The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-10-20
EDITORIAL NOTES

n (
 Dr. John Huston Finley, who will retire from the presidency of the Col lege of the City of New York next I1nonth to take up the duties of New ENork State Superintendent of Educa- ffon Is fifty years old. The dist1n- kguished educator was born at Grand tRidge ILL, Oct 19, 1865 He graduated from Knox College, at Ga1esburg, H.. with the degree of A. B., in 1887, ana completed his education at Johns Hop kins University in Baltimore His ear ly interests and sympathies led him i to take up charitable work, and soon after leavingA. college he was made sec retarv Of the New York State Char ] tiles Aid Association. While engaged in that form of endeavor he founded and became the editor of the state ! Charities Record and the New York | Charities Review.
 Tn 1892 while still the sunny side i of thirty, Dr. Finley was offered and accepted the presidency of his alma mater. Knox College. As the fboy col f1ege president he was famous i throughout America, and in spite or his vouth-or perhaps because of it?-| ! he gave the college one of the most 1 successful administrations 1t has ever had
 while. editing the charities publica- | 4fous in New york Dr. Finley had ac-
  and in 1899 he retired from the Knox nresidencv to become the editor of FTarner's Weekly and McClure's Mag 1 azfne. His stay in the Harper's ed1- ltorfaI chair was brief, but he succeeded in injecting new life and interest into | tha oId journal of Civilization of which Norman Hapgood has just be- come the editor
 In 1900 pr. Finley resumed his ca reer as an educator, this time as pro- TD--Sv, s7eaf-1 I he was closely associated with pr. | Woodrow Wilson, then professor of Hjurisprudence and politics, and pr. Finley was still a member of the Princeton faculty when Dr. Wilson as- suued the presidency of the old New IJereev institution of learning. Tn 1903 fDr. Finley was called to the presidency of the College of the City of New York, and during the ten years of his admin istration he has placed the insutution among the foremost colleges of Amer lea In the number of students 1t is surpassed only by Columbia and the State universities of California and Minnesota. In his new position as Su- perinfendent of Education in the Elm pire State Dr. Finley will receive a salary of S1O,0O0 a, year. He has been one Of the umpires in the arbitration I between thes eastern railroads and their employees
 DOTaE6T who has been called t'the busiest Wo- man in EngIand'' will round out her forty-sixth year today. She was Lady Afillicent Fanny St. Clair-Erskine, eld- est daughter of the fourth Earl of tRosslyn. before her marriage to the , late Duke. then Marquis of Stafford, in 1884 Married at seventeen, and l 4be mother Of three children, she is . still one of the most beautiful as well as one of the most active of Englano's s daughters She has long been inter- ] ested in social problems, has numerous net charities. and runs several shops in London for the sale of Scotch tzveeds and the products of other in- dustries in which she has interested herself. She has written several books and a play, "The Conqueror," which S-as accepted by Forbes-RObertson be- fore he knew the identity of the play wright, but which was not successful when produced. The Dowager Duchess does not look much more than half Of her forty-six years.
 The first convent of the Strict Ob- serxance'' was founded in 1859 by St Peter of A1cantara, whose feast day 1f celebrated by the Catholic church. IF this convent the cells of the friars ..resenlbled graves more than dwell inge' St Peters cell was only foul feet and a half in length, so that he could never lie down. He starved himself constantly, eating but one light meal every three days. He all ways went about bare of feet and head, even when the ground was GOV cred with snow, and his sackcIotr habit afforded his only protection. Ii is said that on cold days in winter he would open the door and window o1 his narrow cell that, by closing them again, he might experience some sen eation of warmth. For twenty-three years he survived and inspired in oth- CTS the spirit of voluntary martyrdoTr and the most rigorous penance- He died. while kneefing in prayer, on Oc- tober 1S 1562, and ever since the peo- ple of his native Alcantara, in Spain have observed the day as the festiVa Of their patron saint
 The first great and decisive maya baftIe in history was fought at Sa1a. .nis. between the Greek and Persian fleets. 2S93 years ago today, oct 20 4sO B. C. Themistocles, the Athen1al
 commander had 366 vessels to oppos
 the Persian fleet of nearly 2'0OO sah Facing such a superior force, most O.
 The Greeks wanted to sail away, bu .rheuistocIes had determined upon i'm mediate battle He sent word | xerxes. the Persian king, informini him that the Greek fleet would at
 tenpt to escape. and advising him t
 guard both ends of the strait. Tn
 Persian monarch followed this adVIc' and the Greeks, bottled up, Wer forced to fight. The battle began eari1
 in the morning and continued through
 out the day The Persian king, wh'
 hoped to make Greece a province o
 Persia as the fruit of the conflict
 '.sate on the rocky brow which look
 OCT the sea-born Sa1amis," and gazet
 down to H'where ships by thousand