The St. Johns herald., 1900-03-17
THE PROFESSOR OF TO-DAY.
Traditional Marks of SchOInrShipr Are Not Noticeable i'm His Ap-
 pearance.

The tradition, fostered largely by
 contemporary comic literature, that men of one profession or trade gath
 cred in convention infallibly exhibit She sign-manual of their occupation.
 would have been highly diffieuFt of
 application in the case of the Amer ican Modern Language association which held its meetings at Columbus university recently. Professors aud instructors from colleges all over the country make up the principal mem bership of the organization. The COZ
 vention was homogeneous in type; all the members were scholars and
 followers of the worlds literature Hardly could any other conventicu lave brought together body of men
 whose lines of thought and habits of life in general were more similar
 Yet to the eye of the layman there, was nothing in their appearance t1 indicate in the slightest degree their profession, and nothing short of In-
 tuition could have decided, without. reference to the papers which were read and discussed, what the nature of
 the gathering might be. One might
 well have supposed it to be meeting cf stock brokers or the conference of a high class club. Many of the men were young-probably half of the en- tire number being less than 70 years old. A quite surprising number of them had the set of the shoulders and the Gecisiveness of muscular move ment that proclaim their posseSsor 10 have been at some time in his "A
 trs;ned athlete
 In the matter of clothing the ma jority of the men were unmistakabIy modish, though the prevalent start ling waistcOat and fiamboyant neck tie were notably absent. and in this sartorial respect the out-of-town pun tits were in no wise inferior to their metropolitan brethren. Bald heads were few; eyeglasses not in greater proportion than with the general pub- lie of the brain working classes. When the men spoke they spoke sim ply, sharply and briefly, with an occa- sional flash of wit or stroke of satire.
 The old-fashioned professional pre- lessor was scantily represented. Per haps half dozen of the older men were of this type, and these pro- claimed themselves to the eye and ear alike. Their speech was measured, dignifed and academic. In marke,l contrast was one of the notable fig ures of the convention, young man of high standing as a scholar, wh1 looked like the dishevelled outcrop- ping of soIle artists Bohemia, and who brought to his part in the dis cussion convincing judgment and sound sense, together with fervOr almost anarchistic. Add to this man and the little group of old-timers an eager and voluble little elderly mem- Der with a pronounced accent; slow and pCnderOus Scandinavian, and a blithe young conversationalist who hit out right and left and made all sorts of fun for himself and the rest, and the list of eccentrics Is completed. The remainder of the convention was in no sense professionally typical.
 The same carnot be said of fhe women members, who, with very few exceptions, were distinctively of the pedagogic type. They came early and stayed late, taking notes of the pa- pers read and otherwise evincing a earnestness in the pursuit. of learning, while their compeers of the sterner sex, if the truth must be told, sFent half their time foregath- ering and gossiping in. the lobby.-N. '. Sun.