Newspaper Page Text
'Rum and Ruin
Kentucky.
Kentucky’s hills are full of rills,
And all the rills are lined with stills,
And all the stills are full of gills,
And all the gills are full of thrills,
And all the thrills are full of kills!
You can see the feudists dot the hills,
And camp among the little rills
Convenient to the little stills—
And thirsting for the brimming gills.
And when the juice his system fills,
Each feudist whoops around and kills.
Now, if they’d only stop the stills,
They’d cure Kentucky’s many ills.
Men would be spared to climb the hills
And operate the busy stills.
However, this would mean more gills,
And that, of course, would mean more thrills
Resulting in the same old kills!
So all the hills and rills and stills,
And all the gills and thrills and kills
Are splendid for the coffin mills,
And make more undertaker’s bills!
—Chicago Tribune.
Common Enemy.
When the Russians fought the Japanese and lost,
and fought again and lost, all the wise people said
the Russians lost because their officers were cham
pagne-soaked and that the private soldiers were
drunk on vodka, wood alcohol, and other Russian
liquors.
Then does liquor impair the usefulness of a sol
dier? Yes, just as it impairs the usefulness of any
man and destroys the self-respect of any woman.
We who are at times maudlinly silly over the
noble qualities of the Japanese, may so inflate them
with ideas of their own worth that they will have
to be whipped before they learn their place. It is
to be hoped, then, that when our soldiers are sent
against them, they will be led by officers who are
not cursed with one of the weaknesses that destroy
ed the Russians.
Liquor-drinking is bad training for straight shoot
ing and clear headwork. We will need both when the
time comes to arbitrate by the sword any little
difference we may have with Japan, or to shoot an
other open door through the boycott the Chinese,
probably encouraged by the Japanese, are trying
to put in force against us.—Chicago Daily Exam
iner.
Literary Circles.
There appeared in an early issus of the Golden
Age, an offer of 12 books for newly organized lit
erary clubs. There seems, however, to have been
some mistake as to the scope and design of this
offer.
It was not intended to replenish libraries already
established, but the books offered were meant to
form a nucleus or beginning for literary circles de
siring to organize libraries. It was not intended,
either, to apply to Sunday School or church libra
ries already established. Yet this interpretation has
been placed on the offer by several correspondents
to the Golden Age.
It is the purpose of this explanation to both em
phasize the original offer and make it clear. The
original offer stands in full force, and the twelve
books will be sent to all literary clubs, duly or
ganized, whose plans, purposes and work shall be
duly reported to the Golden Age.
Captain E. J. Smith, who, for fifty years was one
of the leading river pilots between Cincinnati and
New Orleans, died at his home in New Port, Ky.
Captain Smith participated in many naval battles
in the lower Mississippi during the civil war.
The Golden Age for April 5, 1006.
Emory’s New Gymnasium.
It is no longer necessary that arguments in favor
of physical culture be presented to the faculties
of colleges and universities, all now realize that
to improve the physical nature is paving the way
tor greater mental development. The proposition
that is now confronting our seats of learning is how
this physical exercise is to be obtained. Football
has long constituteed one of the main forms of ath
letics. Baseball, the national sport, is now and al
ways has been popular with every school and seat
of higher learning in America, while tennis, basket
ball, track teams, and lacrosse are more or less pop
ular in different sections of the country.
In most of our colleges there is a gymnasium in
which the students seek well rounded physical de
velopment, and Emory College believes that regular
training in the gymnasium is a fundamental neces
sity. Under the administration of Bishop Candler,
it was made compulsory for every student of the in
stitution to take two hours of gymnasium training
per week in a regular drill class and under the
supervision of Professor F. Clyde Brown, Physical
Director. No student is exempt from this duty
unless he presents to the director a physician’s cer
tificate, stating that he is physically unable to take
the required exercises. All of the succeeding presi
dents have followed this plan and it is now in vogue.
Good results have been observed in the improved
condition of health of the students in the institu
tion, by the trustees, who now support the sys
tem.
The building now used for gymnasium purposes
was first built as a technological department of Em
ory, and was the first technological school in the
State. Afterwards it was fitted up for a gymnasium
and has been used as such up to the present time.
Doctor Dickey, on assuming the duties of president
of Emory, realizing that the present quarters were
inadequate, and that a modern gym would be of in
calculable benefit, stated that after paying for the
new Science Hall recently completed, he would seek
means for erecting such a structure. At his sug
gestion the trustees of the institution last year
appointed a building committee, and after the un
tiring efforts of President Dickey in securing sub
scriptions, a $25,000 structure was promised.
As a result of this there is nearing completion
on the campus of the college a gymnasium build
ing, which for architectural beauty and modernness
of appliances and furnishings is not surpassed by
any in the South. It is made of Georgia granite
and pressed brick, having numerous windows with
graceful arches of granite, and is three stories in
height. The main entrance is a Grecian portico sup
ported by three one-piece granite columns, the door
having a wide arch of stone. This is the entrance to
the lower floor, which has a floor of marble, and is
fitted up with steel lockers, improved showers, and
well furnished dressing rooms. Second floor is the
drill room proper, which is 100 x 60 feet, very well
adapted to all indoor games.
Above the drill room is the running track of
twenty laps to the mile, and will be of great bene
fit to early track team training. On the lower floor
are two rooms for the offices of Director Brown,
fitted with latest apparatus for physical tests, which
will be made semi-annually and reports submitted
to the parents of the students.
At the suggestion of Professor Brown, the junior
class of Emory met and donated to the gymnasium
fund $l,lOO for the purpose of installing a modern
system for ventilating the building. This system
insures the best possible ventilation known to sci
ence.
This amount raises the cost of the structure to
over $26,000, but includes none of the appliances
and apparatus to be installed after the completion
of the structure. Emory’s new gymnasium when
completed will be an added grace to the campus, on
which there are already nine college buildings, and
will prove a blessing to many generations of stu
dents to come. E. Berry Martin,
Correspondent.
The Simplified Spelling Board.
At last we have hope of seeing the English lan
guage placed on some sort of logical basis in regard
to the spelling of its words. Always, this has been
the terror of foreigners, the bugbear of children
and the burden even of scholars and thinkers. But
light begins to dawn at last.
Like all reforms, this must move slowly and by
organized effort—thanks to Mr. Carnegie, who sup
plies the “means,” the “end” of the old system
is in sight. One of the most recent public utterances
on this subject is that of Brander Matthews, Pro
fessor of Dramatic Literature at Columbia Univer
sity, and Prof. Matthews’ well known scholarship
makes his verdict of special value. He says: “The
spelling of English is unworthy of a practical race.
It misrepresents the derivation of words; it is whol
ly unscientific; it is as wasteful as it is absurd.
No better example could be found of the
inconsistency of human nature than the fact that
the most business-like of races has been so long
content with the most unbusiness-like of orthog
raphies But the English-speaking race
is esentially conservative and declines to be driven
too fast, and improvement in spelling must come
slowly and along the line of least resistence. Im
provement has already been seen in the omission
of useless letters—thus ‘musick’ has been reduced
to ‘music;’ while readers are being made constant
ly familiar with program, catalog and tho.
“To hasten the improvement of English orthog
raphy by the omission of useless letters is the prac
tical task that has been undertaken by the Simpli
fied Spelling Board. This new body is not an irre
sponsible collection of cranks and faddists,” says
Prof. Matthews; “it is a representative commit
tee of American citizens who believe that the time
has come for an organized effort to make English
a more fitting instrument for the hundreds of mil
lions who are soon to use it.”
That the growth of the English-speaking people
is little short of phenomenal is one reason why
it becomes almost imperative to simplify a language
which is now one of the most heavily burdened of
any in existence.
Dr. Benjamin E. Smith, editor of the Century
Dictionary says:
“Dictionary editors must wait for the verdict
of the people on the spelling of words. It is not
in our province to dictate how the people shall spell.
We do not make spelling, we simply record it.
That the spelling of English could be greatly sim
plified, is beyond question. Many spellings are fixed
by custom which have no real authority. Here is
the word tongue. If it should now be printed ‘tung,’
it would look strange upon the page, and many per
sons would object to it But it is an Anglo-
Saxon word and should really be written ‘tung.’
It is an obstacle to the teaching of English spelling
to children. The pupil finds that r-u-n-g spells
rung, and s-u-n-g spells sung, but when he comes
to tongue, all analogy fails and he loses confi
dence.”
Dr. I. H. Funk, editor of the Standard Dictionary,
advocates the new order of spelling and intends
adopting it in the publishing house of which he is
the head. He says: “It is intended, however, not
to use words which might strike the eye as being
greatly different and thus distract the attention
of the reader from the subject of which he is read
ing. ’ ’
The work of the Simplified Spelling Board of
which the above named gentlemen are members,
begins with the issuing of a list of three hundred
words which are commended to the public as rep
resenting the easiest and most scholarly spelling.
If this plan takes effect, other lists will be issued,
but it is desired to “make haste slowly” and it
is not planned to make the spelling of English en
tirely phonetic as it is believd that would be well
nigh impossible. But a general simplification of the
language is sure to follow this well ordered, skil
fully organized and sensible effort to lighten the
work of the student of the English language. It
is a subject well worthy of careful thought.
13