more and more business firms find it to their interests to undertake research in chemistry and physics, the direct relations of which to their specialties are not always obvious. And when one looks over the chemical problems of the day, it is evident that many of them are really in the field of physics. The suggested option differs from those hitherto constituting the course in physics in requiring a less extended study of pure and applied mathematics and a fuller consideration of applied physics both in the lectureroom and laboratory. The study of applied optics, heat measurements, and electric measurements is greatly extended. Much time is devoted to theoretical and applied chemistry. A very considerable amount of study in mechanical and electrical engineering subjects is required, and electro-chemistry, pure and applied, and metallography, are likewise included. There is provided an exceptional equipment of instruments and apparatus of precision so that a large amount of accurate work can be done in the above lines of study. In establishing the course the Institute is a pioneer, as it has been in so many other lines of technological education. It was the first school in the country to establish a course in physics at a time when there was no course leading to a degree in this study. In 1873 the Institute laid out a course that was comparable in extent and thoroughness to the courses leading to engineering or other professions. In 1882 the Institute established its department of electrical engineering, an outgrowth of the department of physics; and again Owing to the precipitous character of the country in many parts it is impossible for an observer to see from one valley into another, and for that reason a fire may smolder and gain great headway before it is discovered. If an aeroplane were used, however, a column of smoke could be located almost immediately and the exact location of the fire given to the range patrol. If this matter has received serious consideration from the Government, further tests should be urged, and, if practicable, range stations should be provided with aeroplanes and operators at once. The season is now at hand when disastrous forest fires will sweep through the woodlands of the great Northwest. The cost of aerial scouts is so small compared to the enormous damage caused by these fires that, if the plan is at all feasible, machines should be put in service at once. CEMENT THAT LASTS In the making of cement modern invention has not surpassed or equaled the ancients. An exchange, commenting on a recent demolition by soil movement of a small section of Roman wall at Caerwent, in England, says that this is about the only way in which the Roman walls can meet a natural collapse, for practically they are otherwise absolutely enduring. There are several hundred miles of Roman wall still standing in England. The secret of their permanence is the cement. We do not know the method of its composition, but it is far sounder than any modern cement. Indeed, when some part of such a wall as that mentioned has to be dislodged it is necessary to use dynamite. All that we know of Roman cement is that pounded tile forms a considerable element in it. For the rest. Roman walls were built with stone and tile from a cement bottom." Adenatured bar" is a feature of the new building of the Seamen's Church Institute in New York City. The bar is like that of the ordinary saloon, with polished mahogany, shining glasses, brass rail, etc., in cheerful evidence to the thirsty sailorman and his mates; but instead of hard drinks the "hornpipe sundae," the "raspberry life-preserver," the" Neptune frappé," and other palatable but nonalcoholic beverages will assuage Jack's thirst and keep his heels straight at the same time. Dr. Simon Baruch, President of the American Association for Promoting Hygienic and Public Baths, in a recent address said that "baths present an educational factor that is far in excess of learning. A child, when clean, has respect for himself and is more responsive to law and order." Dr. Baruch urges the maintaining of school baths, as more important even than school gymnasiums. The Panama-Pacific Exposition's official poster is the work of a young woman of Washington, D. C., Miss Clair Breckons, whose design was chosen from among several hundred competing posters, mostly by better-known artists. The successful poster will picture a goddess representing peace and plenty, with arms outstretched in welcome. There is said to be a suggestion of the influence of the postimpressionists in the design. A reversal of the rule that it is never too late to mend is found in the case of a centenarian of Hartford, Connecticut, who, according to the "Watchman," lived a correct life up to the age of 100 and since attaining that extra-grand climacteric has been arrested six times for violating the excise law. Comment on this fact is respectfully invited from the originator of the saying, "As the twig is bent the tree's inclined." Mr. Ernest Dressel North, in an address before the recent convention of the American Booksellers' Association, said that the collecting of fine books in this country has not kept pace with the gathering together of paintings, etchings, and other works of art. There are fewer dealers in fine and rare books," he said, "in proportion to the population when we have 91,000.000 than when we had 44,000,000." This may be true, but collectors of fine books now spend more money on them than ever beforewitness the sale of the Hoe library, and the steadily increasing prices of rare books. Bad men who are sensitive as to the manner of the final expiation of their crimes should find the climate of Nevada congenial. In that State men condemned to death are given the choice between "a soldier's death "by shooting and the old method by hanging. Recently the first execution under the new law took place, and the condemned man not only chose to “ die like a soldier," but refused to be blindfolded when brought before the rifles. Sir William Treloar, ex-Mayor of London and something of a humorist, on returning home from a recent visit to this country said to a reporter that he" wished folks in America would not ask him any more for his opinion of the suffragettes. He was for giving them a ton of crockery every day and letting them get rid of superfluous steam by smashing the crockery." Governor Sulzer, of New York, is an enthusiastic arboriculturist, of the amateur variety apparently. He said recently, as reported, "If I had my way I'd make every man in the State of New York plant a tree every month." As to which a newspaper correspondent comments: " We who live on the farm have always understood that it is practicable to plant trees only during the spring and fall." A palpable hit! Turkish soldiers, says Mr. A. J. B. Wavell, an English traveler, play a curious game in which the players squat in a circle facing towards the center while one of their number, armed with a "rope's end,"leaves his place and walks around outside till, choosing a victim, he hits him as hard as he can across the back. He then throws down the rope and runs once around the entire circle, trying to reach his place before his comrade, who picks up the rope and follows hotfoot, can catch him; if he is not caught, the victim seeks satisfaction elsewhere. The game produces great merriment. When Napoleon was in Moscow, says a recent book of travel, he stabled his horses in a church. The Russian nation has long since forgiven his wild dream of conquest, but never has, and never will, forgive him for that act of sacrilege." The Germans also treasure a grudge against Napoleon for turning the Cathedral of Cologne into a barracks. Yet these acts were probably not intended to be sacrilegious, for another recent book says that “it is among the many things to the credit of Napoleon that, as soon as he came into power, he restored all the desecrated churches of Paris to their original uses as places of worship." To those old-timers whe crossed the Atlantic in the ocean greyhounds of twenty-five or thirty years ago, says Cook's "Traveler's Gazette," the "features" that are found on one of the newest ships sound like a fairy tale." Among the luxuries enumerated are a theater, a swimming-pool forty feet long, a promenade deck inclosed in plate glass, passenger elevators running through five decks, and hot and cold water in most of the staterooms. A unique printing office, according to an article in the American Printer," is "The Press in the Forest," on the State road near Springfield, Massachusetts. Here, in a large wigwam built by the proprietor himself, the "Woronoco Valley Calumet," a little magazine devoted to outdoor life, nature study, and Indian lore, is published. In fair weather the editor takes his printer's case outdoors and sets type for his magazine in the shade of a young hemlock. A writer in the "Cornhill Magazine," describing "The Arab," says that one" cannot imagine a human being with greater ease and dignity of walk and mien than many of the professional beggars of Algiers. Their carriage is superb. If they wear rags, those rags are worn with at least the dignity of the stars and garters of an Englishman at a stately pageant. But the physique of the wearer is more than the dress. . . . Sometimes it is that of a Greek god. An Arab cannot forget that he is a gentleman." |
