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'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