Los Angeles herald., 1909-02-08

1t is probable that the presence of
heat-producing radium in. the earth
will prolong that cooling process from
which scientists predict the ultimate
death of our planet. Prof. John Jolly
| OF the University Of Dublin writes in
| the February Harpers of "Radium and
the Earth's Internal Heat" explaining
the latest calculations of the earth S
age with respect to the quantity of
radium still existing within it. There
are, says Prof. Jolly, 10000 tons of ra-
dunn dissolved in the waters of the seas
and more than a million tons of ra-
dunn contained in the sediments which
are deposited over the floor of the
! ocean," Scientists calculate that the
earth is already about a hundred mill
! lion years old, and with this amount of
radium still in existence it would not
seem necessary to apprehend near
fulfillment Of Mother Shiptons famous
prophecy.
The current number Of the Southern
| Workman, published by the Hampton
| Institute Press, contains an interesting
and timely article on the present situa-
ton in Turkey by the veteran mission
! ary Rev. DR.. House of Salonica, Tur-
key. Another thoughtful paper is one
by James Dexter Taylor, pointing out
contrasts between old and new condi-
tionS among the natives of South Af-
rica. The number contains also the
sixth paper in the series by r. r.
Wright, jr., on 1.-The Economic Condi-
tion of Negroes in the North" Indian
articles in the current number are can
Indian New Year." Notes on Greek
Mythology" by F. G. Speck of the
American Anthropological society, and
the first part of a romance Of the Lewis
and Clark expedition called ''Sakajawea
of the Shoshones."
Professor William James, in a highly
suggestive and thoughtful account of
the philosophy of G. T. Fechner, out
| lines in the HILBERT Journal for Janu-
ary "The Doctrine of the Earth-Soul
and Of Beings intermediate Between
Man and Cod The reasoning by
analogy that leads to the conclusion
! that nature outside of the animal king
dom is not the inert and thoughtless
thing it seems is startlingly, if not
! convincingly, developed. Those who
are of the opinion that man is the
| only object that has a soul would do
well to sound the depths of this doc
trine Of Fechners, while those who be-
lieve otherwise will find their faith i'm
mensely strengthened by this cogent
presentation by Professor James.
Before he made his reputation by
writing plays Victorien Sardou, the
| French dramatist, who was deeply in
| terested in spiritualism, had a remark
able experience in taking dictation. He
| had been interested in occult phenom-
ena, and by chance he came into COM
munication with spirit personality
who, signed himself Bernard Palissy."
M. Sardou, who recently passed into
the higher life, has told the. story of
| his experiments in an article entitled
"Only the Blindly Ignorant Scott" in
the February DeIineator. He says:
| Zone day, in my room with two
! friends, 1 thought would make the lit
fee run about the room, as had often
when alone. Without saying anything
1 put my hand on the table, but it
would not bulge. / tried in vain all the
| time they were there to make it move,
| but to no avail. AS soon as they were
gone I could make it do what pleased
even jump clear off the floor. So
took up my pencil and asked: But
why would you not make the table
move while my friends were here?'
The hand which held the pencil wrote:
| They were too stupid
Shortly after this I was sitting by
| my table one day, idling, dreaming,
not making any effort to do anything
| in particular. All of a sudden my
hand began to work on the paper be-
fore me with a rapidity and precision
which astonished me.
'And 1t kept this up for close to two
hours. The result was a fantastic
piece Of work drawn in delicate lines,
fine almost as a spiders web and at
the bottom a signature = Bernard
| Palissy.' What is it.?' I asked.
''And my automatic hand wrote: The
| House of SwedenbOrg, on the Planet
| Jupiter This was considered as most
| curious by all my friends, who knew
that personally l had no aptitude for
drawing. A plate was prepared and L
was given an etching tool The result
| in the same order of design, was a
more elaborate piece of work, this time
curiously combined out of all sorts Of
musical terms, clefS, notes, bars, and
so on, and the whole was designated
as the House Of Mozart, also on Jupi-
ter, and the whole was again signed
| 'Pal1ssy." In fact, Bernard Palissy
became my almost constant companion
from this on, like my second SELF
Mrs. Humphry Wards recent novel,
THE Testing of Diana Mallory" which
has just been reprinted by the Harpers
in this country, has won special popu-
lar1ty with English-speaking readers
in Germany, and there has been some
| rumor of the books being translated
into German. In this connection Mrs
Wards sister, Miss Ethel Arnold, who
recently came to New York to visit,
| has been quoted as saying that "Diana
Mallory is the sort of girl of whom no
one could fail to approve" and that
this is the type which is perhaps the
most pleasing to the German mind.
'"The Germans ideal woman is still"
says Miss Arnold, ''the housefrau or
chatelaine"
Anne Warner, humorist, wrote her
first really serious book in ''The Pan
ther," published last fall by Small,
Maynard & Co. Newton Newkirk,
humorist, in answer to a corre-
spondent "Clarice," who asked him the
meaning of a sentence of the book, "Its
potency was portentous, it's .portent
potent" has this to say in his "All
Sorts Column of the Boston Post:
''Clarice wishes to know what this
means, and we prOphesy that Clarice
will continue to wish to know what
this means. There are some passages
in popular fiction unloaded on the mar
ket from day to day, which passages
are beyond the grasp of human intel
ligence-they are beyond the grasp of
human intelligence because they are
written by authors having almost, but
not quite, human intelligence"
Against which persihage might be set
the authors own description of her
motive in writing 1.-THE Panther She
says in a letter from Germany: "Im
quite willing to stand for all that may
be said of the book. L am as willing
to stand for The Panther as 1 am un-
willing to stand for the play that bears
my name on it's posters. Whatever I
1 III - esN1 .@T-~