Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-01-04
LATE MAGAZINES


that Augustus NJ. Herring, a young
engineer, was experimenting with an
aeroplane, and 1ater, that the govern
ment had become interested in it. The
machine was to have been delivered 70
the government last August, but the
inventor received two extensions Of
time before he submitted it for a. pre-
liminary inspection.
Although, as has been said, it was
known Herring was experimenting for
the government no one was prepared
to see him in Washington with two
suit cases which contained every part
of gasoline engine which could de-
velop twenty-five horsepower for a
few seconds at time, and about
eleven horsepower steadily. These en-
gines themselves are the result Of
years of effort, the purpose of which
was to reduce weight to the minimum
and to condense power into as small
a space as possible. This engine, f
it does all it's inventor claims for it,
should prove a big advance in avia-
ton, as the weight of the ordinary
gasoline engines has proved a severe
handicap and has made it impossible
to carry sufficient gasoline for ! ~ very
protracted flight.
1t was also reported that the aero
plane itself was contained in an or
binary wardrobe trunk. At any rate,
1T is no longer a secret that the ma
chine is a very small one. 1t is SAID
to weigh only two hundred pounds
when supplied for a flight of three
hours. The actual size may be varied
from fifteen to thirty odd feet, ac-
cording to the weight to be carried
and the speed desired. The machine
has two superimposed surfaces about
three and a half feet wide, and about
three and a half feet apart. The steer
ing apparatus. instead of the customary
wheel, is controlled by handles like
those of a bicycle.
From 1.-THE Key to the World Con-
troll" By John r. Winchell in the jan
uary Metropolitan Magazine.
The patience of the American public
is proverbial, and nowhere is this pa
thence more strikingly exemplified than
in our fashionable opera houses. Only
a patient and bewildered public would,
year after year, listen to opera sung in
languages which, for the most part,
they do not understand, when, by the
assertion of their plain rights they
could hear them sung in the vernacu-
lar. The book of an opera means a
great deal to it's composer, and it ought
to mean at least something to the pub
lie. 1t is not enough to have a vague
knowledge Of the plot; one should be
able to follow the dialogue. Mr.. Mailer
has proved in his conducting of some Of
the great Wagner operas that a prop
erly controlled orchestra does not
drown the singers voices. Of last sea-
sons cast of Tristan and Isolde" at
the Metropolitan, three Of the princi-
pal singers, Fremstad, Homer and
Blass, are Americans; if the opera had
been sung in good English transla-
ton how much more thoroughly the
great mass of the public would have
enjoyed the beauties of this master
piece of composition In all the great
opera house Of continental Europe one
hears only the language of the country,
and foreign singers are not engaged
until they have mastered it. We GER
tainly have the right to exact a similar
capacity from our high priced foreign
singers. 1t is only laziness on their
part and unadmirable patience on ours
which delays this deSideratum.
A translation is never so good as the
original, it is true, but it is much bet
ter than unintelligible poems or IL
brettos. That the translations of operas
and songs with which we are unfamiI-
lar have not satisfied US is only due to
our not having insisted that the trans
lations be well done. Last winter in
London Hans Richter conducted a sea-
son of Wagner'S operas which were
sung in English, and the reports seem
to agree that the translation was ade-
quate and that the experiment of Civ
ing the English public a chance to fol-
low the text at first hand was a great
success. Wagner himself believed
thoroughly in this matter of transla-
ton.
From THE Use of English in Sing
ing" by Francis Rogers, in the Janu-
airy Scribner.
Bobby Wild Goose and his ragged
regiment" was the name hooted after
Robert Raikes, the first modern Sun
day school advocate, and his scholars.
The thoroughfare was "Sooty Alley
and scholars were the ragged boys
who toiled in the pin factories of
Gloucester, England. Robert Raikes
paid Mrs. Brandon, a poor woman, l
shilling each Sunday to teach the boys
the Bible. That was in $780, Four
years later there were 250 900 boys and
girls attending Sunday school in the
kingdom.
Today the Sunday school hour in
city or village, the civilized world over,
resembles LilIiputian land on dress pa
rade. Streets leading to churches are
bonny with lads and Iassies, not rag
ged, but dressed in their best, going
happily to "hear the wond'rous story
Thousands now do the work Robert
Raikes started.
One of the greatest factors in de-
veloping the Sunday school in Amer
lea is the Sunday School union. Mr.
E. p. Bancroft is the present secre-
tary. This organization has been
laboring in the field for ninety-one
years. Last year it established 1873
new Sunday schools in destitute places
and reorganized 724, a total Of 1902 set
in operation, with 1922 34 members. The
society employed 297 missionaries 1t
received $215,613 and spent $206, OH. Be
sides the work of this organization,
each denomination has it's own mis-
sionaries in the field recruiting for it's
Sunday schools.
"How 100 Sunday Schools Have Sue
ceeded," in the January Delineator.
"Mr. Cleveland's conservatism in
academic matters was far from being
reactionary," writes Andrew F. West
dean of the Graduate school, Princeton
in the January Century, in his SYM
pathetic appreciation of the late ex-
president, entitled Grover Cleveland:
A Princeton Memory" provided the
old principles were kept, he was ready,
more than ready, for new methods and
improvements. The betterment of exist
ing conditions, the doing we'll outside
what was professed inside, provision for
valuable and attractive instruction, the
conveying surely, generously and hos
pitably to every student the full benefit
of his college course, the relief of the
struggling, the encouragement of the
timid, stimulation to seIf-help, putting
professors on decent living salaries, the
housing and food and health of the
students, the honor system in examina-
lions, the stricteSt care in spending
revenues, the utmost aversion to any