PROFES

HARPER'S MAGAZINE.

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J. J. THOMSON'S interesting scientific article on "Becquerel Rays" in the January Harper's is quoted from at greater length in another department. Mr. James B. Connolly, who has become so well and favorably known for his ability to put into literature the salty air of the sailor's life, describes in this issue "Arctic Whaling of To-day." In the old days it was a matter of rowing up to the whale in small boats, a fearsome approach, "a hand-harpoon at close range, a hurried backing to be at a safe distance when the 'flurry' should be on, and following that, if they were in luck, a hazardous tow in the wake of the enraged whale, with a final tedious trying-out aboard ship." Killing a whale to-day is a very different matter. The whaling ship, a small steamer, follows a herd of cetaceans, sneaks up behind them, and then fires a harpoon from a harpoon-cannon placed in the bows into the biggest animal the skipper can hit. There is no leaving the steamer at all, and even when the whale is killed the ship's tender, an iron tug, will tow the carcass to a trying-out station on land instead of leaving that operation to be performed aboard the whaler. Mr. Connolly gives a tremendously spirited account of a modern whale-hunt in which he participated.

AMERICAN AND CHINESE CIVILIZATION.

In a brief article entitled "Chinese and Western Civilization," the popular and witty Chinese minister, Wu Ting-Fang, indulges in some kindly criticism of American manners. Mr. Wu thinks that America, now leading the world in material progress, may easily devote too much time and energy to money getting. He does not believe in shortening mealtime to lengthen business hours, or in turning night into day. He makes the statement that in his own country there is no recognition of an aristocracy of wealth, and that greater importance is given to intellectual superiority. He says a scholar and gentleman commands greater respect than a mere millionaire, and that the aim of Chinese education is to make a man a useful and desirable member of society. He doubts whether the Americans as a nation are happier than the Chinese. While Mr. Wu admits that China needs some reform in material institutions, he doubts whether the impact of Western upon Chinese civilization will result in the complete destruction of the latter.

Prof. Albert Mann, of Syracuse University, tells of the curious species of plant life, the diatoms, which exist in countless billions from the polar regions to the tropics, wherever a constant supply of water is found. The beautiful crystalline designs of these plants, plants without root, stem, leaf, blossom or fruit, are shown in photographs of microscopical enlargements.

Mr. Benjamin Kidd has a short philosophical article on "The Man Who Is To Come," in which he examines into the Darwinian law as applied to natural selection in its most important forms in human society. There is an account of "London's Oldest Art Club," the Langham, by Mr. Arthur Lawrence, a sketch of the career of Benedict Arnold, by John R. Spears, and a number of contributions in fiction, with the customary sumptuous illustrations in colors as well as in black and white.

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THE CENTURY MAGAZINE.

BRISK description of "Paris Pawnshops," and especially of the great Mont-de-Piété, is given in the January Century by Cleveland Moffett. At the Mont-de-Piété, in Paris, the poor woman who has to pawn her shawl or the workman who pledges his box of tools pays no interest whatever, but merely a nominal charge of five centimes, not one-twentieth of what the operation actually costs the institution. In this indirect way the rich in Paris pay for the poor, and it is a favorite method of the charitably inclined to give back to the poor of Paris certain articles from the great public pawnshop store which might be regarded as of first necessity, shoes, clothing, bedclothing, mattresses, etc. Mr. Moffett contrasts this with the private pawnshop industry in the poorer sections of London, where, incredible as it may seem, the poor are often called upon to pay interest on petty short-time loans at the rate of 500, 600, or even 1,000 per cent.

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AND THE TRUSTS.

An explanation of President Roosevelt's attitude toward the great modern combinations of capital is given by Dr. Albert Shaw in "The President and the Trusts." As is the rule in American politics, this trust issue came from public opinion to President Roosevelt, and he has not in any sense created or shaped the issue. He earned the ill-will of the great corporations in 1900, when he was Governor of New York, by having the Ford Franchise Tax law passed, a measure which Dr. Shaw considers a perfectly honest plan for a fair tax on the great business combinations of New York. The corporations, remembering this, succeeded in getting Mr. Roosevelt "shelved," apparently, in the Vice-Presidency. When he succeeded President McKinley, he found the great problem of "curbing" the trusts before him, and his first message, in December, 1901, dealt at length with his ideas of the national government's duty in this field. At this time President Roosevelt held that a Constitutional amendment, giving Congress jurisdiction over interstate commerce in the highest sense, was the wise thing. He proposed to create the new Department of Commerce, and he insisted always on greater publicity for the operations of the large stock companies. Nor did the corporations give expression to any opposition to these views. It was after the President's action against the Northern Securities Company that they began their hue and cry, through chosen organs, against the President's programme. As to the Northern Securities case, Dr. Shaw explains that when the people of the Northwest complained that the great railway merger was illegal, the President naturally referred that question to Attorney-General Knox, who said it was illegal. Then there was nothing to do but to proceed against the incorporators. The President is not in any sense an enemy of great business enterprises, but his whole record shows that he believes his executive duty is to enforce the laws as he finds them. "President Roosevelt's position on the question of trusts and combinations of capital should be reassuring to all men engaged in lawful business enterprises, and they should gladly give his views and policies their hearty support, knowing that what may be called the Roosevelt posi

tion is the one safeguard against undiscriminating attacks upon the part of sincere though unwise masses of men, led either by demagogues or by honest fanatics and agitators."

THE SUGAR TRUST.

There is a well-informed article in the series on "The Great Business Combinations of To-day,"-Mr. Franklin Clarkin's description of "The So-called Sugar Trust." He shows how this industry of refining sugar is identified with a single family, the Havemeyers. The present head of the family, Mr. H. O. Havemeyer, is in supreme control of an industry which, under his administration, has increased the annual output from a single plant of the trust, the original Havemeyer refinery in Brooklyn, from 300,000 barrels per year to 5,000,000,nearly a third of all produced from cane in America. The pride of the Sugar Trust and its head is that the margin of profit between the raw sugar and the refined has been reduced, and the official tables of prices do show that the average margin is lower than before the trust, and even lower than the average of the four years in the course of which refineries were going into bankrutptcy. "A slightly lessened margin is its footprint. While advancing and depressing the price to the consumer as it saw fit, and paying dividends on increasing capitalization, it was not, in the long run, enjoying the difference between what was paid for raw and what was charged for refined. Fear of competition, actual conflict to overcome those who were striving after the same gain, may have been the impelling cause,-probably it was; yet the result was what it is, and ought to bear a little on the trust problem in general."

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SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE.

HERE is a very readable article telling of the modern appearance and manners of "The Old Route to Orleans," of the still surviving boat traffic on the great Mississippi,-by Mr. Willis Gibson, in the January Scribner's. The glory of the forties and fifties in Mississippi steamboating has departed, but Mr. Gibson says that there is still a very important and highly picturesque scheme of steamboat transportation on the Mississippi of to-day, and he thinks it likely that it will never grow less. The great river in its southern third is so uncertain in its course, and the country on either side of it is so unfavorable to railroad-building, that there will always be a great deal for the steamboats to do in serving the plantations in this rich bottom country. St. Paul is the official head of navigation of the Mississippi now, and there is a thriving traffic, both above and below St. Paul. But it is below St. Louis that the Mississippi has but little to fear from the railroad. There is but one bridge between St. Louis and New Orleans,-that at Memphis.

THE PAVILION FOR THE BLIND.

Margarita S. Gerry tells of the pavilion for the blind in the Congressional Library. The Government is the chief benefactor of this Congressional Library adjunct for the comfort of the blind, and the Government, too, has given a perpetual fund of $250,000 to endow the publishing house in Louisville, Ky., which does most of the printing for the blind in this country. This is a very important piece of national aid for the afflicted, because the great cost of books has been one of the chief obstacles to the education of blind people. The pavilion was established in the administration of John Russell

Young, when a few blind people begged that there might be a room set apart for their use, where the few books written in the blind type, then on the shelves, could be collected. Mr. Young assented immediately, and the 60 volumes, which were all the library contained, of books printed for the blind, were placed in an attractive room on the ground floor. Since that time, by small appropriations and private gifts, the number has swelled to 500 volumes.

One of the most striking features of Scribner's Magazine for the New Year is the serial begun in this number on "English Court and Society in the Eighties." This picture of the manners of fashionable and royal England of twenty years ago is given in the letters of Mrs. King Waddington, a daughter of a president of Columbia College, and the wife of William Henry Waddington, ambassador from France at the Court of St. James from 1883 to 1893. The letters, evidently written to members of Madame Waddington's family in America, are as keen, as human, and as quaint in their characterization of the English court and society as a Pepys' Diary.

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THE COSMOPOLITAN.

HE January Cosmopolitan begins with an article on "Pierpont Morgan, His Advisers and His Organization," by Mr. John Brisben Walker, the editor of the magazine. In describing the way Mr. Morgan works, Mr. Walker is struck by the easy accessibility of the great financier in his office at the corner of Broad and Wall streets. "There are chief clerks in many establishments who surround themselves with more safeguards and are more difficult of access than Mr. Morgan. The general public come to within a few feet of his desk and stand separated only by a glass partition." Mr. Walker says the men of New York who stand closest to Mr. Morgan in large affairs are Mr. George F. Baker, president of the First National Bank; Mr. Samuel Spencer, president of the Southern Railroad; Mr. Clement A. Griscom, president of the International Mercantile Marine Company; Mr. George W. Perkins, of the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co., and Mr. Charles Steele, another partner.

NATIONAL AID FOR GOOD ROADS.

The Hon. Walter P. Brownlow, of the House of Representatives, in an article entitled "National Aid to Road Improvement," describes the plan outlined in a bill introduced in the House by himself to promote a permanent improvement of the public highways of the country. He believes it is within the jurisdiction of the national government to do this work under the provision of the Constitution that Congress should "promote the general welfare" and "establish post offices and post roads." Mr. Brownlow's bill provides that the Government shall contribute one-half of the cost of any given highway when the road is built in coöperation "with any State or political subdivision thereof."

A SKETCH OF RUSSELL SAGE.

In the sketches of "Captains of Industry," the most striking in this number is Mr. Robert N. Burnett's of Russell Sage. He says that the amount of Mr. Sage's wealth is a mystery in Wall Street, but the general belief is that he is worth from $75,000,000 to $100,000,000. His great business is that of a money-lender. Only two or three of the greatest banks in New York City now

have more money out "on call" than has Mr. Sage. In addition to the $20,000,000 which he puts out in this way, he employs $20,000,000 in time loans, and another $20,000,000 to $40,000,000 is invested in high-grade bonds and stocks. Mr. Sage was born in 1815, began his career as a clerk in a general country store, then moved to Troy, and at twenty bought out his employer, who ran a still larger store. He was in Congress as a member from the Troy district just before the war, and after leaving political life, came to New York and increased an already considerable fortune by getting liberal land grants from the Western States and buying up the third-mortgage bonds of the Pacific Railroad Company, afterward reorganized as the Missouri Pacific in 1876. With Commodore Garrison, the Missouri Pacific was made a thorn in the flesh of Jay Gould and the Wabash system. When Mr. Gould bought out the Missouri Pacific he became acquainted with Mr. Sage, and the two were identified together in most of their prominent operations from that day on. Mr. Sage, while not so brilliant as Jay Gould, was the more cautious and evenly balanced. He cares nothing for luxuries, is an agreeable conversationalist, talking in a low, gentle voice, and his chief recreation is with his pets, and especially his horses.

MR.

M'CLURE'S.

R. RAY STANNARD BAKER has been to the mine regions, making a careful investigation of the facts of the intimidation of non-union workers during the great strike. In the January McClure's he gives, under the title "The Right to Work," a detailed history of a number of instances of actual intimidation, varying from boycotting and hanging in effigy to outright murder. The score of cases he describes are, he says, typical, and he affirms that he could "fill a whole number of this magazine with other narratives of like incidents." Mr. Baker says that seventeen thousand men were at work in the mines before the strikers returned, and that more than seven thousand of these were old employees, long resident in the communities where they worked, with knowledge of the conditions of life there existing. Of the remaining ten thousand, part was made up of workers recruited from one section of the coal fields into another, men who dared not work in their home villages, but ventured employment at collieries where they were not personally known,-and part consisted of men having no special knowledge of mining, recruited from neighboring farms or more distant cities.

ARCHIBALD FORBES' GREAT "BEAT."

Mr. George W. Smalley, in writing of "English Men of Letters," selects Mr. Archibald Forbes as the English journalist best entitled to rank as a man of letters. The one feat which, in Mr. Smalley's opinion, placed Forbes at the head of his profession came in the RussoTurkish War of 1877. Although seven of the Czar's couriers failed to get through Shipka Pass, Forbes did it, and after giving the Czar his information and being complimented on his skill and daring, Forbes rode, without stopping for rest, one hundred miles to Bucharest. "He arrived at 8 o'clock in the evening. He had been three days and nights either in the saddle or in the Shipka trenches, under fire, without sleep, often without food. 'I was dead tired,' said Forbes, from whose lips I had this story. 'Not a word of my dispatch was written, and I had news for which I knew the world was waiting-news on which the fate of an empire and

the fortunes of half Europe depended. And it was as much as I could do to keep my eyes open, or sit up in the chair into which I had dropped.' 'What did you do?' 'I told the waiter,' answered Forbes, 'to bring me a pint of dry champagne, unopened. I took the cork out, put the neck of the bottle into my mouth, drank it with all the fizz, sat up, and wrote the four columns you read next morning in the Daily News,' As a piece of literature, the four columns were of a high order. As a piece of news, they were one of the greatest 'beats' ever known."

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EVERYBODY'S MAGAZINE.

N excellent picture of the real life of a working woman in a great city is given by Mrs. Van Vorst's article, "The Woman That Toils," in the January Everybody's. Mrs. Van Vorst went to Chicago, took up her abode in a tenement, and worked at six dollars a week in a great clothing factory, then in a picture-framing establishment, and finally in a box and label factory.

Juliet W. Tompkins tells of "The Personality of Helen Gould," and of the intolerable deal of begging letters that come to Miss Gould's house with unfailing regularity. Something like a thousand petitions are opened by her secretary every week. Once she had a list made of the crop of a sample week to mail as a protest to subsequent applicants. The list started with a request for $1,000,000 to found a colony in Cuba, went on with 231 requests for money, 91 for loans, 149 for sums to raise mortgages, 5 offers to sell manuscripts, 7 were anxious to name their little girls Helen G., one longed for $500, with which to erect a monument to a parent, 4 modest young women would like help toward their trousseau (one suggesting $2,000 as a neat and appropriate sum), 18 were crank letters, and 32 requests for interviews. In all, the seven days showed 1,303 letters, each asking something. But 363 of the writers specified the sums desired, and these alone, if obliged, would have relieved Miss Gould of $1,548,502.

Mr. G. W. Ogden recounts some "Tragedies of Steamboat Histories" of the glorious Mississippi days, when a steamboat was a gold mine and a pilot a dictator; in the series "Great Days in Great Careers," Alfred Henry Lewis goes through that incident with Gen. Andrew Jackson when the nullification and secession schemes of Calhoun were withered by the general's fierce disapprobation; and a very frank article by David Graham Phillips gives the inside history of the events which led to Mr. Roosevelt becoming Vice-President, and then, by the tragedy at Buffalo, President.

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FRANK LESLIE'S MONTHLY.

GOOD picture of Joseph Chamberlain is drawn in the January Frank Leslie's by Mr. J. Swift McNeill, M.P., an Irish Nationalist member. Mr. McNeill describes the colonial secretary as a man of medium size, somewhat slightly built, with legs too short in proportion to his frame. On the theory that every human face suggests some species of animal, Mr. McNeill finds that Mr. Chamberlain looks like a fox, especially in the profile. "He has a high forehead, a Roman nose, wellchiseled features, a mouth expressive of great determination, and large, dark-blue, luminous, and somewhat cruel eyes. His face, which seems pallid in its color at a distance, has, when one looks at it closely, an unhealthy yellow hue, which perhaps is made more strikingly apparent by the coal-black color of his thick

and luxuriant hair. As one looks at Mr. Chamberlain casually, one would guess his age to be about five-andfifty, but as a matter of fact in 1876 Mr. Chamberlain was a man of the mature age of forty years, who had already enjoyed a civic career of great distinction and had made a large fortune in trade."

PEARY'S HUNTING NEAR THE POLE,

A well-illustrated article by Commander Robert E. Peary describes "Hunting on the Great Ice." Commander Peary's photographs are especially clear and varied, and of themselves give as excellent an idea as may be had of the scenes which confront a hunter in the great Arctic wilderness. The musk-ox is one of the most important animals in the hunting of the searcher after the North Pole. The Peary expedition killed in the past four years something like 350 musk-oxen, some of them as far north as 83 deg. 39 min. The musk-oxen feed in herds of from five to more than twenty, and are an easy prey to the modern rifle, as they do not run far. The meat is as good as any beef, and the skin is used for bedding. The reindeer, too, is slaughtered by explorers by hundreds, and is easy to kill. So far as sport is concerned, the polar bear is the most important of the Arctic fauna, but Commodore Peary tells us that when hunted in the native way with dogs there is scarcely more excitement in the killing of Arctic bear than in the killing of reindeer or musk-ox. If the bear is not too old, Commander Peary assures us that the meat is very rich and palatable, particularly when eaten raw and frozen.

There is a sketch of Dr. Lorenz, an account of the great poultry establishments of America in "The Great American Barnyard," by F. J. Haskin, and a study of William H. Crane the actor.

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LIPPINCOTT'S.

WRITER in the January Lippincott's challenges the theory of Mrs. John Lane, advanced in a recent Fortnightly Review, that "housekeeping in England costs as much, is less convenient, and altogether becomes more difficult for the mistress, than in Boston or New York. The Lippincott's writer goes into the details of the relative cost of New York and London living, and shows that her experience was that "we spent about the same sum in America for ourselves alone as we do now in England when keeping house with two servants. America gave me a life of wide individual horizon, of large income, of greater expenditure and temptation to spend; England is the land of home and heart interests, of smaller incomes, and of less incentive to spend."

J. G. Rosengarten estimates the influence of Benjamin Franklin's visit to Germany in 1766, in bringing Germany to a favorable attitude toward the United States in the struggle with England; there are a number of short pieces of fiction and verse, and a complete novel, "The New Heloise," by Mrs. Schuyler Crowninshield.

bly change. He points out that one possibility makes any prophecy about future naval fighting hazardous. This is the chance that some better agents than coal in the steaming engine will be discovered for propelling fighting ships. The stowing of machinery and coal now control the construction of our ships. Mr. Nixon says that after all the talk about progress in shipbuilding, the battleships have not changed essentially in the past generation. It is merely the trimming and the slightly altered shape that show changes. There is little agreement among naval authorities as to important changes coming in the future. One essential defect in ordnance now is that the life of a gun is only about seventy-five discharges. The best minds in this field are working on a new form of gun in which the energy of the charge is imparted almost wholly to the projectile. Mr. Nixon says the most important factor now influencing naval building is the submarine boat. He contends that today the submarine boat is less an experimental vessel than the battleship, and is practically a perfect type of its class. The Holland, he says, does successfully whatever a submarine boat could be expected to do.

CONDUCTING A NEWSPAPER IN RUSSIA.

Mr. Wolf von Schierbrand. describes "Conducting a Russian Newspaper," and shows how a man who wants to establish a newspaper in Russia may have to wait ten years for permission. A government concession must be obtained, which requires time and money, and a deposit must then be made with the government, and every newspaper must have a "responsible" editor and publisher especially confirmed by the High Press Administration. If the concession is annulled, both the editor and publisher lose forever the right of issuing or writing for any similar publication. This writer says that the experience of the past twenty years in Russian journalism shows that if a paper succeeds it will be suppressed; if it is not suppressed it must forego success. There are two classes of newspapers,-censorfree and censored. The censor-free papers are prohibited from publishing columns and columns of legitimate news and many specific items, but after all enjoy more latitude than the censored papers.

Mr. F. A. Ogg, in writing on "The Proportion of City and Country Population," finds reasons for believing that our cities have reached their greatest proportionate growth, and that henceforth the country will relatively gain rather than lose. If we are to have anything like the population predicted by such writers as Professor Hart, of Harvard, who thinks the Mississippi Valley alone is capable of supporting 350,000,000 people in comfort, the cult of farmers must increase to supply foodstuffs. The change in agricultural methods, the growth of intensive farming, will be the rule of the future; small farms, economically administered, will supplant the worn-out estates, and all this will mean an increase of rural population.

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.

N a very pleasant New Year greeting to the readers of the Atlantic Monthly, Mr. Bliss Perry, the editor, discusses "Cosmopolitanism in Magazine Publishing," and calls attention to the fact that all the greater American magazines disclaim any special sphere of influence, and fear the provincial note. Of the Atlantic, which from its home and name is apt to suffer some suspicion of a dominion chiefly limited by the boundaries of New England, he says that 60 per cent. of

the 317 contributions last year came from outside of New England, and that more than 60 per cent. of its present circulation is likewise outside of New England. Mr. Perry tells a pleasant story of Poe's canny publishing abilities. Mr. Patterson had invited Poe to become editor of a new magazine, to be published at Oquawka, Ill., which had excellent mail and transportation facilities, which Mr. Patterson explained. "But Poe, while assenting to the proposition, and incidentally borrowing from his new publisher $50 on account, balks at that ominous word, ‘Oquawka.' 'I submit to you,' he replies, whether it would not pay us to put on our title page "Published simultaneously at New York and St. Louis," or something equivalent.'"

THE WAR AGAINST DISEASE.

"The War Against Disease," by Mr. C. E. A. Winslow, traces the revolutionary progress of the medical methods in dealing with smallpox, typhoid fever, diphtheria, and consumption during the past hundred years. Mr. Winslow says that typhoid fever is a perfectly preventable disease, even if it is not true, as one zealous sanitarian maintains, that "for every case of typhoid fever some one should be hanged." Yet such great cities as Pittsburg, Philadelphia, and Washington are furnishing their citizens with polluted river water containing the germs of this deadly plague. Between 1890 and 1898 more than seven thousand men and women died in the three cities above mentioned of typhoid fever. "Allowing for all other possible causes, it is certain that more than half of them were condemned to death solely by the corruption or the incapacity of those municipal officials who permitted the conditions of the existing water supplies."

There is begun in this issue of the Atlantic an autobiography of John T. Trowbridge, who shares, according to the editor, "with Professor Norton only among living men the honor of contributing to the first number of the new magazine."

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THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

HE articles in the North American Review for December reviewing President Roosevelt's first year in office, and the discussion of the tariff by the late Thomas B. Reed in the same number, have been noticed in our department of "Leading Articles of the Month." In this issue there are also two articles dealing specifically with the trust problem; Mr. Joseph S. Auerbach writes on "President Roosevelt and the Trusts," while Prof. Henry C. Adams attempts to give an answer to the question, "What is Publicity?" Mr. Auerbach sets forth certain objections to the President's proposition for a constitutional amendment. These objections are chiefly summed up in the argument that the abrupt transition of the control of the country's commercial interests from the State to the national Congress would be a fatal shock to those interests, since it would deprive them of "the security of State refuge," and would have a tendency to wipe out State lines altogether. In Mr. Auerbach's opinion, no emergency now exists which would justify such an overturning of our institutions. The evils in trusts that have been pointed out can be remedied in great part by legislation without resorting to constitutional amendment.

Some valuable suggestions as to the lines that may profitably be followed by Congress in legislating on the trust question are offered by Professor Adams, who

recommends that any law designed to secure publicity should confer upon the bureau intrusted with its administration power to prescribe a legal form of accounts for all concerns coming under its jurisdiction, and that accounting officers should be made personally responsible for all reports submitted by them.

ELECTRICITY AS A RAILROAD MOTIVE POWER.

Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, who is an expert mechanical engineer, contributes to this number an instructive paper on "Electricity as a Motive Power on Trunk Lines." Mr. Vanderbilt's conclusion is, that while, from the engineering point of view, it is entirely possible to use electricity as the motive power on trunk lines, from the financial point of view it is as yet an impossibility, except under certain conditions, chief among which are exceptionally favorable location of the road for increasing the density of the traffic and the ability to increase rates along with an increase in conveniences afforded to passengers. Mr. Vanderbilt regards as within the realm of possibility certain improvements which would decrease the fuel cost in electric traction, such as the successful working of oil engines in large units, or inventions that would reduce the line loss. On the other hand, improvements that would produce equal efficiency may be imagined for steam locomotives.

MUSIC IN AMERICA.

Mr. David Bispham writes hopefully of the progress of music as a factor in our national life. He says: "Not to all is it given to be able to comprehend the higher flights of music; but the number is rapidly increasing with education, until it may fairly be said that America stands at the head of the nations in its appreciation of the art to-day. Whatever may be the reason for this, true it is that we want only the best in science, architecture, literature, the decorative arts, and music; and in music we are rapidly reaching a point when it will cease to be considered among amusements, or treated as such by the majority."

THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMAN.

In an interesting survey of the improvement of the legal status of woman in the past half-century, Miss Susan B. Anthony makes the assertion that women do not enjoy one privilege to-day, beyond those possessed by their foremothers, which was not demanded by the late Mrs. Stanton in the early years of her leadership in the reform movement.

THE HOPE OF THE ANTI-IMPERIALISTS.

In a sort of anti-imperialist confession of faith, Mr. Erving Winslow candidly avows the hope of his brethren of that persuasion "that in Hawaii where there is chaos, and in Porto Rico where discontent is rapidly spreading, the conditions will so develop that these 'possessions,' which are only burdens to our country and a menace in case of foreign complications, may be alienated."

THE SITUATION IN CUBA.

Mr. Marrion Wilcox discusses the attitude of the Cuban people toward the United States, with especial reference to the pending reciprocity treaty. He seems convinced that the disposition of most Cubans at the present time is distinctly unfavorable to the proposed arrangement. One point that he makes is quite new, we imagine, to most Americans. It is believed in Cuba, at least, that the new republic will be able to pay her