THII OLD POLE STAR.
N —
Refore the clepsydra had bound the days
Man tet’_‘(xiere«‘ Change to his fixed star, and
said:
“The #ider races, that long since are dead,
Marched by that light: it swerves not from
its base,
Though all the worlds about it was and
fade,”
When Egypt saw it. fast in reeling spheres,
Her Pyramids shaft-centred on its ray
She reared and sxaid: “Long as this star
holds sway .
In unrivaled ether, shall the years
Revere my monuments—" and went her
% way.
The Pyramids abide: but through the shaft
That held the polar pivot, eye to eve,
Look now-blank nothingness! As though
Change laughed
At man's presumption and his puny craft,
The star has slipped its leash and royms
the sky.
Yet could the immemoriai piles be swung
A skyey hair's breadth from their rooted
base,
Back to the central anchorage of space,
Ab, then again, as when the race was
yvoung,
Should they behold the beacon of the race!
Of old men said: “The Truth is there; we
rear
Our faith full-centred on it. It was known
Thus of the elders who foreran us here,
Mapped out its circuit in the shifting
sphere, ? - 5
And found it, ‘mid mutation, fixed alone.
Change laughs again. again the sky is cold,
And down that fissure now no star-beam
glides. i
Yet theyv whose sweep of vision grows not
old
BStill at the central point of space behold
Another pole-star; for the Truth abides.
—Edith Wharton, in Scribner's Magazine.
THE WOMAN ENTERS,
In the chaparral on the edge of
the " bluff Dick Matson lav flat on
his stomach, his chin propped on one
hand, while the other rested lightly
on the shining bharrel of a rifle. Be
low, on the further bank of the
river, Escolante, the cattle-thief,
strutted back and forth before the
door of his cabin, his gun in his
hands, his strident voice proclaiming
to the air his disdain for all gringos
in general, and for the white-livered
chingado Matson in particular.
Matson, unseen, and his presence
only . dimly apprehended . by the
strange animal instinct of the half
breed, could hear with sufficient
plainness the gusts of wrath and ob
jurgation which floated up from be
low; and .when his own name was
mingled with especially acrid vitu
perations, the rage to which he dared
give no more audible vent expressed
itself in tense and impotent mutter
ings.
» “I'll get you yet, you old cattle
thief. O Lord, O Lord, to have to lie
here and take such blasted impu
dence Trom a black-hearted Apache
mongrel!’”’ This when Escolante’s
remarks on the status and heredity
of the gringo became particularly
personal and historiec. ‘“Wish I
wasn’t a white man and I'd take a
pot-shot at you for luck, just as you
stand, you cattle-stealing, lying
whelp. Cursed nonsense anyway,
waiting for proof, and taking a man
to the law, when I know darn well
you’ve a steer of mine stowed away
in the bushes somewhere. Wait till
I find your cache, or catch you rede
handed; and I'll make you sweat for
this.”
So each vocal volley from below,
directed against the unseen foe that
the half-breed apprehended to be
lurking near, was answered by the
hidden enemy with one no less heart
felt because of being, for strategic
purposes, necessarily unheard.
As the time passed Matson's limbs
grew increasingly cramped and stiff.
Decidedly, he reflected, Escolante had
the best of the game. He warily
stretched himself into a new posi
tion. The hours slipped by; and still
the half-breed, warned by his subtle
instinct for danger, kept up his gro
tesque parade; and still the watching
man was baffled of his clue.
The shadows lengthened on the
river. A few crows, loudly cawing,
shook themselves out of the branches
of a tree near the cabin and winged
themselves for the homeward flight.
Dusk was all but fallen; and the
watcher painfully stirred his limbs,
preparing for a furtive retreat, when
a new element entered the scene be
low.
The girl who stepped to the door
of the cabin was slim and lithe as a
willow from the stream. Her black
hair fell sleek and straight on either
side of her face, hanging in thick
braids nearly to her knees. She
raised one hand to her forehead,
shading her eyes for a long look up
the river, and the movement had the
supple, untaught grace of a wild
thing of the woods.
Matson drew his breath in some
thing that came dangerously near to
being a whistle. So this was Esco
lante’s daughter—child of a Mexican
mother and a half-breed father—who
since her mother’s death had been
with the sisters at Santa Barbara.
He vaguely recalled having heard of
the girl's return. This could te none
other than she; for what woman,
young and beautiful, would fore
gather with that wicked old Esco
lante,
He cautiously reached for his bi
noculars, with which he had so care
fully scanned the landscape earlier
in the day. The girl stood as if posed,
straining her level gaze toward the
sunset. The glass revealed her face,
a warm brown oval, the curves as
soft and perfect as a child’s, yet with
the fullness and richness of early
womanhood. The heavy brows were
arched. The thick lashes, fringing
lids now wide-flung, over soft fawn-
like eyes, surely must shadow her
cheek when the lids were lowered.
The red, curving lips were slightly
parted, disclosing white teeth, firm
set and regular.
The glass did its work well. The
girl might have been standing close
by; so close that if one reached out
a hand one might touec'r the brown
curve of the cheek, or part the silky
masses of her hair. The ran caught
his breath sharply till it hissed be
tween his teeth. 'The pain in his
limbs was forgotten. The girl’'s face
held him like a spell.
Suddenly the upraised hand fell
to her side. Escolante’s daughter
turned, with a swift grace and en
tered the rude cabin. The sun’s red
rim slipped below the horizon. Soon
a light shone in the cabin. The man
on the bluff lay watching it till far
into the night. But his head was
sunk on his arms and his gun was
unheeded at his side. When a black
figure for an instant darkened the
doorway his heart leape: up. Then
the old gleam of hate sprang anew
in his eyes. It was the half-breed.
The man in the chaparral softly
raised himself. “Tl’ll setile you yet,”
he exulted. And in the dark he
shook his clenched fist at the cattle
thief. Then he stealthily withdrew.
A month had passed and again it
was the dark of the moon.
The time had dragged heavily for
old Escolante, for with the accursed
gringos so closely watching, even a
practiced hand must move warily,
and it was hard to go empty with fat
cattle feeding at one’s very door.
To Dick Matson time had flown
on golden wings. Love and hate wax
well together in a strong man’s heart;
and the red lips of Dolores were
sweet,
To the girl the month had passed
as a day. It is good to live when the
blecod is warm; and voung love is
daring and does not wait for the dark
of the moon.
On this night Escolante ate his last
meal of frijoles and tortillas without
the customary sullen scorn. He even
ventured a few coarse jests with Do
lores, who was dear to him as the
apple of his eye. A man may well
jest whose knife is whetted for the
killing, and who knows that on the
morrow he will feed fat, voiding his
hate and filling his stomach at one
and the same time. Dolores met his
badinage with easy response and well
simulated affection. It is easy to
scatter careless affection from the
lips when the heart is brimming over
with love.
Without, men gathered quietly in
a certain lonely glade. The night
was heavy about them. In the si
lence each man could hear his own
heart-beat and his straining breath.
The little voices of the night shrilled
loudly, anq the sound of the ‘cattle
cropping the rich grass was like a
thousand ecrunching engines in their
ears.
The waiting had lengthened to
hours before a fat steer coughed and
fell under the knife. Then some
thing whirred in the gloom; and then
a lantern flared out. Escolante was
caught red-handed. His ludicrous
dismay when the deft-flung riata
tightened round him drew a burst
of rough mirth from the sheriff as
he slipped on the half-breed’s wrists
the symbol of the law and its bond
age. But when Dick Matson stepped
from the darkness and reclaimed his'
riata the cattle-thief broke into fierce
vituperations, for this was the most
hated, and therefore the most preyed
upon of all the gringos.
“SBave your wind, old man,”
laughed Dick Matson. “You’'ll need
it for the blessing, for to-morrow I
marry your daughter.”
Escolante grew livid and his jaw
dropped. Then he opened a fresh
volley of imprecations, hurling the
lie in the gringo's teeth.
Dick laughed a careless laugh.
“Come here, Dolores,” he zaid.
Like a shadow the girl slipped out
of the blackness and stood beside
him. Dick slid an arm about her
and bending kissed her full on the
mouth.
Then the half-breed went mad with
rage, and spat and screamed out
curses on the pair until it was horrid
to hear him. The sheriff and his men
had trouble to hold him.
Dolores trembled and shrank
against her lover. But Dick Mat
son only laughed his easy laugh and
tightened his arm around her. Then
he turned and drew her with him
into the forest,
No more cattle are stolen or killed
within the range of the Cross Bar Y.
The cattlemen sleep well of nights
and Dick Matson grows rich off his
profits. Several plump brown chil
dren play about his door; and of
those he is inordinately fond, as is
also Dolores, who sees in them ador
able replicas of the man she wor
ships. The two are very Lappy, for
Dolores is still slim and beautiful;
and Matson wants no better life
than that of the range and his own
fireside. There are moments, how
ever, when the hair stiffens on the
back of his neck, and a chill runs
along his spine.
These are the moments when he
reflects on the fact that the utmost
that the courts could award to Esco
lante was a life sentence; and that
there is always the chance that a
prisoner may escape, or that a too
lenient governor Mmay exercise the
right of pardon.—Sßan Francisce
Argonaut. .
Old Union Men.
The carpenters’ union, of Winni
peg, Manitoba, boasts of three men
who have been continuous members
of the organization for more than
thirty-six years. The union believes
this sets a vecord.
THE PULPIT, |
AN ELCQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. B. J. NEWMAN.
Subject: Our Four Anchors,
Brooklyn, N. Y.—ln Unity Church,
Irving place and Gates avenue, Sun
day morning, the Rev. B. J. Newman
vreached. The text was: “And fear
ing lest we should have fallen upon
the rocks they cast four anchors out
of the stern and wished for the day.”
He said: :
The text is taken from Paul's story
of the shipwreck. Paul was going to
Rome to be tried for his life, but on
the sea a storm raged for two weeks.
In the darkness of the dead of night,
not knowing where they were, the
sailors on watch heard the sound of
water breaking on the rocks and they
took soundings. And again they
took their soundings and finding that
the water was shallower, they threw
out four anchors “and wished for
the day.” We do not have to be sail
ors to know the value of these an
chors to the storm assailed men on
that ship. They held them to their
anchorage unfil light came and they
could see their way.
My purpose this morning is to con
sider briefly the anchors of righteous
ness that we need in our daily living.
The simplest analysis of our present
day life, of one week’'s experience,
would show that there are a dozen
influences outside ourselves and tw
dozen temptations within us that fl&‘
storming our righteousness. We are
surrounded on all sides by difficulties.
Our honor, our justice, our sympa
thies, our religion, all are assailed,
and we have got to protect ourselves
and our fellow men. Take the first
day of the working week and look at
the exiperiences we meet with in that
day. We go to business, and funda
menially the principle to-day upon
which business seemed to be based
is that of dishonor. It is not ‘“honor
all men.” It is not trust all men,
but it is distrust your fellow man;
“put him under bonds.” Only the
other day in the Sunday school I said
to the young men and women there:
““Be honest; tell the truth,” and one
member came to me and said: ‘“‘How
can we be honest? We have to lie.”
There is a tendency in the life of men
to-day to get ahead, no mgtter what
happens to the other man. Or on
Tuesday we read in the paper that
some bankers to whom the funds of
the people had been entrusted, and
on which the stability of business
men depends, and to whom the mon
ey of widows and children has been
entrusted, have been dishonest and
speculated in the stock market to in
crease their own incomes, and have
failed. Our confidence is assailed,
and we say: ‘“Whom can we trust?”
On Wednesday, perhaps, we go to a
magistrate’s court and we watch the
man who is elected to dispense jus
tice in your name, and we see case af
ter case where the politician’s influ
ence is at work or where the petty
bribe is at work, and men and boys
that have broken our law, and who
should be put in our prisons until
they learn what it is to live among
their fellow men in righteousness,
are discharged and go free. Our
sense of justice is shocked. Or per
haps it is some man in a higher rank
of life who takes the life of another,
who comes into our courts, and under
the plea of insanity he is declared not
guilty of his crime; while some poor
man, with the feelings of poverty and
want, steals a loaf of bread from the
corner grocery, and he is sent to jail
for three months. Our sense of jus
tice is rightly shocked. Perhaps on
Thursday at 6 o’clock we are coming
home and we are at the New York
end of the Brooklyn Bridge, and we
see a mad rush to get into the cars.
There is no sympathy shown. Each
man tries to get himself in ‘and
pushes women and children aside,
and we say: ‘“What are men that
they will do this?” And so our sym
pathies with our fellow men are be
ing shocked. And so it is through
the rest of the week. And Sunday
comes; Sunday, the day set aside
when we try to commune with God
and learn a little bit of what it means
to be righteous, to do God’s will.
Sunday comes, and a few of us, here
and there, attend services; but there
are the so called sacred concerts,
poolrooms and saloons, all thrown
open. Men say “liberty,” but this is
not liberty, but license to degrade
themselves. And we permit it, and
our religion is assailed, and our cul
ture, ahd the development of our cul
ture to worship God is assailed.
Temptations and conditions out
side ourselves and temptations arising
within cause us to face danger daily.
We hear of the cruelty of the factory
that allows the little boy and girl of
ten to work twelve hours a day until
they get the ‘“‘great white plague.”
We hear of the evils of the stock
yvard, of the great railroads, and so
on. We hear of these things so of
ten that we are growing hardened
to them. Familiarity with evil dulls
its power to affect us, and dulls "our
eyes to its ugliness, and we go on our
way rejoicing in our prosperity; and
we are unmindful when we do not
work with all our hearts to ower
come these things. These things are
affecting our lives, We have to have
good anchiors to hold us to tane right.
The right, friends, is our life; noth
ing else in life. Right in everything
-—not only in the personal sphere,
but in the world around us. Those
Israelitish prophets preached, not
personal righteousness, but social
righteousness; not pure by yourself,
but pure by your state, and that is
what we have to do. If we love our
right we will fight for it, and for its
best expression, even as Paul fought
for the lives of the seamen and his
companions when his ship was cast
upon the rocks. And in order to fight
for ourselves we have cast out our
anchors and ‘““wish for the day.”
Now, what are these anchors? The
first is the anchor of faith. Here is
the situation confronting us: Our
confidence is assailed; our faith in
our fellow men is assailed; our faith
in our God is assailed. We have to
cast out the anchor of faith. We
know that the eternal righteousness
will triumph. It is so. Through every
difficulty, every experience, every
trial; all through the past it has. al
ways sought the higher expression of
itself. We have to have faith in this
righteousness and the inspiration.io
give ourselves to the service of the
expression es righteousness. Nct
only have we to cast out the anchor
of faith, but the anchor of hope also;
80 that when these storm clouds are
upon us, when darkness surrounds
us, when it seems as though the light
of day would not show itself to our
vision we have to have the hope that
is born of God, the hope that gives a
happy outlook. It is so easy to be
discouraged and to let these experi
ences that are surrounding us damp
en our ardor. The next is the anchor
of love for our fellow man: “Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
This do.”” With that love God calls
us {o service. It calls us out of our
selves with the love that makes us
want to go out into our city and
wherever we see one who needs us,
it mekes us want to give ourslves to
that one; and I tell you never in
God’s world was there a city that
needed more redeeming love than
does this city of New York and
Brooklyn to-day. 1 have gone into
homes where the darkness of despair
was because no love was there. I
have gone into homes where mothers
and fathers have said: *None cares
for us; no one will help us.”
Don't tell me the world love us, be
cause we know differently. I tell
yYou we have to have that love in us
that the Russian proverb says “dwells
in the bouse of labor.” There is a
reward for him who loves his fellow
man. Then there is another anchor,
and that is the anchor of prayer. I
care not what a man’'s work or edu
cation is, whether he is college bred
or has no education at all, but this
thing I am sure of, and that is, with
ont a prayer in your heart you cannot
make life worth what God is expecting
of it. Prayer is our wanting to get
near to God, wanting to tell God of
our difficulties, our troubles, our per
plexities, our successes, our ideas, our
wanting to ask for His strength and
guidance. We have to have this an
chor when things are going wrong,
when the world seems dark and life
is weary. We want to have this an
chor in God to give us courage to go
on our way, and if we have not been
doing right to help us to return and
through our fellow men serve God.
Let us cast out our four anchors:
our anchor of faith in God and our
fellow men; our anchor of hope in
eternal goodness; our anchor of love
in universal service; our anchor of
prayer to God; and in so doing may
the blessing of God rest with you in
all your labors.
A Meditation.
“Ye shall receive power after that
the Holy Ghost is come unto you.”
There can be no acceptable service
without this endowment. Kven
Jesus must first be baptized with the
Holy Ghost before He could enter
upon His great mission.
The apostles, who had been in
Christ’s school for three years, could
do nothing until they were endowed
with power from on high.
Mr. Mcody used to say that he
would rather break stones on a turn
pike than attempt to 'preach without
the indwelling and power of the
Holy Spirit., The great reason why
some of our young people’s meetings
are such a drag is because its mem
bers do not seek power from above.
To obtain this power we must
earnestly seek for it in prayer. ‘lf
yve being evil know how to give good
gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask
Him.”
To obtain more power, we must
use the power already Dbestowed.
“Go in this thy might,” the angel
said to Gideon—the might of the
promised presence, ‘“The Lord be
with thee.” As he went he realized
the presence and power of the Al
mighty.
We must use this power in wit
nessing for Jesus. ‘I am no more in
the world, but these are in the
world.”” We are His representatives.
Let us not misrepresent Him.—
Christian Union-Herald.
Self-Conquest a Necessity.
Deeply, I fear, does this age need
to take to heart the stern, inexorable
necessity of self-conquest—not in
self-torture, but yet in earnest watch
fulness; not in extreme fasting, but
in habitual careful moderation; nor
in morbid self-introspection, but in
thorough and vigorous occupation;
not in enfeebling the body by macera
tion, but by filling its hours of work
with strenuous and cheerful activity
and its hours of leisure with bright
thoughtfulness and many a prayer;
by these blessed means we, too, even
in the midst of the world, may attain
to the spirit which is dead to the
world; we may be keeping under our
body and bringing it into subjection;
nay, in\no mere formula, but a truth
ful figure be crucified with Christ.—e
F. W. Farrar,
Digging a Way to Heaven,
Bless God for the wilderness;
thank God for the long nights; be
thankful that you have been in the
school of poverty, and have under
gone the searching and testing of
much discipline. Take the right view
of your trials. You are nearer heav
en for the graves you have dug, if
you have accepted bereavements in
the right spirit; you are wiser for
the losses you have hravely borne,
you are nobler for all the sacrifices
vou have willingly completed. Sanc
tified affiction is an angel that never
misses the gate of heaven.—Parker,
Stepping Stones to Glory,
When God saves us He does it not
alone for our good, but for His. He
expects us to work for Him and to
see that not one of His children is
turned away hungry or thirsty. Sac
rifice and unselfishness are the step
ping stones to glory and in my mind
the least of the work of saving a soul
is done when we have gotten the pen
itent to open his heart to God. It is
the after-work that counts, the dis
play of the friendly Christian spirit
that shows the new convert that he
has friends on earth and in heaven,
Human Sympathy May Mislead.
s The cross separates not only from
sin but from friends and human
good. God’s children are sometimes
tripped by human sympathy when
what they need is divine sympathy.
When we see (lod’s children going
through trial let us be careful to up
hold and encourage them. Let us not
endeavor to lift the cross before God's
time,~~Missionary Worker, i
The Making of an Electrical Engineer
By GEORGE-FREDERIC STRATTON.
In the great shops of a well-known
electrical company are some three
' hundred young men, clad in work
‘men's garments, assembling small
apparatus and testing dynamos,
transformers, railway motors and
lighting appliances of every descrip
tion.
These men have come from uni
versities, colleges and technical
schools, not only in this country, but
in all quarters of the civilized world
And they are supplementing the theo
ries upon which they have spent
years of study with the admirable
practice to be obtained in the finely
equipped shops and the variety of
fpparatus manufactured,
This company has always had an
eye to the future. Its excellent ap
prentice system is devised with a
view to producing a company of ex
pert workmen, from which may be
drawn the future foremen, superin
tendents and executive heads of de
partments. Its student course is to
provide for its future need of engi
neers on all classes of apparatus and
equipment; to take charge of foreign
and domestic installations of great
power and lighting plants; to be
come managers of new shops, de
signers of new machinery or com
mercial manragers and assistants.
The qualifications necessary for a
man entering on this student course
are that he should have graduated
from some college or technical school.
Graduates from several of the cor
respondence schools (approved by
the company) are also admitted.
The man who enters, however, is
not estimated aeccording to his col
lege attainments. All start on the
same basis and at the same nominal
salary. The estimation and advance
ment come upon a demonstration of
the quality of a man’s work in the
shops; upon his steadiness ‘and re
liability; - his quickness in seeing
errors or defects; his aptitude at
grasping and solving them.
The course is for a period of four
years, but no written agreement to
this effect is required by the com
pany, And it must be understood
that the four years consist of fifty
two weeks each, excepting possibly
two weeks for vacation each sum
mer. In fact, the student is subject
to exactly the same discipline and
shop routine as the ordinary work
man. His hours are the same-—from
T 8 M 10068 D m
There is no strictly defined routine
of practice on this course. The gen
eral principle is to give the young
man the opportunity to work some
time in each department, and so fa
miliarize himself with every type of
apparatus manufactured. He usu
ally commences by assembling small
motors and becoming familiar with
every detail of the machine. He then
works for a period at testing genera
tors, transformers, arc lamps, meters,
ete., respectively, thus becoming ac
quainted with the nature and use of
testing and measuring instruments,
and also with the wonderful labor
saving devices and the accuracy of
machine tools with which the shops
abound.
He sees the methods of the great
steel and iron foundries, and observes
the materials used in building up the
great turbo-generators. He is ex
pected to acquaint himself with the
methods of constructing and winding
armatures and field coils; the various
kinds of insulators; and the details
and uses of switches, switchboards,
meters and controllers.
The work is by no means a sine
cure. At much of it dirt, grease
and real labor are encountered by
these students as by any mechanic
in the shops. On transformer tests
and tests of special apparatus, the
work necessarily continues, fre
quently, for as long as thirty-six
hours at a stretch; and it speaks well |
for these men that such work is rare
1y shirked. The dropping of one of
these students for inefficiency or in-‘
attention is of the rarest occurrence,
In the course of from two to three
years—it all depends upon the man’s
brightness—he will find his shop‘
work more or less frequently broken
by calls to go outside; to report on
disaster to some outside plant; to
examine, and probably adjust, ma
chines which are working improper
ly; or to Airect a crew of workmen
installiiig new machinery,
He will also now come more in
contact with the prominent engi
neers, and, if his cholce so lies, may
be taken into some special depart
ment, 1
This specializing is encoura’ged.
Electrical problems have hecome so
complex and diverse that the man
who achieves the greatest amount of
usefulness and success is, undoubted
ly, the one who devotes his energies
and abilities to some particular line;
and ample opportunity is afforded to
students in this course to confine
their attention to any one depart
ment for which they show unugual
ability or aptitude.
In the engineers’ departments he
will have the opportunity of confin
ing himself altogether to the manu
facturing and designing details, or
he can branch off onto the commer
cial side, with a view to qualifying
himself for work in some one of the
company’s many district or foreign
offices. The salesman of electrical
apparatus is much more than an ordi
nary commercial agent, He is a con
sulting engineer, He must be thor
oughly conversant with the construc
tion and assembling of machines;
with their capacities under greatly
varying conditions; must have apti
tude for understanding and explaln-'
ing peculiar conditions, with a view
to the designing of special apparatus
0 meet them. Many of the students
are in special training for this de
partment, while others are devoting
themzelves to the acquirement of a
thorough knowledge of electrical
practice.
Many high authorities are insis
tent upon the value of some com
mercial training for every engineer.
Dr. Louis Bell, in a recent inter
view, said:
“Sometimes—nay, often—it is a
greater problem for an engineer to
keep the cost of a plant or some of
the apparatus within a given appro
priation than it is to solve the engi
neering difficulties. And that is
where a young engineer should be
carefully trained, commercially, so
that he will always avoid the risk of
seriously injuring his newly-acquired
reputation by designing something in
which the demand of solidity and
efliciency is sacrificed to that of cost.
He should learn to say ‘No!’ when
the insidious suggestion is made to
cut down weight here or power
there.”
The advantage of this practical
training-—this acquired familiarity
with the actual conditions of work
ing apparatus as supplementary to
the preliminary theoretical training
—are incalculable. The student who
is thoughtful, attentive and am
bitious, acquires by this method the
qualities which must be combined in
order to make the thorough engineer,
Nerve and resourcefulness with ma
chinery in times of emergency—
presence of mind, tact and ability to
handle men; business knowledge and
executive capacity—all this is requi
site; and practice—and practice
alone—can give it.
In addition to this practice, the
embryo engineers have ample oppor
tunity of keeping abreast of the times
on theoretical lines, and in touch
with the rapid advancement and
changes in electrical science, A spec
ial engineering organization or club
is designed for this purpose. Meet
ings are held monthly, at which lec
tures and addresses upon technical
subjects ar»s delivered by speakers of
undoubted qualification, followed by
discussions on the subject. This so
ciety also arranges and carries out
visits to other plants of unusual in
terest, where the installation and
operation of power for generating
purposes, and of special apparatus,
may be fully inspected and dis
cussed.
Mr. H. W. Buck, in an article in
the Scientific American says:
“In a stationary condition of art,
a man with practical experience only
may become very familiar with all
the existing types of apparatus and,
knowing their applications, may
qualify, to an extent, as an engineer.
But the extremely rapid growth
of electric practice makes rapid
change in the construction and
‘operation of electrical machin
ery. The man of practice only
s apt to fall behind; while the man
‘with a knowledge of the theories and
ithe formulas—with a mind trained
to study and deductions—follows up
the changes without cifficulty, and is
frequently one of the men to initiate
such changes.” .
The opportunities ahead of these
students are most promising. In the
far Indies graduates of this training
‘are harnessing the sacred streams and
generating and conveying power and
light hundreds of miles, over a coun
try and against difficulties unknown
here, and unforeseen there, until met
and conquered,
Up toward the North Pole, install
ing arc lights to run through a six
months’ night; in distant Japan,
operating railways for the gentle
Oriental; stringing the canons of the
Rockies with transmission lines; put
ting the collar on the mighty Niag
ara and bringing a half million horse
power into productive subjection—
everywhere you find them, meeting
and battling with problems and diffi
culties, overcoming them, and in thus
overcoming them, becoming stronger
and more invincible themselves.
That’s where these young men are
going from the student course. All
of them will become useful; many
of them will acquire some degree of
eminence; perhaps one here or there
will rise to international fame-—an
Edison, a Thomson or a Steinmetz.
In the electrical fleld the pace is
swift—the marvelous of to-day is the
commonplace of to-morrow. Peculiar
characteristics or abilities in certain
lines will find their opportunity in
this industry, always provided they
are coupled with the qualities which
are requisite to gnecess anywhere—
vigor, pluck, patience and good
sense, ‘A good general education,
supplemented by a good technical
education, and followed by the prac
tice obtained among the machinery
and apparatus of a great manuface
turing corporation, comprigses the
nursery and training ground from
which many of the future giants of
electrical science and achievement
will undoubtedly emerge.—Secientifie
American,
The Power of the Pen,
A physician out West was sent for
to attend a small boy who was ill.
He left a prescription and went away.
Returning a few days later, he
found the boy better,
“Yes, doctor,” sald the boy's
mother, “the prescription did him a
world of good. [ left it beside him,
where he could hold it in his hand
most of the time, and he can almost
read it now. You didn't mean for
him to swallow the paper, did you,
doctor?”——Harper's Weekly, - 4
