20

Indoor Meet.

In the contest for the athletic cup, '97 Thompson, '97, Garcelon, '97. scored fifty points, '98, seventeen, and '96, thirTwo records were broken - in the fence vault and climbing rope.

Calendar.

Glee Club Concert at the Every Day February 15. Y. P. C. U. Meeting in Miner Hall.
Church, Boston.

THE present issue of the TUFTONIAN claims the special indulgence of its eaders on the grounds that it is to be regarded in a measure as an experiment. introducing some objectionable innovations, it has been the purpose of the s nearly as possible a representative Tufts periodical, "to hold, as 't were, dent life and the various activities in the departments of instruction. Such, be the purpose of any properly conducted college paper, but an examination 1, we are confident, reveal the fact that this principle meets with far from . The term "representative" we would use in its widest significance; we aning so that it may bear not only upon the news matter, but even upon the epartment." The application of this principle to the news department would the subscribers the little gossip which becomes stale long before the appearIAN, but would also keep them in touch with the work in the various departThese latter, especially, are prolific sources of most important and interesting cal editors are generally recognized to have performed their part if they devote aph to them. The important investigations constantly in progress in the Barstance, are as utterly shut off from the body of students, as though that buildIt was our intention that this issue should contain a survey of the college work year, but as space would not admit of so long an article as this promised to d in a series, the work of the Biology Department receiving first attention. partment should be representative in that it should be made up of representaThis is not to be interpreted as a covert insinuation as to the honesty of conbut it appears that, perhaps through nothing more reprehensible than defecliberty of borrowing has often in their hands deteriorated into license. Mr. , submits for the paper an essay on Goldsmith. The thought is mature and the

expression scholarly, which should recommend it at once for publication. But this very maturity and a vague something which cannot be defined arouse one's suspicions, and a little investigation reveals the fact that the composition is the result of investigations among annotators and critics rather than a personal examination of the author. Such work is so apparently not representative that the attention needs only to be called to it.

There is, however, another class of contributors in whose work the lack of this quality is not so apparent. It must of course be granted that there are many subjects which by their very nature preclude originality. It is not to be demanded that a student on College Hill should promulgate new facts concerning the religion of the Aztecs, or Grecian Art; but it may fairly be required of him that he shall not attempt to grapple with such subjects unless by special attention to them he is at least able to appreciate the significance of the fact which he handles, and has through this attention come to be recognized as something of an authority among his fellows. The discrimination displayed in the reports of the city journals is evidence that the authority behind a statement is the essential consideration. They do not care so much how a thing is said as who says it. In a word, the TUFTONIAN, in our opinion, should not be the medium of transferring suddenly acquired and transitory knowledge. Fortunately for the cause of writing, there is a life in words which distinguishes such mechanical workmen from the men who write from conviction, even though the thought of each wanted originality; so the former is deluded by the dulness of his own ear if he thinks his insincerity will escape detection by those whose judgments are really worthy of consideration. Mr. B's article, therefore, on the "Spirit of Modern Art," is returned, when it is discovered that neither is he an artist in his tastes, nor has he given special attention to the study of that subject. It may appear that such rigid restrictions would so narrow the field of subjects as to exclude all but a few contributors. The observance of them should in reality act in quite a contrary manner by forcing the writer to resort to his personal experiences and observations, the array of which will offer him inexhaustible material; but if his mind spurns such "trivialities," there must be some subject open to him to which he has devoted particular attention, and which he has turned over in his mind until even his borrowed thoughts have become, as it were, a part of himself. But even such a one, who feels that " Nature intended him to be something more than a plain topographer," had better choose some aspect or detail of a subject which has not been treated by a higher authority.

There seems to be a failure on the part of the Seniors to understand why so very reasonable a request as that conveyed in their recent Class-Day circular should not at once meet with the cheerful approval of the under classes. We refer especially to the ingenious and original suggestion that '97 appear on that occasion in straw hats and white duck trousers. As we mentally array the class in that costume the effect is truly startling; but we have been informed by a perfectly reliable authority that any attempt to insist upon this uniformity will be the cause of a sharp division among the Sophomores, a portion of that class having positively refused to adopt the costume. We would call the attention of a certain class of college men to this threatened eruption as another powerful argument against the liberal policy which has been pursued by the college during the last two or three years.

Last Friday evening we chanced to drop in on H——————. The hands of the little Dutch clock, which looks down from the mantlepiece over his desk, were just pointing at the first of those small hours in which the two extreme types of the college man, the "grind" and the "sport," display their only common characteristic. It is not to be inferred, however, from this circumstance that H- is to be classed with either of these species. Such an accusation would cause him to bridle in an instant, and we, too, should dislike to give so false an impression, for in our opinion he is an example of that rara avis, an ideal college man, and a shining demonstration of the fact that it is possible for a college man to be at once a scholar, an athlete, and a gentleman. But this is all impertinent, for it is remote from our purpose to write an eulogy of his character, as pleasant a task as that would be.

On the occasion mentioned he was sitting at his desk in that intense attitude which character

izes him, and to which probably may be ascribed his success in his various undertakings, his fingers thrust into his hair, and his attention very much absorbed in writing in a large canvas-covered book, tied with blue ribbons and sprinkled over with forget-me-nots, evidently the gift of some fair friend, for H———— is of course, among his other accomplishments, a lion among the ladies. Running diagonally across this gay volume, and partly shaded by the scattered sprays of forget-menots, was the legend "Stray Thoughts" worked into the cover in yellow worsted.

As I sat down in a chair beside his desk he wiped his pen in his hair (which I am sorry to say is beginning to grow thin on top), closed his book with a slap, and wheeled around, facing me. "Private?" I said, with rising inflection, as I caught hold of a blue ribbon and pulled the book toward me. "Oh no," he replied pleasantly, "I never permit my private thoughts to 'stray.' Reassured by this, I turned the pages slowly, reading a sentence or two here and there following him in town and down through the common on a warm Sunday afternoon, and, seeing with his eyes the various types of humanity collected in that resort on such occasion, traced his lines of reading and shared his opinions on various college matters- not so interesting as mere facts, perhaps, but a delightful little trip with a pleasant, unaffected companion. That much of the charm of these fragments depends upon their setting we cannot fail to recognize, but still we could not resist the temptation to purloin a few, which it is our purpose shall appear from time to time in these pages. The first selection is not made so much upon the ground of relative merit as upon that of the timeliness of the subject. We have merely made such insertions here and there in the following as would render the brief and elliptical style of the journal suitable for publication.

PAGES FROM H'S JOURNAL.

TUESDAY, Feb. 12, 1895.

"Wal, what won't they git up next!" as my old friend, Uncle Z-, is wont to exclaim, with his round little eyes popped wide open, whenever any startling mechanical invention chances within his observation. After what I have witnessed to-day, I am convinced that nothing but positive obstinacy can now prevent the flying-machine from yielding to the persuasions of the inventor, if it wishes to be up with the times- I have actually seen to-day a mechanism of iron, brass, and wood, whose vital force was merely compressed air, endowed with an intelligence and discrimination in some respects actually surpassing that of human beings. It might appropriately be attributed with instinct even. Man, I am afraid, will soon have to share his very prerogative not only with the brute creation, but even with forms of the so-called inanimate world. Why haven't we here evidence in support of the pantheistic philosophy of the Hindus, which is that Brahmin, the divine essence, pervades all visible forms, and all mountains, rivers, stones, metals, etc., which and emanations of him and therefore endowed with divine intelligence?

But to return to Boston and the occasion of my discovery. It chanced, as I was hurrying up Friend Street, that my eye was caught by a large yellow placard with the word "Model" upon it, which was displayed before the doorway of an old deserted tenement-house. I should have given it merely a passing glance had not my attention been still further arrested by the sudden appearance of a couple of men from the doorway, one of whom, a tall man with mutton-chop whiskers, was eloquently discoursing to his companion upon something they had evidently just seen. Amid the fragments of speech which reached my ear were the words, "marvelous," "of course it will," "so simple, too." Being interested in anything intense, from a symphony concert to a prize-fight, I pushed past a diminutive Italian who insisted upon "shining zee boote," entered the building, and hastened up a narrow stairway, visions of Trilby and the tout ensemble before me. Opening a door at the top, I found myself in a large room, the greater part of which was usurped by a miniature railroad track, built in the form of an ellipse and attended with all the details of engines, cars, switches, drawbridges, and side tracks. It might have been the plaything of a young million heir or prince, but I inferred from the group of mature men present, and their serious attention, that its purpose was quite practical. In fact, I soon discovered that I had entered the model-room where a very ambitious device to obviate all possibility of railroad accidents is under inspection. Technically it is known as the "block system," and from what I have learned I understand that it will be applied to the Fitchburg road before another year.

A very officious little Frenchman was operating the mechanism and very volubly offering such explanations as he deemed necessary to make everything perfectly intelligible. The constant recurrence of such terms as "block" and "twolly," as he pronounced it, rendered of course most of what I saw obscure, but by asking a few questions of a bystander I managed to get a fairly accurate conception of the purpose and working of this truly remarkable invention. It seems that the road is divided up into sections, called "blocks," ranging, according to circumstances, from one thousand feet to a mile in length, and each block has such electrical attachments that it constitutes a complete electrical circuit, provided all its parts are in their proper relations. At the entrance to each of these sections is a projection, called a "trolley," that so acts on the electrical attachment of each engine that immediately upon its entering that section it is thrown at once into the circuit, the current passing along one rail through the electrical attachment of the locomotive, and thence continuing its round by the other rail. This

device of the engine is in such a manner connected with the air-brakes that when by any cause the current is broken the brakes are applied and the train brought to a standstill. Thus when the train enters a block in which there chances to be an open switch, an open draw, a broken rail, a wild car, or another train, the current being broken by any of these contingencies, the brakes detect the danger and bring the train to a stop.

The little track before me had been constructed so that opportunities could be presented for all those casualties which by their frequency have come to be most dreaded in railroad traffic. It was my good fortune to be present when the device was under the inspection of a gentleman evidently in authority, and Monsieur was operating the mechanism so as to bring up successively every one of these opportunities and thus prove its infallibility. As the engine clattered noisily around the room, the attendant stepped quickly to one side and swung open a draw built in the track. On rushed the train, apparently to certain destruction, but just as it entered the block in which the draw was situated, it came to a sudden stop. "Wonderful!" was the exclamation of the bystanders. But the little Frenchman merely smiled significantly, which seemed to say, "Just you wait." As soon as the danger was removed the tiny engine seemed to be reassured and proceeded confidently on its way.

"That is only a small portion of the affair, however," continued our guide. "If I should open this switch in this way," actively illustrating all the while, "the same thing would happen, and sure enough it did. "It is utterly impossible,' he went on, "for a train to enter a block without either locking every switch in it or coming to a stop.' He then placed an obstacle on the track, with the same result. And lastly, as his masterstroke, he started another engine slowly around the track in advance of the one already in rapid motion. Around they went, the rear engine apparently striving desperately to overtake its more leisurely companion, but always being brought sternly to a stop by some mysterious hand whenever it trespassed upon the forbidden block.

The electric current seemed to act as a scout sent in advance by each engine upon entering a block, who detected and reported instantly every threatening danger. His faculties were even more sensitive than those of man, for some irregularities which were not apparent to the eye arrested his attention at once, as, for instance, a draw or switch which was closed, but not locked. The whole affair had such an air of intelligence and so impressed me with its human attributes that, even as I write I find myself possessed of the illusion which arose from such fancies as I watched it to-day.

Cycling through
Europe.

[CONTINUED.]

WEDNESDAY, July 11, 1894, was a cool day for the time of year. It was the first day of our explorations of London. We went to 35 Milk Street, to the firm of Thos. Meadows & Co., who are the English agents of the American Express Company. It was there that we found our luggage and mail. In money matters we did business through the American Express Company's money checks, by whom all our mail was sent to any of their agents throughout Europe. Moreover, they offered a Moreover, they offered a place to which we could forward such luggage as could not be carried on our bicycles. Indeed, we can highly recommend any one going abroad to deal with the American Express Company and their agents, for we found them courteous and accommodating, as well as invaluable to our sightseeing and comfort in traveling.

Amid the novel and interesting scenes of London streets the morning slipped away before we were aware of it. A couple of hours after dinner we devoted to the British Museum, an excellent place to pass a rainy afternoon; but its enormous extent would not admit of even a superficial examination in so brief a space, so with our explorations hardly yet begun we left this magnificent structure and turned our attention toward London Bridge. That first day's sightseeing was wound up with the theatre in the evening, where we saw "Charlie's Aunt," that quaint old lady "from Brazil, where the nuts grow." At noon we dropped into the mid-day service at Dr. Parker's church. That great man preached to a large congregation of eager hearers of all classes. The red shirts of the faithful salvationists were seen here and there in the audience. They knew where to come for spiritual food to carry on their daily work in a great restless city like London. After his preaching, his talented wife sang some beautiful selections fitting the time and place. It was a feast to the spiritual nature of man to share that practical week-day service. In the afternoon our curiosity led us to Crystal Palace, a popular amusement resort just out of London, where in the evening we enjoyed a fine display of fireworks, and then returned to the city. It was very cold for a July day, and flannels and overcoats were found necessary for comfort. England is an excellent summer resort for people who prefer cool weather.

July 13 was ushered in with a beautiful morning, which we took advantage of by rising early. After breakfast we donned our bloomers, or "knicks" (as they are called in London), and rode out