The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-12-06
American Standard of Life As Seen By
 Celebrated Roman


 TO, the Roman historian Prof. Fer rero. in a lecture before the Soc1ete des Conferences Etrangeres in Paris. entrusted America and Europe and declared that new standards of 5udB- ment must be formed if Europe 1s to understand America at its true value.
 We are accustomed,' said he, to regard things solely in terms of quail ity We look upon the riches Of Americsa, for instance, with a kind of disdain. They are often regarded in Europe in the same light as the riches of a .barbarous people which. So acquire them, has forsaken mans superior spiritual activities It Is noG necessary to spend much time In America to see that Americans arc very far from being devoted solely to the pursuit of wealth.
 q have also heard it said that Americans are without taste for art; that their cities are hideous. They are pictured as paying large prices for anything that is antique or passes as such. without distinguishing the beautiful and the authentic from the mediocre and the false. It is unjust to say that the American is indiher- ent to beauty. Moreover, who would dare to affirm that the progress of the arts, letters and sciences is at this moment the principal pre-occupation of the old world? Listen to what is said about us We hear nothing but talk of perfecti4g econorpic equip ment the exploitation of iron and coal mines, industrial development, and how to increase trade. If all this is American. then Europe must be undergoing ATner4canization at an amazingly rapid pace.
 M. Merrero sees in this new spirit, which has developed since the dis covery of America, an immense h1s- toricaI movement which threatens to overthrow the very foundations of the present civilization. It is founded on the idea of progress, which, born at the end of the seventeenth or the be- ginning of the eighteenth century, now dominates our civilization.
 ''The idea of this progress is as vague and indefinite in its meaning said M. Fernero, ''as it is peculiar and powerful in action. But it is strange phenomena that just in this century of so-cal1ed progress every one seems to be complaining of the decadence of things Are we progress ing or are we not? Can 1t be that this progress for which we sacrifice our repose, our tranquility and some times even our lives, is only an il1u-~ sion. This is the supreme problem which presente ed itself to me as the re- suit of all I saw and learned during my travels in North and South Amer ica.
 "In former times quality was more important than quantity. We have now reversed the world in which OUT ancestors live. piling up riches has become our aim. We have won Ifb- erty, destroyed almost all the iInita- tions of the past, but we have had in: the process to abandon almost all the ideals of artistic moral or religious perfection held in veneratton by our ancestors. Nowadays we must every where sacrifice quality to quantity.
 Thus there are two standards by which we may judge civilization, the standard of quantity and the standard of quality. One is typif1ed by the civ ilization of America and the other by the past civilization of Europe Either judged by the others standard, will appear deficient. You cannot re- proach presidential candidate in the United States who is compelled to make half dozen speeches during the day if his style is not so polished nor his phrases so nicely turned as those of Cicero. Nor could you ex- pect such gems of oratory from Cicero if he had been called upon to comply with the same demands as are mads upon the modern orator."
 vIsUAIIZING DOORS.
 The painting of sounds, noises and smells is the latest ambition of the most advanced school of Paris futur- ist artists. Sounds, noises and smells, they aff1rIns t'are incorporated in the expressions of lines, volumes and colors just as lines volumes and colors are incorporated in the archi- lecture of musical work. From the point of view of form there are sounds noises and smells which are concave or convex, triangular, ellipsoidaI, ob- long, conical, spherical, spiFalic, etc. From the point of view of color they are yellow, red, indigo sky-blue and violet In stations, factories, garages, hangars and in fact throughout the whole of the world of sports and me- chanics, the sounds are almost always red -- In cafes, restaurants or salons they are siIverish, yellow and violet. As for the sounds, noises and smells of animals they are yellow and blue; of women, green, sky-bIue and violet" In order to be the latest kind of fu- turist you must use plenty of reds screaming" and greens never enough greens; yellows, never enough yellows, exploding ye1lowe, saffron, copper and early morning yellows.''
 KEEPS CORPSE IN ALCOHOL
 Hector Granet, an obscure scholar living al Viverols, in the Auverne, con- ceived the idea of preserving in aIco- hoI the corpse of his dead father This eccentric act appears to have supplied the touch which was necessary to transform his obscurity into promin- ence- M Granet is now the celebrity of Viverols- It has since been dis CoNeFeo that ms studies are worthy of some notice and the French gov ernment has decorated him with the Academic Palms M. Granet also has prepared a gIass-roofed coffin sim liar to that for his father, which is one day to receive his own body for similar preservation.
 ANTTSEPTIC VARNISH NOW.
 Dion, France Dec. 6.-Dr. Dubard announces the discovery of a method of antisepticizing the hands which is expected to do away with the use of rubber gloves in surgery
 His method Is to use an antiseptic isolating varnish. After washing his hands with soap and carefully dehy-