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Two characteristics of the recent progress which are most significant to librarians are the effort toward more discriminate selections of books and the tendency toward "cooperation, or at least avoidance of duplication, in processes." The first is illustrated by the lists of books drawn up by commissions of experts for the guidance of small libraries. The most notable of these, says Mr. Putnam, is the "A. L. A. Catalogue," which contains the names of 8,000 carefully selected volumes. The movement toward COoperation in processes" has already resulted, for those libraries availing themselves of it, in a marked economy in the cost of cataloguing" the most expensive of the technical processes of a library." Mr. Putnam predicts a time when the work of cataloguing shall be centralized at one point for the entire country.

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The recent progress in American libraries, concludes the writer, is not merely toward the popularization of literature. It aims also, by means of special collections for investigation and research, to advance the cause of learning.

A recent issue of Harper's Weekly prints further data in regard to American libraries. We there read:

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'The Federal Commissioner of Education has published some interesting library statistics, showing that in 1903 the number of books in public society and school libraries was 54,419,000. The number represented an increase of 374 per cent. in twenty-eight years-an increase largely due to Mr. Andrew Carnegie, to whom upward of a thousand libraries in the United States owe their existence, wholly or in part. The number of volumes in 1900 was 44,591,000. The largest collection of books in the United States is the Congressional Library, which contains 1,000,000 volumes, including pamphlets; next to which comes Harvard University, which contains 560,000 bound volumes and 350,000 pamphlets. The Boston Public Library figures in the third place, the aggregate number of its books and pamphlets being 772,000. The New York Public Library, which will comprehend the Astor, Lenox, and Tilden foundations, has 500,000 volumes and 140,000 pamphlets."

For the United States, taken collectively, says the weekly quoted above, the commissioner's report shows an average of sixty-eight

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T will interest many people to know that Prof. Charles Sears Baldwin, of Yale University, who has been described by a leading metropolitan journal as "one of the most successful teachers of composition in the country," publishes a little handbook, "How to Write," in which he deduces the doctrines of good writing entirely from the King James translation of the Bible. Professor Baldwin points out that while hitherto the importance of the Bible as a model of style has been often felt and often expressed, it has never, apparently, been realized in systematic, practical application.

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"The greatest single lesson, perhaps, that the Bible teaches concerning the use of words is sincerity," says Professor Baldwin. And again : For any one who studies it from this point of view, part of the moral influence of the English Bible is strict honesty in writing, a growing sense of responsibility for the right word." But he admits that as a model of style the Authorized Version suffers from two defects. One is the absence of paragraphing, the other the frequent use of the compound instead of the complex sentence. Of the latter defect we read:

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guage, tho exceptionally rich in store of words, had not yet developed a consistently logical habit of sentences. In habit of sentences it was still youthful. So the translation of St. Paul's epistles, for instance, is sometimes inadequate to the nicer sentence relations of the original Greek."

The Evening Post, commenting upon Professor Baldwin's book, thinks that "the usefulness of the Bible as a model is sharply limited." To quote further from the same paper:

"In a wide range of writing, Biblical language and imagery would be wholly incongruous. Reports of the legislative proceedings at Albany, of a fire in Broadway, and of a thousand occurrences of modern life must be told in the best English of the year 1905, not 1612. The language must suit the subject-matter, must be dictated by it, be a part of it; and for most purposes the archaic is grotesque.

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More than mere choice of words, however, is involved in the art of composition. The structure of the sentence and the paragraph, the organization of the 'whole '-to borrow a term from the rhetorics are even more important. In these respects the English of the Bible does not accord with the usage of to-day. Just as our vocabulary has enormously enlarged, so our sentence structure has developed in three centuries. The first four verses of the first chapter of Genesis, with the clauses loosely connected by ands, are examples of how not to make sentences:

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.'

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Comparing "Roderick Random" with the same author's " Peregrine Pickle," Mr. Lang gives the palm to the latter, which he considers Smollett's greatest work. He says of it:

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"Nothing is so rich in variety of character, scene, and advenWe are carried along by the swift and copious volume of the current, carried into very queer places, and into the oddest miscellaneous company, but we can not escape from Smollett's vigorous grasp. Sir Walter [Scott] thought that Roderick' excelled its successor in ease and simplicity, and that Smollett's sailors, in' Pickle,' border on caricature. No doubt they do. . . We may speak of caricature,' but if an author can make us sob with laughter, to criticize him solemnly is ungrateful.

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Probably one reason for the present neglect of Smollett is to be found in his own neglect of the proper standards of taste. But,

in the view of Sir Walter Scott," the deep and fertile genius of Smollett afforded resources sufficient to make up for these deficiencies." Comparing the relative merits of Smollett and Fielding, Scott remarked: "If Fielding had superior taste, the palm of more brilliancy of genius, more inexhaustible richness of invention, must in justice be awarded to Smollett. In comparison with his sphere, that in which Fielding walked was limited." But to this dictum Mr. Lang takes exception :

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The second part of Scott's parallel between the men whom he considered the greatest of our novelists qualifies the first. Smollett's invention was not richer than Fielding's, but the sphere in which he walked, the circle of his experience, was much wider. One division of life they knew about equally wellthe category of rakes, adventurers, cardsharpers, unhappy authors, people of the stage, and ladies without reputations, in every degree. There were conditions of higher society, of English rural society, and of clerical society, which Fielding, by birth and education, knew much better than Smollett. But Smollett had the advantage of his early years in Scotland, then as little known as Japan; with the 'nautical multitude,' from captain to loblolly boy, he was intimately familiar; with the East Indies he was acquainted; and he later resided in Paris and traveled in Flanders, so that he had more experience certainly, if not more invention, than Fielding."

TOBIAS SMOLLETT.

With Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding he completed "the great trio of eighteenth century novelists."

The man who turns to the Bible for instruction in narration, description, exposition, and argumentation, will, as Professor Baldwin proves, come upon pretty doubtful examples. As a mere piece of narrative, the story of David and Absalom or even of the Prodigal Son is by no means incomparable. The description of the Tabernacle, which Professor Baldwin cites from Exodus, is certainly not remarkable for clearness. Exposition of all kinds has been better done by modern masters. No expositor of science would set the Bible above Huxley and Tyndall as models. In argumentation, there is hardly a passage in the Old Testament or New in which evidence is marshaled and tested as by Burke or Webster. Indeed, we can not expect to find in the Bible a clear conception of the current theories of evidence which determine the form of an argument."

TOBI

A NEGLECTED HUMORIST OF THE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

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OBIAS SMOLLETT, who completed the great trio of eighteenth-century novelists, forms the subject of a brilliant essay by Andrew Lang in his latest volume, entitled Adventures Among Books." With this writer, remarks Mr. Lang, "died the burly, brawling, picturesque old English novel of humor and of the road"; and nothing notable in this manner appeared in English literature" before the arrival of Mr. Pickwick." Little known and read as Smollett may be in these days, he is a mine to which his successors of the craft have gone for material; "both Scott and Thackeray," says Mr. Lang, "owe a good deal to Smollett in the way of suggestion"; and for the general reader, according to the view of the Scotch critic, he is still a novelist worthy of being rescued from the long oblivion into which his works have fallen.

Admitting the lapses in delicacy to be found in Smollett's work, Mr. Lang, however, looks to the temper of the eighteenth century and to the personal temper of the writer himself for the material for his whitewashing. He says:

"Smollett's heroes, one conceives, were intended to be fine tho not faultless fellows; men, not plaster images; brave, generous, free-living, but, as Roderick finds once, when examining his conscience, pure from serious stains on that important faculty. To us these heroes often appear no better than ruffians; Peregrine Pickle, for example, rather excels the infamy of Ferdinand, Count Fathom, in certain respects; tho Ferdinand is professedly often the object of our detestation and abhorrence,' and is left in a very bad, but, as Humphrey Clinker shows, in by no means a hopeless, way. Yet, throughout, Smollett regarded himself as a moralist, a writer of improving tendencies, one who lashed the vices of his age. He was by no means wholly mistaken, but we should probably wrong the eighteenth century if we accepted all Smollett's censures as entirely deserved. The vices which he lashed are those which he detected, or fancied that he detected, in people who regarded a modest and meritorious Scottish orphan with base indifference."

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45.2

From the details given in the accompanying schedules, it appears that the apple is the basis of a considerable number of canned fruits. It was found to constitute a large part of specimens of "strawberry jam," fruit preserves," etc., while certain “ raspberry preserves," 'currant" and "pineapple" jellies consisted wholly of apple, colored with coal-tar dyes and appropriately flavored. Even where some or all of the preserve was real, coloring matters were often used, and the employment of preservatives, as the salts of benzoic and salicylic acids, was quite general. The chemist of the board, H. E. Barnard, states in the same bulletin:

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"Particular attention has been paid to the collection and examination of samples of vinegar and maple products, and a marked decrease in the percentage of adulteration of these articles is apparent. This may be attributed to the publication of special articles on these subjects in recent numbers of The Bulletin, and a better understanding among the producers and dealers of the necessity of complying with the food laws. Under the influence of the stringent vinegar and maple sugar law passed at the last session of the legislature we shall expect to see the percentage of adulteration of these products rapidly decrease, to the great benefit of the producer, who will no longer find his market usurped by artificial goods, and of the consumer, who will be able to purchase pure articles at a reasonable cost instead of the adulterated goods that have heretofore flooded the State.

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"It must be remembered that in the collection of samples for analysis attention is directed to suspicious articles of food and to those products that are especially liable to adulteration. Staple articles of food, such as fruits and vegetables, cereals and sugar, are rarely adulterated. The actual percentage of adulteration of all food products is therefore very much lower than the figure above given."

It is stated by The Journal of Commerce (New York, June 20), that these reports have seriously affected the sales of some canned goods in New Hampshire. Evidently persons in that State prefer their apples "straight," rather than dyed and flavored in the guise of "strawberry jam."

THE

ARE FAST TRAINS DANGEROUS? HERE seems to be considerable difference of opinion, both among scientific men and practical railroad managers in regard to the safety of fast trains. After the recent accident to the New York Central flyer at Mentor, Ohio, the train was made two hours slower, apparently as a measure of safety, only to be restored to fast time as the result of a hurried conference of experts, who decided that speed had nothing to do with the accident. As to the technical journals, good opinions are to be quoted on each side. The Scientific American (New York, July 1) thinks that a fast train is safer than a slow one, and it gives no less than seven reasons. First, the equipment is apt to be of the best; second, the engineer and crew are selected men; third, it is given the right of way and is watched with special care; fourth, on straight stretches its high velocity actually tends to keep it on the track, enabling it to cut through or override obstacles that would derail a slower train; fifth, on sharp curves the engineer knows that he must slow down, and accordingly does so, where a slightly slower train might take the chances of full speed; sixth, the train has fewer cars and its smashing effect is less in a collision; and lastly, "the fast train, like the fast transatlantic liner in a fog, is sooner through the danger space." Says the writer:

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This argument, which is accepted among steamship captains as a perfectly sound one, applies in its degree to railroad travel, for if dangers lurk on the rails, the sooner the journey is over, other things being equal (and we have shown above that other things' rather favor the fast train than otherwise), the less the danger of injury.

"We have gone somewhat fully into this question, because we believe that it affects, in the most vital way, the whole question of the increased speed of so-called express American railroad trains, which to-day, except for a few special trains, is lamentably behind that of some foreign countries. Every day of the year in France over thirty trains are run that have a schedule speed of from 55 to 60 miles an hour; and in Great Britain there are over fifty such trains. Time was when the immature state of our railroads could be urged as a plea for the low average speed of the majority of our express trains. No such plea can be urged to-day, for our best track is just as good as the best track in European countries."

On the other hand, the editor of Engineering News (New York, June 29) believes that the recent accident raises a very serious question regarding the propriety of high train-speeds. The opinion that a fast train runs no more risk of accident than a slow one it pronounces "contrary to common sense." The writer goes on

to say:

"Risk of disaster is actually increased with every increase in train-speeds; and when disaster does occur to a high-speed train, either in the form of derailment or collision, its results are likely to be far more serious than would be the case if the train were running at low speed.

"Particularly is it true that danger is involved in an increase of train-speeds over that at which express trains are ordinarily run, or say an increase from 50 miles an hour to 70 miles per hour. Since the stored energy in a moving body varies as the square of its velocity, a train at 70 miles an hour contains nearly double the stored energy of one traveling 50 miles an hour; and as a consequence if danger appears ahead and the brakes are applied, the 70-mile an hour train will run twice as far before stopping as the 50-mile an hour train."

A fast train, too, can not stop between signal and danger-point, and as to slowing up on curves, the engineer who has to make up time is very apt to "take chances on not doing so. Then the cost of fast trains is out of all proportion to their usefulness. Fast trains are run at a loss as advertisements, and when two competing railroads bid against each other with higher and higher speeds, the danger is obvious. Says the writer:

"The great defect of American railroading to-day is not low speeds. It is too frequent accidents. Most American railway trains are run at quite as high speed as the existing track, rolling stock, and signal systems justify. If money is to be spent for im

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"For this first competition there had not been imposed a too restrictive program nor a too learned classification; any machine was admitted that had a surface of at least one square meter [11 square feet] and could carry at least 2 kilograms to the square meter [about 61⁄2 ounces to the square foot]. Below these limits there was no admission to the competitive trials, but still the machines could be tried. . . . .

"The quality of an aeroplane depends on elements that are complex and difficult to determine. The criterion adopted and the short time allowed did not permit of classing all the dissimilar machines in a precise way, and the jury was content to distribute its medals to those that attracted notice by their stability, their surety of movement, and the time during which they were able to stay in the air.

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Besides the flying-machines properly so-called, the exhibition included all kinds of devices such as the balloon, with lateral screw-propellers, of M. Deltour, a model of an aeroplane with motor of 134 horse-power constructed by a sergeant of engineers named Paulhan, which was suspended by a wire from the gallery, and described a large circle under the impulse of its two lateral screws; several kites made by M. Vareille; an air turbine of M. de Carlshausen; the ingenious reversible screws of Messrs. Robert and Pillet, etc.

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"As may be seen, there was plenty to satisfy public curiosity. If there was at first some doubt of the success of this first attempt in a direction as yet untried, this doubt disappeared quickly, and we may hope that the next competition, in 1906, will mark an important step toward the solution of the problem, especially if a place is selected where may be shown in the open air the curious experiments in 'soaring,' which, following the example of the Americans, Chanute, Herring, and the Wright brothers, some bold aviators like Captain Ferber and M. Archdeacon have already begun to make, with considerable success. Translation made for THE LITERARY DIGEST.

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SOME OF THE FLYING MACHINES EXHIBITED IN PARIS.

1. Dumoulin's aeroplane.

2. The Gelitas, M. Gelit's mechanical bird. 3. Paulhan's aeroplane. 4. Deltour's dirigible balloon. 5. Roze's aviator. 6. Seux's aeroplane.

makers of automobiles, and the inventors of flying-machines are often rather utopian. Not knowing of any practicable aeroplanes at all, the judges naturally had little to go on, in awarding their prizes. There were twenty-nine machines altogether on exhibition, and most of these were models that would not work because they were too heavy or too small, or for some other reason. Still, there were enough left to furnish a very interesting series of trials. Says the writer:

"As might have been foreseen, the apparatus without motors were in the majority, and in fact these were the only ones that gave results. The jury. . . had erected a magnificent pylon 38 meters [125 feet] high from which were launched devices that met with varied fates. Some dropped noses at once others descended slowly as on an invisible inclined plane, or curved gracefully about like birds of prey. .

THE MAKING OF PASTE DIAMONDS.

IN

N an article quoted in these columns some time since, on the use of electricity in the jewelry trade, it was stated that large quantities of imitation diamonds are made in this country out of paste and quartz, by means of electrically driven grinders. Regarding this, Walter B. Frost, editor of The Manufacturing Jeweler, Providence, R. I., writes us as follows:

"No imitation diamonds whatever are made in this country. They are all manufactured in Europe, where labor is very cheap, and probably imitation stones which have ground facets never will be manufactured here, as the American labor cost would make them so expensive as to be prohibitive. There are some pressed stones made here, but these are confined to stones without facets. Instead of these imitation stones retailing for a few dollars apiece,' they really cost anywhere from less than one cent, not to exceed five cents apiece. When quantities of the nicer qualities of imitation stones are set in an artistic manner in gold settings, the finished articles may bring the few dollars apiece' mentioned, but the stones themselves have very little value. No stones are made out of quartz, with the exception of a very few which are cut in Colorado and other tourist localities, and these are of value simply as souvenirs. The imitation stones made of strass, which is only a higher quality of glass, are much superior to anything which could be cut out of quartz.

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And, while I am on this subject, I would like to correct a great misapprehension which is in the minds of millions of people in this country. A white stone is either a diamond or it isn't. If it is a diamond, it is worth a hundred dollars a carat, or more. If it isn't a diamond, it is not worth anything. There is no middle The idea that there is something which is better than an imitation paste stone made out of strass, and not as good as a dia

course.

mond, has been fostered by the fake diamond palaces so liberally sprinkled over the various cities, but I can assure you positively that the aforesaid Arizona diamonds,'' Barrios diamonds,' etc., are nothing more than imitation stones made out of strass, and are not made in this country.

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There are a very few doublets' made and sold. These are constructed with a garnet front and a glass back. By means of using a different colored glass, different colored effects are obtained, and the front is a little harder and has a little more durability and retains its luster a little longer than the ordinary imitation white stone. But.. the garnet front is of no particular value, and the extra cost of these doublets is really due to the labor that is put on them. These, however, are not used to any very great extent, and I repeat, with emphasis, that the vast majority of imitation stones sold in the stores are made out of glass, and are made in Europe and mounted by the manufacturing jewelers in this country."

MAGNETIC CRANES.

THE pictures that accompany this article show more strikingly

than words the extent to which electromagnetism is now used in lifting large or unwieldy masses of iron. The statement that iron is lifted by magnetic force, however, would be incorrect:

Courtesy of "The Electrical World and Engineer."

FIG. 1.-MAGNET LIFTING STEEL TURNINGS AND BORINGS.

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vessels for the services indicated above is found in the electromagnet, and the accompanying illustrations serve to show a few of the numerous tasks which can be imposed upon it. Fig. 1 shows a magnet lifting steel turnings and borings. This class of material is very difficult to handle, as it is laborious to shovel, and the work is very slow and costly where a fork is used. It is light and is easily magnetized, however, and the magnet is able to carry a large quantity at each lift. Tin scrap in either the baled or loose form is ordinarily a most unwelcomed class of material. With

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it would be analogous to an assertion that when a man lifts a piece of sticking-plaster after pressing his finger on it, the lifting is done by the molecular force of adhesion. In both cases the adhesion, magnetic or molecular, merely furnishes the "hold." The devices shown in the pictures are designed and made by a company in Cleveland, Ohio. Says the writer of a brief note accompanying them in The Electrical World and Engineer (New York, June 24):

"In the handling of pig iron, steel, iron scraps, baled or loose tin scraps, bolts, nuts, rivets, and similar material by means of traveling cranes, much difficulty is encountered in obtaining an adequate hold upon the material to be lifted. With large castings the time consumed in connecting the hook of the crane in an eyebolt or in placing a chain or rope in position for hoisting the casting represents an appreciable part of the cost of the completed article. It is evident, however, that frequently there must be handled pieces which are too small to need eye-bolts and which can not conveniently and economically be handled by means of ropes or chains. Even when the pieces are assembled in a containing vessel, the task of handling is only slightly simplified, since the disposal of the contents of the vessel in many cases presents a difficult problem.

"An ideal substitute for chains, ropes, hooks, and containing

Courtesy of The Electrical World and Engineer."

FIG. 4. MAGNET LIFTING PLATE WITH THREE MEN.

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