in these columns that we feared not old age because there were so many books to read. Perhaps some day soon an octogenarian will dodder into the observatory and remind us that we aren't exactly bothered by the problem of where to stow our whiskers just yet. Well, these may be brash theorizings, but what we actually meant, we have decided, is that there is something in what Stevenson said about the world being so full of a number of things.

Of course, the phrase "happy as kings" has a deal of ironical significance in this democratic era, and we doubt if royalty ever had such a hilarious time of it. Still, it isn't happiness necessarily that is our object; it is the pursuit of it-thereby justifying the fathers of the Constitution. As long as life remains a pursuit there is nothing to fear. And when we become entangled in our whiskers we shall cease bodily activity and pursue happiness in a comfortable chair under a kindly lamp and in company with a faithful pipe.

The danger lies in catching up with our object and finding it not worth the quest. And we are inclined to wonThe Danger der if Messrs. Duke and EastWinning man haven't done just that. Of course, we never expect to overtake that much money, so we shall never know.

Lies in

To-night we have been in quest of adventure and our base has been the aforementioned chair and our supply a tin bearing the picture of a gallant hunter spearing a blue boar. And we have sat before the cathedral of Chartres with Sherwood Anderson and heard him murmur: "Always wood for carvers to carve, always little flashing things to stir the souls of painters, always the tangle of

over, dream over."

And we have conversed with the shade of Joseph Conrad and heard him express again that attitude toward Adventuring life which always remains in with a Pipe our memory: "The sight of human affairs deserves admiration and pity. They are worthy of respect, too. And he is not insensible who pays them the undemonstrative tribute of a sigh which is not a sob, and of a smile which is not a grin."

The contrasts of life, the commingling of the admirable and the pitiable, and the thoughts evoked by the spectacle, make life a continual adventure no matter where we happen to be. We find beauty and courage in many strange places, and the memory retains from all the chance impressions a few which gather meaning and significance as the years pass.

with

And we have such a spectacle before us now. We cannot imagine that John Hays Hammond, for instance, is He Walks ever bored. The well-groomed man who walked briskly into Rulers the office the other day, whom we see on the next page in company with the former Premier of England, is the same who was in the midst of the bloody Cœur d'Alene strike, who knew the remarkable Siringo of whom he tells an amazing tale in this first part of "Strong Men of the Wild West," and he it was who after the Jameson raid (with which he was not in sympathy) was condemned to death in South Africa and obtained release only after the payment of a fine of $125,000. He is the same and yet different. These events which he describes have become a part of his life. They affect his outlook upon the world and, as he presents them here, we, too, feel their vicarious influence.

In a radically different way, and yet manifesting the same willingness to depart from the beaten path, An Stanislaw Gutowski came to Immigrant America. His adventures, Discovers America too, he records. Both are vital parts of American life. This mining engineer who was the adviser of Cecil Rhodes in Africa and walks with premiers, and this lad who, finding America at her worst, nevertheless became a captain in the United States army and did work of inestimable value during the late war, and is now studying for admission to the bar, are citizens of the same land. Now, answer in ten words, what is America?

Then go on to Stella Ruddock's story of an entirely different phase of the American scene, a picture of its floating population, in more than one sense, and see if your definition holds.

One might wish that our floweryphrased orators could have experiences such as these. Or even that they might read of them. For, as we have said, one may encounter adventures in reading as well as in doing.

We add to the list, also, Albert Guérard's scintillating dissertation on the French presidency. For he asks us, as a sister democ

Where

Heroes are

for an

which instructs the flower of our youth at New Haven, and the revolution he proposes is a biological one. Ellsworth Huntington hopes that A Chance some time in the not too disEnterprising tant future nations will take Emperor a hand in their own biological development rather than leave it to chance. Doctor Huntington has been awarded a number of medals and is termed by one reviewer as "the most conspicuous authority on the influence of climate upon civilization." In this number Doctor Huntington discusses the future of Russia in view of the practical destruction of the intellectual class. And it is a record of a disillusioning as to the all-healing might of democracy. If any one wants to try the stunt that Aaron Burr and the Emperor Jones weren't so good at, there is a fertile field among the Moujiks.

Useless racy, whether the French method of seeking a comfortable president rather than a picturesque one may not be better. There is much to be said for a government that lets one alone, particularly in these United States which are in danger of becoming so united as to achieve uniformity. Doctor Guérard is not much of a hero-worshipper, and not so long ago he was noted sniping at Elie Faure's Napoleon in Books, Doctor Sherman's territory of the Herald Tribune. He does not see in the little giant the lyric artist that M. Faure does. Politics and war seem to him not the place for giants. The motto "Live Dangerously" will not work in railroad schedules or practical politics, says he.

But, if Doctor Guérard is an adherent of things as they are, and the policy of smiling at them, we have a real revolutionist in our midst. This violent person is a member of that very staid faculty

utilized for important work. For, although Mr. Bradford has been hampered by ill health for a great portion of his life, he has developed that skill in biography which has caused his portraits to be termed "psychographs." This glimpse of the soul of Edwin Booth presents a figure which lives in American history. It has become a little dim with age. Mr. Bradford has taken it and brushed it up and presented to us here a living man.

People are still apologizing for jazz and European musicians are frantic because American jazz orchestras are Jazzdriving them out of business Our Own in their own bailiwick. William J. Henderson cuts down under all the talk about "high art" and "the classics" and shows that jazz is not a poor thing but is decidedly our own. And this is from a man who graduated from Princeton in 1876, so it is none of your modern youth movement to overturn old idols.

Perhaps the fact that Mr. Henderson went to college kept him from being a jazz artist himself, if Henry Rood's theory about "College and the Artist" holds true. Yet we should call Mr. Henderson an artist in his line. Mr. Rood was the man who received the wireless message from Admiral Peary announcing his discovery of the North Pole, and he was the first American to board Peary's ship when it returned from its momentous voyage. After reading his article, a number of college presidents will want to send Mr. Rood to the North Pole or to the region having the opposite extreme of temperature. There's much to be said for Mr. Rood's thesis, even if you don't agree with his list of first and second rate artists of the past century. Colleges are deadening unless one has the luck or the perception to realize it the day one enters.

With all this propaganda for preparedness going on about us, with admirals and navy secretaries and generals Pacifists and Jingos howling about the enemies without our gates, Thomas Boyd's stories have an added significance. It is refreshing to see that President Coolidge, according to newspaper reports, has put the quietus on the jingos. About a year and a half ago the New York

Thomas Boyd's book, "Through the Wheat," praiseworthy, deplored the fact that Mr. Boyd "gives hardly a hint of realizing that the war had an object of sufficient importance to make the heavy price worth paying." We wonder what the author of the editorial thinks about it now.

Speaking of contrasts, as we have been all through these columns, Kyle Crichton, author of "For Sale: Med Show," was born in the now deserted mining village of Peale, Pa., and is at present boosting Albuquerque, N. M., as advertising agent for the Chamber of Commerce.

Mary Gordon found her contrasts on the open road, and what a cross-section of life she saw in those few eventful days! It makes one realize how much there is to see for those who have eyes. "Wayfarers -All" should add much to the joy of the next tour that you take.

And then look at our contrasting poets. Margaret Sherwood is known wherever two or three Wellesley stu- The Poets dents gather together. Marian Storm, the last we heard, was writing for the New York Evening Post, but that was before the entrance of Curtis. We dare say she is at her journalism yet. Edward Bok has just published a new book, "Twice Thirty." He is known to millions of women as the former editor of The Ladies' Home Journal. After giving a peace prize and being investigated by an ungrateful Senate, he turned to poetry, of which "The Glory of All England" is an example.

William Lyon Phelps unfortunately had to cancel the remainder of his trip abroad due to ill health, and, doubtless, Miami will now get some free publicity from his pen. We are glad that the doctor got to Paris before illness overtook him, for his comments are as sprightly as that lively city. And Royal Cortissoz might almost be in Paris too, judging from his discussion of Gavarni, who so fully expresses the spirit of Paris itself. The manifesto of the Vanity Fair of that day has many features that modern magazine advertising lacks.

America-it is a big subject, and one worth a good deal of thought. This number of the Magazine contains three excellent notes on the American panorama. The fact led us to browse through recent numbers of the Magazine, with the result that we found a lot of fascinating material which breathes the spirit of various phases of American life. No topic could be more worthy of investigation. For true patriotism, as distinguished from chauvinism and jingoism, depends upon a knowledge of our country and a feeling for its spirit. This cannot be gained by looking up a lot of statistics on the growth of population and industry, nor can it be gained by the statistical method at all. It is to be caught from the minds of people who have thought about it, and who interpret it.

One of the pressing questions of the hour is that of the foreign-born within our gates and those clamoring for admission without the gates.

STANISLAW GUTOWSKI'S “AN IMMIGRANT AT THE CROSSROADS," in this number, and his second article, which is to appear soon, on the proper means of Americanization from an immigrant's point of view, are important additions to the work which SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE has been carrying on in helping various parts of our population understand each other. MICHAEL PUPIN, who began as a Serbian peasant boy, and is now one of America's most distinguished scientists, published his “FROM IMMIGRANT TO INVENTOR" in SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE, beginning in the September, 1922, number and running through July, 1923. This story was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for biography. Roy W. GARIS'S "HOW THE NEW IMMIGRATION LAW WORKS," in the August, 1924, number, tells specifically what the law will accomplish. The act of Congress was based upon a previous article of Mr. Garis's, which appeared in the September, 1922, number, and was entitled "THE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM-A PRACTICAL SOLUTION."

Other phases of the American scene, and the numbers where material on them can be found,

are:

AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

"Radicalism in the United States," by Edwin W. Hullinger, Russian correspondent for the United Press, ejected by the Bolsheviki (October, 1924).

The President," by Edward W. Bok (January, 1925).

"What's the Matter With Congress?" by Charles Browne, Member of Congress (September, 1924).

"Kids and Campaigns," by Walter L. Whittlesey (November, 1924). A lighter touch by a member of the Princeton faculty.

"Letters of a Bourgeois Father to His Bolshevik Son," by Edwin D. Torgerson (January, 1925). The American tries to understand his son. See also The Club Corner for January.

AMERICAN EDUCATION

"Idealism in Education," by Frederick E. Bolton (January, 1925).

"College and the Artist," by Henry Rood (this number).

"Provincial Universities of France," by Paul van Dyke, comparing the attitude of the French and the American student (January, 1925). Alice K. Hatch (February, 1924). "The Every-Day Child and His Library," by

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

Winston (December, 1924). "A Freshman Again at Sixty," by Robert W.

"Reflections of a Settlement Worker," by Gaylord S. White (December, 1924).

AMERICA THEN

The West.-"Strong Men of the Wild West," by John Hays Hammond (this number).

New England.-"A New England Education," by Edward P. Mitchell (July, 1924). The Theatre.-"Portrait of Edwin Booth,"

by Gamaliel Bradford (this number),

The Home.-"The Field of Art," by Royal Cortissoz (January, 1925).

Journalism.—“The Newspaper Man's Newspaper" (August, 1924), and “Mr. Dana and His People" (September, 1924), by Edward P.

Mitchell.

Literature.-"My Memories of the Early Eighties," by James L. Ford (December, 1924), and "Lilies and Languors" (January, 1924) and Temperance Novels" (November, 1924), by

Edmund Lester Pearson.

Oratory.-"Unfettered Eagles" (July, 1924), by Edmund Lester Pearson.

THE CHANGING AMERICA The Home.-"The Field of Art," by Royal Cortissoz (April, 1924).

The Newspaper.-"The Changing Country Press," by Charles Moreau Harger (April, 1924). Occupation.-"Our Changing Agriculture,' by Edward M. East (March, 1924).

The West.-Will James's articles in March, April, August, and December, 1923, and February, April, and June, 1924.

The Theatre.-"Rip Van Winkle Goes to the Play," by Brander Matthews (November, 1924).

AMERICA NOW

The West.-"The West as I Saw Her," by Shaw Desmond (March, 1924).

Moving Pictures.-"Bigoted and Bettered Pictures," by William C. deMille (September, 1924).

Music. "Ragtime, Jazz, and High Art," by William J. Henderson (this number).

People. "Our Modern Old People," by Virginia Terhune Van de Water (May, 1924).

The Theatre.-"New Notes and Old in the Drama," by Arthur Hobson Quinn (July, 1924), and "Uncle Sam-Exporter of Plays," by Brander Matthews (February, 1924).