Evening star. [volume], February 12, 1911, Page 3, Image 44

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
MOTfIEK fl E N And Her.
G-OLPEN
INTERVIEW With Presi
dent of Carnegie's $25,
000,000 Institution on Its
New Endowment and Vast
Projects?Wonderful Appa
ratus Which Will Bring the
Moon Within Fifty Miles of
Earth; Unravel the Secrets
of Earth's Age and How She
Was Made: Solve the Prob
lems of Digestion; Correct
the Mariner's Compass;
Teach Man How to Create
New Species at Will, and
Perform Other Wonders.
K are already able
to visualiso ten
times as Try new
enterpri ? as the
entire < odowment
will finance," I was
told by Presi
dent Robert H.
Woodward of the
Carnegie Institution
of Washington, In
reply to my inquiry
as to how the addi
tional endowment of .?10,<.>00.000, just
promised the institution by the Laird of
Skibo Castle, would be expended.
"But we are not counting our chickens
before they are hatched?much less, be
fore the eggs are laid," added the head
keeper of this great mother hen of scl
c nee, who now will have tucked beneath
her s-helttring wings a fortune of $25,
a >,0<
The new donation will nbt be finally
transferred t?? the institution for some
months, and the next scheduled meeting
of the trustees, to be held for the initia
iS n of new projects, falls not until Le
< t mter?ten months hence.
Nevertheless, the nest of the plethoric
mother hen is already besieged by an
atmy of cranks, whom President Wood
ward catalogues as "deluded enthusiasts
a;id designing charlatans, amateurs, dilet
tanti, arc-trisectors, circle-squarers, per
petual motion men and women and all
sorts of paradoxers."
fclach of these chimera chasers, solicit
ing giants for the furtherance of their
?
jet schemes, believes that he comes
v.ithin the compass of that interesting
paragraph of Mr. Carnegie's deed of
t! ust to the institution which states that
one of the establishment's aims is:
"To discover the exceptional man in
every department of study, whenever and
wherever found, inside or outside of
schools, and enable him to make the work
for which he seems specially designed his
life work."
*
* *
In the institution's new administration
building, a little gem of a Roman
temple that has lately risen to grace the
capital's resident section, I found Presi
dent Woodward. He is a man of about
EiECCRIO-ARC PuRmCB G-HNERAIING- 7000 ?P
12 IR, PA5f oijLeej. e J
medium stature, with a ^prightliness of
step which, despite the whiteness of his
hair and mustache, would proclaim him
to lie a decade or more below the thre?
score years, and one to which he con
fesses. Although a Mieliigander by birth
and rearing, he speaks with the tongue
of the metropolis. He has taken the de
grees of civil engineer doctor of laws,
doctor of philosophy and doctor of sci
ence. and lias, in his time, been a civil
engineer upon the lake survey, an astron
omer on the commission which studied
t!:e transit of V^nus, an astronomer and
chief geographer of the national geologi
cal survey, an assistant in the coast
survey ami a professor at Columbia Uni
versity, New York, where for two years
he held the chair of mechanics and math
ematical physics and where for ten years
more he was d^-an of the school of pure
science. lie is a member of the Na
tional Academy, has been president of
the American Association and is the
author of a work on higher mathematics.
After expressing his abhorrence of pub
licity and after delivering a considerable
sermon on the sins of tlie scribes and
scribblers of the saffron sheets. Dr.
Woodward proceeded to yield up the in
formation which J desired concerning the
manifold enterprises of his vast estab
lishment. He, however, forbade my
quoting him directly, and when I asked
him for his portrait he replied with a
grim smile that he neither had one him
self nor knew the name of any photog
rapher who might furnish one.
He told me that his institution already
owns fifty-nine buildings, with rooms
enough to shelter the population of a
good-sized town, besides thirteen parcels
of land and a fleet of ten vessels.
*
* *
This inventory includes two astronomical
observatories, five laboratories and a mag
netic ship built of bronze instead of steel.
Thus far about 1,200 individuals have con
tributed to the researches and publica
tions of the institution, ?)0 of them work
ing in the regularly organized branches
of the establishment and 700 of them un
der special grants of money. Their com
bined activities have included thirty dif
ferent fields of study in forty separate
countries of the world, and their dis
coveries have been set forth in 167 vol
umes, aggregating over 40,000 printed
pages, which have been distributed free to
the greater libraries of the world, or sold at
cost?one-half the regular publisher's rate
?to individuals interested in the subjects
investigated. To accomplish all of this
the institution has spent, to date, nearly
$4,000,000, which, with the exception of a
few donations from other philanthropists,
lias all been paid out of the interest on
the endowments made hitherto by An
drew Carnegie. J.?ess than one-twelfth of
this has been spent for salaries and other
administration expenses.
Now you are wondering, of course, as
to just what irons this great institution
has in the fire, and what it is accom
plishing for the good of mankind.
At a point above the clouds and n
mile above sea level the institution has
established upon the summit of Mount
Wilson, California, a "solar observa
tory" which is being equipped with the
most ingenious instruments known to as
tronomy. In the presence of Mr. Car
negie, Prof. Ceorge F. Hale, the director,
lately focused upon the heavens a new
reflecting telescope containing a mirroi
five feet in diameter. When the plate
was developed the ironmaster beheld
upon it the images of *50,000 solar sys
tems not previously known to astron
omy. With another large instrument,
the "snow telescope," which lies flat
upon the mountain top and covered by
a long white shed, daylight photographs
of the sun's image are being dally taken.
With these and other pieces of appara
tus is being made a study of the effects
of sunspots upon earth's atmosphere
which may make long-range weather
forecasting an exact science. Already it
has been established by these instru
ments that sunspots are great electri
cal vortices, moving across the face of
the orb of day as cyclones move
through our atmosphere, and that they
are the cause of magnetic storms.
Upon a tower 150 feet high is n6w be
ing mounted a mirror which will reflect
])K.}foBBRT S.WbODWARD,
Pres. C^fnam Tssavnsif
images of the heavenly bodies: down Into
a pit eighty feet below ground, and thus
will he obtained a great telescope 230
feet long, which will magnify the sun's
image many times mote than do the
present instruments.
And in FYance there is shortly to be
cast a great four-and-a-half-ton disk of
glass which will be transported to the oib
servatory and there ground and polished
into a mirror 100 inches (81-3 feet) in
diameter. This will be mounted in the
most colossal telescope known to man.
It will be 230 feet long and, theoretically
speaking, will bring the moon's image
m
New Tower, Hele s_co.px _
within fifty miles of earth?so near, in
fact, as to make visible to human eyes
an object on the moon's landscape that
is one-half the length of the National
Capitol or one-third the height of the
Washington Monument. If aimed at
Mars this -wonderful instrument will prob
ably magnify that mysterious planet's
image to five times the diameter of
Lowell's famous photographs. With such
powerful instruments the observatory will
discover heavenly bodies never even sus
pected toy astronomers.
The stars visible In the heavens of oxir
northern hemisphere have been cata
logued by astronomers, but those of the
southern hemisphere have been long
neglected. So to meet this want the in
stitution has established at San Luis,
Argentina, upon the east plateau of the
Andes, an observatory where Prof. Lewis
Boss is at work completing a star cata
logue for the entire spac.e of the heavens.
Ingenious apparatus for the study of
our food's efTects upon our bodies has
lately been Installed in a "nutrition lab
oratory" which the institution has erected
in Boston. Here are to be found a
number of airtight cells in which men
and animals are sliut up for various
periods. Every grain of food passed to
them through airtight valves is analyzed
before they eat It, and every bit of it
which their bodies eliminate in perspira
tion, breath or otherwise is similarly
weighed and analyzed. By subtraction
the exact amount of each ingredient re
tained by the body is learned, and the
cells are equipped with apparatus by
Madame Curie and the Russian Who Wants a Pound of Radium
Special CorrpspoiMleru* of The Star.
PARIS. January 31, 1911.
though sensational, would carry with it
motives of high research that might well
excuse the interruption of her lecture
course to earn $200,000 for her two little
jarls of ten and four.
All the more, having given up her dear
h:nbition of membership in the Academy
?>f Sciences, she might feel permitted to
accept a plan whose ma n feature Is ec
centric. if not speculative. Those who
hope to tempt lier will now hasten the
decision of the unique learned body whose
< lection may decide that the -world sha'l
see that blazing prodigy?a pound of
radium!
A millionaire landowner of Russia, so
t story runs, has discovered great de
posits of pitchblende or radium-bearing
ore in the Ural or Caucasus, as may he.
lie will neither sell this ore nor give It,
hut will risk part of his millions on It?
ncldcntally, the two-hundred-thousand
?lollar guarantee which he "will offer Mme.
<"urle. In a word, he has the curious
ambition to become the owner of a pound
? >f radium, and then see what will hap
pen!
A pound of radium!?w hen, at this mo
nient. there are just fire grammes pos
ssed by all humanity! They represent
j? ryesa
ME. CURIE will
now soon have to
accept or refuse a
fortune?plus a curi
ous scientific temp
tation or dilemma,
as it may turn out.
Of course siie re
ceives all kinds of
strange proposi
tions. which she
regularly ignores;
but this one, al
*
a *
a money value of $400,000?composed o'l
their vast work of reduction and the
original cost of the ore. Mme. Curie
needs ten tons of ore to produce four
decigrammes of radium, which means
12.sVH) tons to produce the desired pound.
The Russian says that he can mine it.
Doubtless the pound would not cost the
$40,000,000 which the present cost of
radium represents to Mme. Curie in
France.
What temptation for the radium high
priestess! How she might regret to see
the chance go to another, say Sir Wil
liam Ramsay, or Gustave J^c Bon, or even
Danysz, her own assistant! I remember
the day when Pierre Curie and wife were
photographed by Ellis on their garden
bench, after I had taken Prof. Duncan
to" them. Radium was still new, and th-?
wondering Curie speculated what woul.l
happen if a pound of radium stood op -n
on the center table of a dark room.
*
* *
A man, entering, would see intolerable
green light; but would it Fdntillate fires
in the dark or illuminate the room?
Would it make a no!se? Would a man
entering to it fall dead? Or would he
remain quite well and then develop sup
purating burns over every square inch
of his body?
Prof. Curie died without having seen
pure radium or a gram of the ^alt col
lected together. On the other hand, the
Austrian government had not yet dream
ed of impeding Mme. Curie's importation
of ore from the Bohemian mountains. As
her chances to handle the tiniest real
lump of radium grow less and less, a
proposition to pay her to superintend
the reduction of a pound of it would be
beyond her wildest hopes; but
There is a "but." The very rich Rus
sian personage who owns the 12.500 ton*
of pitchblende will ask Mme. Curie to
(educe it for her. lie will propose to
pay her, for her time and trouble, the
FJOO.OOO mentioned. It will be his pound
of radium!
What will he do with It? He wili
?UmULKClC TO THE 1KKT1TUT DE FRANCE.
PIERRE CI RIE, MME, Cl'RIB AND THEIR DAUGHTER IRENE.
Taken two years after their discovery of radium.
promise nothing. It may be daring' curi
osity to play with that terrific object?"a
pocket sun." as Pierre Curie called his
imaginary pound. In certain Paris co
icrier. this Russian has talked, and those
who "hoar him gather that he has an
obscure prince of science behind him who
pretends ttiat a pound of pure radium
will so "magnVy phenomena" as to
".solve the mystery of matter." But
would cautious experts dare put such a.
quantity together? The largest order
ever given?that of Sir Ernest Cassell
for a gram of radium salt?lias just been
half delivered by the Vienna Radium In
stitute. Tiie second half-gram is being
reduced at the Joachimstal works.
& "!<
or it may be a simple money specula
tion. Produced in tiny quantities for their
own experiments, radium salts have cost
Mme. Curie at the rate of ?S0,000 pfr
gram, where the Austrian government,
reducing at the mines, makes a hand
some profit on Sir Ernest's gram at
ST.-.tiOO. At this latter rate a pound
worth $T7.800,(XK) ought to cost the mys
terious Rusfian ore-owner so compara
tively little as to taint the entire propo
sition with the suspicion of honest com
mercial money-making. So the French
sneer at Austria today.
And so would, doubtless, argue a mem
ber of the French Academy of Sciences.
Two hundred years ago a glory of
French letters, Col'etet, being elected
to that other department of the insti
tute, the French Academy, trembled with
mixed dignity and humility in presence
of an "old member." who happened to
be the magnificent Bishop Qodaau,
without a tenth of Colletet's learning.
They arrived together under the sacred
dome:
tiodeau?
"Bnnjour, "Ipiir Colletet."
Colletet (falling on iiis knees) ?
"fJreat Illshop of l-ieo.
Tell tne. I bi'jr, what oiurht I to >i?>V
Ought I in a kiss your sacred heel?"
< iodl'Hll ?
?"We are all equals, being 6ons of Apollo.
Get up, Colletet."
Colletet?
"Your niflgnificenop
Permits me, monaelgueur. snob license?"
Godeau
? "Notbin? ran ehJinge between us what Is true.
OutHlde I am still bishop, here (iodeau for you."
*
* *
Doubtless St. Evremont mildly exag
gerated, but tiie spirit of "the academi
cians" remains as he represented it;
sons of Apollo in their sacred club,
familiar among themselves, yet aware
of their relative social value outsfde,
professing rather the graces than the
mere utilities of learning. ?
Prince Roland Bonaparte, for exam
ple, is a typical member of the Acad
emy of Sciences. Rich by twenty mil
lions with Bianc s daughter?to 'whose
memory he remains faithful?he spends
his life with brother dilettanti in an
Arabian Nights palace of books, bro
chures and "communications"?that is,
publications which no one will buy?
where soft lights from antique stained
glass fall on some new work of his
own, like "Variations in the Lengths of
Glaciers," "Documents oti the Thir
teenth Century Mongol Epoch," "The
Eruption of Krakatao" and "The Huon
Gulf, With Maps."
The late President Caxnot had a broth
er, Marie-Adolphe, director of the school
of mines, but for long years he has en
joyed the softer honors and emoluments
of honorary director. Titus he is another
typical member of the Academy of Sci
ences, scion of one of those historic fami
lies who make "the nobility of the repub
lic." When he dies one of the Carnot
sons will ko in. It was the despair of
tho late Casimir-Perier that the tastes
of his son Claude lent no pretext for
elction to any one of the live branches
of the institute. .
Dr. Emile Roux is another type of mem
ber. Seated in the high, mild, calm and
serene air of the directorship of the Pas
teur Institute, he is independent of mon
ey and the medical faculty alike. Be
side him might be put the mathemati
cian Ploncare, who has a great fortune
and belongs to high society; Gabriel
Uppmann, of color-photography fame,
who has let others make the money front
it; the Italian astronomer Scliiaparelli.
friend of princes, typical scientist of
great ladies, and Becquerel, who belongs
to a family dynasty of scientific men,
always one Becquerel a member of the
Institute. Yet this one?with his aids
and assistants?discovered the strange
properties of uranium, which led the
Curies to discover radium. Two Amer
icans-, no\\- dead, had the character of
leaders like these?Alexander Agassiz, the
naturalist, and Simon Newcomb, the
astronomer.
*
* *
The Academy of Sciences has always
been the one least opsn to social influ
ence. A Prince Arenberg and Baron de
Rothschild can be members of the Beaux
Arts. The French Academy has been run
by "the party of the dukes." and tha In
scriptions by the Marquis de Vogue and
the Due de la Tremollle. Those who
give the equivalent tone to the sciences
are the high and rich who are inde
pendent of practical affairs, and the higli
and poor who despise them.
High -vhat? High science. It Is liko
a cat that hates to get its feat wet.
not to mention muddy. New members
\
which the voluntary prisoners may exer
cise or perform other kinds of woric
whose effects upon nutrition are to toe de
termined.
*
*
Dogs confined in one of these chambers
move a pointer wherever they move upon
the floor of their cage, and thus their
? activity" Is measured.
Men will work a treadmill in another
of these cells, now under construction,
which has been especially designed for
the study of muscular work. With this
unique apparatus the occupant of the
chamber can walk or even run at an.
" ACInumber of young woman vo^teers
have alreadv been shut up in these cells
for purposes of studying the normal nu
trition of their sex. And another expe l
ment has been made with thirteen suffer
ers from diabetes, their cell being
onninnpd with a bed and chair; also ap
paratus for recording their pulse beats
respiration and body activity. None of
rhpse experiments has been made
aji^ idea of curing the patients, as has
been supposed by sufferers from various
maladies who have already applied to the
^l^bronzeTach^Jhe6 Carnegie, so built
in order that its material willnot disturb
w "e'ln
"StS'uSon Hhree-?ear eruto around
the world. By measuring the magnetic
influences in various areas of the ocea
making their first fPPea?c?hcluster?
2???JatT1&SSrtn-nb? be
f?TTi e1 buiWi'ng^'famil lar to al1tourists by
its dome. Its nic,rouc^
f^edstep.. is th? old Soilege of Four
Nations, built by Mazarin. ademv/?
bST is^the^nstitme/ composed of Ave
"V Bicn
eThUe AcSm, or Inacr>ptl?"'n."d Belles
Lettres. founded by Colbert in
The Academy of Sciences, founded by
^l^Acade^ of the Beaux-Arts con
tinuing the old Royal Academy of Pami
in\ndndth?UAcaUdremy of Moral and Po
litical Sciences, founded by the fir
French republic in l<w.
w
* *
Vll but the first named proclaim then
objects in their titles. The object of the
French Academy as set down in its cliar
ter was to "regulate the language." Be
ing composed, not only of great writ
er* but also of gentlemen of high taste
and social situation, its authority seemed
natural; yet it fell down in its most fa
mous attempt to "regulate" when it for
bade the people to say: "Shut the door."
"One pushes the door, and one shuts
one's room." ran the edict in elegant
vprse, but when the people continued to
sav "Shut the door" it stopped regu
lating" and was contented to follow,
solemnly registering as today s good
French the slang of yesterday.
So with the four other academies.
Thev do not pretend to lead the learn
ing of the day. They follow. They re
cord. They consecrate.
It is notorious that their members have
alwuvs done their great worlc s work
before being elected is almost equi\a
ti so trui tliat election is almost equlva
ssary. if you rea
i "what! t? would the idomltable Mine
Fklodowski-Curle have to do in that
iloat, as the French say, in case the had
''Hells^such is the spirit of the pro
fessors daughter. crav 1"fn 1'white* despi*
,.r,.,inn of the corporation, while uespi_
toS'rtShS. worldly situation even com
petence for old age or children.
0
* *
Such was her own father, Sklodowski,
professor of physics in the University of
Warsaw. Thirty years ago a little git.
played in ills laboratory. Instead of dolls
she had test tubes, retorts and cru
cibles. As she grew older hers was
the delight to be a "washer," all day
cleaning apparatus after the experiments
were ov<*r. Quietly the little girl would
rinse and scour flasks, beakers, mortars,
burettes, pipettes. IJttle by little she
helped make experiments. Books of
physics were her fairy stories. Happy
life! Her little daughters Irene and Eve
are having the same good times at this
moment. . , .
Then the little Warsaw household broke
up. ? .
Prof. Sklodowski had no money to leave
his two daughters, and they had to strug
gle with the world. .
The elder sister went to Austria and be
came a famous doctor, and she who was
to marry Pierre Curie made her way to
Paris where lor several years she en
dured the most grinding poverty and
painful hardships. J.ack of money forced
her to pursue her studies in the Munici
pal Working-class Technical School. Yet
see how it turned out! In the laboratory
there her wonderful capacity attracted'
Curie. , . ~
Their marriage was a perfect one. l o
gether they lived for science. Together
thev received the Nobel science award.
And woman writers from Paris never let
it be forgotten how Prof. Curie refused
the cross of the Legion of Honor because
a similar decoration was not offered to
h!s wife.
He did not, however, refuse member
ship in the Academy of Sciences because
?be was not asked to come along with
him. No, the professorial flesh and blood
where the mariner's needle is disturbed
this unique ship is correcting the charts
by which vessels are guided. Mr. Car
negie announced the other day in New
York that his bronze yacht had "found
that the captain was not to blame who
ran a great steamer upon the rocks
which destroyed it," and that this skip
per "was sailing in the right direction,
according to his chart." This work, along
with magnetic researches made upon
land, in forty countries of the world, is
in charge of Dr. L>. A. Bauer, director of
the division of terrestrial magnetism.
But no apparatus supplied by the Car
negie millions is more wonderful than
the great electric arc furnaces and hy
draulic compressors by which Dr. Arthur
L?. Day, director of the Institution's geo
graphical laboratory at "Washington, Ren
crates temperatures of 7,000 degrees K.
and pressures of 100,000 pounds to the
square inch. In order to counterfeit the
rocks of earth. Using the purest raw
materials, he manufactures rocks at will
and thus learns how nature performed
the same operation. From this work a
sounder estimate of earth's age Is expect
ed to result, but more practical results
are also being obtained, as, for example,
the determination for the first time of
an exact formula for making Portland
cement from materials found in different
parts of the world?a problem which for
years has vexed engineers.
*
* *
Among the other big projects of the
institution is a department of historical
research which is sifting the archives of
the world in order to compile "source
books, aids and guides" for students of
American history; a department of eco
nomics and sociology which is preparing
a social and economic history of the
United States: a department of botanical
research, with laboratories in California
and Arizona; and a department of marine
could not stand that temptation.
Nor is membership in the Academy of
Sciences an empty honor. In return for
the austere integrity, which is its spirit,
members who extend the hand are help
ed. The institution is rich from many
legacies, among them the domain of
Chantllly, donated by the Due d'Aumale
Thus its members are entitled to $240
biology, with a laboratory at Pry Toitu
gas, Kla.
None of the croat wormh^ps maintain
ed by the institution is more interesting
than the laboratory of experimental evo
lution at ("old Spring Hftrbor, l*ong
Island. Her>-? men ainl animals are beln^;
studied for the purpose of discovering the
laws of evolution and heredity. Aril
when these laws are known man cn-t
control the process, different creature*
being modified to meet our requirements
of beauty, food, materials and power.
"The carnation can lie made not only
crimson, but white, yellow and blue."
says Prof. C. B. Davenport, the director
of this laboratory. "It can be made ai
large as a crysanthemurn. or dwarfed.
So the bantam fowl may be made of a
red color, or black or white: with a ruff,
or without; with a long tail or with no
tail. Tlie egg yield of the hen may be
raised from 150 to over 2^.- per year. The
strength of the liorso can be increased,
as that of the Percheron exceeds that
of the Norwegian pony."
He has invented to order such n? w
species as goats with wattles, cats an 1
guinea p'gs with extra toes, ewes w!t!?
extra nipples, etc., in order to test vari
ous theories as to the laws of heredity
and determine also whether new species
develop by gradual changes and the
equal blending of crossed breeds, or by
sudden sfps and Jumps
Extending these studies to man. ho has
lately discovered, with other things:
"The skin color of children is not
darker than that of their darker parent.
Consequently two blond parents have onlv
blond offspring, but a blond and a brunette
may have either blond or brunette chil
dren," and "that in crosses between
negroes and Caucasians the same rule'
holds; that mulattoes produce 'white' chil
dren, but (probably) rarely black."
Thus i? being fulfilled the dream of
Bacon, who saw In the new Atlantis gar
dens devoted to the improvement of ani
mals and plants.
(Copyright, 1811, by John Elfreth Watkiaa.)
per year "indemnity." and may draw,
extra, as mucli as W per week by merely
accepting the weekly "chip" or "Jeton."
which certifies that they were present at
the meeting.
For all of which Mme Curie wou'1'
willingly turn down the Russian's busi
ness proposition had she been elected to
the institute. STEELING HEILIQ.
When the Theater Appeals,
as Related at a Luncheon
//* yOTHING. I think, better illus
1^1 trates the difference between
^ ^ fourteen and forty," said the
reflective-looking little woman at the
luncheon, "than the way the theater af
fects one at those two ages. I have been
fourteen and I am forty. So I know.
"Being forty, I go to the play now more
from force of habit, and perhaps out of
a desire, too, to s?e the audience, than
because the theater ever absolutely beck
ons to me. I enjoy the play, if It is an
extremely good one, fairly well. Rarely
does any play nowadays touch any of
my emotional nerves. I am not in the
least blase. I do not mean to pretend
that I am. But the happenings of the
play excite my curiosity, or, perhaps, my
speculation these days; they do not move
me. If the play is not first rate I am
extremely uncomfortable until it ends.
And even if the play is very good 1 find
myself smothering yawns long before the
flual curtain, and I am keen to leave: 1
want to get away, i do not carry any
acute recollection of the play much
farmer man tile exu by wlncn I leave
me theater. My imagination uoesn't play
about it. I am not in the least stirred
or excited about it. The world of every
day life, of tresh a:r. seems good to me
when I leave the playhouse.
"How amazingly different when one was
fourteen?yes, anu a good deal more titan
fourteen:
*
* *
"It is easy, but still a bit baffling, to re
member how at that stage of life the
play put one into a sort of trance, from
which there was no emerging sometimes
for days. At that time I followed the
action of the play, even if it happened
to be only a quite middling per
formance, with veritable rapture, lived in
a world of dreams from curtain-rise t-J
curtain-fall. And when I left the theater
and the beautiful experience was at an
end, how gruesome the outside world
seemed. Especially gloomy and dismal it'
the performance had 'been a matinee.
Then, to ieave the exalted ether of trie
theater, to emerge upon a gray street
where the lights were just beginning to ou
lit, to have to mingle witn chattering
crowds who weie r.Qi in a scate of rapture
over the play, but who talked of everyday
matters?it was irksome to the spirit.
And then to have to go home to dinner
and try to converse in ordinary tones
upon commonplace matters with one's
people at the table, while still In a sort
of hypnotized state over the play and
the people of the play?at that imaginative
age 1 found this a dreadful ana dreaded
experience. Often after the matineo 1
would only pretend to eat my dinner. 1
had no appetite whatever for food.
"I wanted to get to my room to think
of the play and the players?to dream
of it and then, to idealize it and them
beyond all reason, of course; but I would
have to go through with the meal and
pretend to be perfectly normal and every
day-ish. If only to escape the ridicule of
my older brothers, who, when they caught
me in a museful state after the play,
would chaff me unmercifully about it
and accuse me of being a stage-struck
minx and all that sort of thing. I should
say here that I wasn't In the least
stage-struck, though nearly all of my gtrl
friends of that time were. Tt was merely
that the stage for mo" swam in an ex
alted ether? seemed, indeed, to be of an
other planet. There was. of course, at
that time, more high-flown speech, mor?>
efflorescent language, on the stage than
there is at the present time, and it i*
to be taken for granted, I suppose, thai
the minds of adolescents are peculiarly*
affected by such language. But thi.
doesn't altogether explain it.
*
* *
"It was many weeks after I saw T?aw
rence Barrett in 'Francesra di Rimini.*
for example, before 1 regained anything
like my normal state of mind. I read
that play of Boker's over and over again.
I poured over that part of Dante which
was the basis of the play. 1 dreamed of it
unceasingly, day and night, untd reallv
my appetite and my general health wen
affected.
"It was the same when I saw Mary
Anflerson in 'The Lady of Lyons." My
imagination was enchained for weeks
after I saw Mary Anderson do it. Per
haps here there was a bit of heroine
worship. Mary Anderson, w ith her won
derful, statuesque beauty and her marvel
ous golden contralto voice, was the object
of the most intense admiration 011 the
part of all of the young women?yes, anl
of many thousands of the older women ?
of her time. But it was not by any
means altogether heroine-worship. The
lines of tiie play stuck in my mind, and,
strive as I would. I could not efTare the
memory of the piece.
"Thus, too, was it when I saw John
McCulloiiKh in 'Julius Caesar' and in 'Vlr
ginius.' My method of retaining my state
of exaltation over those wondrous per
formances was to plunge into Roman
history, especially those parts of it that
appertained to the two characters I had
seen McCullough play. But it is no use
quoting instances. TIip theater then was
a living force in my life. It was poetry,
romance, the means of escape from the
unglamorous realities of life. I wouM
give a good deal if today I could feel
the same, just f?>r once. Perhaps I should
not care to feel that way again as a
steady thing?it might be too exhausting;
but I should like to have my imagination
stirred to its core by the theater just once
*gain!"
A Flyer's Joke.
HL'BKRT LATHAM, the Antoinette
flyer, was talking at a tea in Los An
gflfcs to a pretty California girl.
"Mr. Latham," said the girl, as she
took her nineteenth walnut-and-lettuce
sandwich, "tell me, does flying require
any particular application?"
"Well, no. none in particular." Mr. La
tham answered. "Arnica or horse lini
ment?one's as good as another."
Three Great Danish Clans.
The Danish government recently found
It necetsary to grant heads of families
the privilege of changing their names if
they feel so disposed without incurring
any legal costs. This is a necessary piece
of legislation, for the population of Den
mark is divided Into three great clans?
the Hansens, the Petersens and the Soer
ensens. In one town of 26,000 inhabit
ants over four-flfths bore one or tha
other of these names. Many of theee
have taken advantage of the new law
and assumed more distinctive name*
e