Life — May 17, 1900 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

While there is Life there's Hop: VOL. XXXV, MAY 17, 1900. No. 914. 19 West Taicry-FiRst Sr. edevery Thursday. $5.00 a year In ad- ratage to foreign countries in the Postal cy ingle current copies, fF three months from will be returned unless accompanied by stamped and addressed envelope. The illustrations in Live are copyrighted, and are not to he reproduced without special arrangement with the publishers, Prompt notification should hy sent by sub- soribers of any change of adir¥ss. —aer aE CIS GILBERT ATTWOOD 1 on April 30th at Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Outside of the circle of his personal friends there was no company who knew him so well, or has so much reason to lament his carly death, as the readers of Lire. This paper had no earlier contributor than he, and none more constant or more valued. Its friends all know his work—its charm, its hamor, its exquisite quality. © They will undoubtedly miss it, and will share the profound regret of Lire’s editor that it has ceased. There was fun in it. It had an admirable finish and a charming fancy, but the quality in it which was rarest, and which, most of all, will make its loss irreparable, was thought. Attwood lavished thought on his con- ceptions as he lavished pains on the realization of them. —Iis dealings with politics and current events were uni- formly intelligent, informed and con- scientious. Iis opinions were carefully formed, and his art was the unwavering expression of them, Thelove of truth was in hint: to disclose it with all the force and all the accuracy he could was the lofty use in which it pleased him best to em- ploy his talent. In him, whose calling may have seemed to be no more than to make men smile at cheerful imaginings, there was a devotion to his conception of duty that would have been admirable in a statesman ora preacher. It is our loss and our grief that he has diced young, in the fulness of abilities which we were justified in hopiog would delight and instruct us for years to come. See ‘THE President and Fellows of Har- vard University have invited one ‘LIFE* thousand four hundred and fifty Cuban school-teachers to spend six weeks in Cambridge this summer and_ receive instruction at the Harvard Summer School. The invitation has been ac. cepted. Two-thirds of the teachers are women. Very few of them are able to afford the cost of such a visit, and it has been arranged that they shall be at no expense. The War Department will bring them to Boston on government transports, and provision has been made to board and lodge, as wellas to instruct them in Cambridge without charge. They are to be the guests of Harvard University and its friends, and seventy thousand dollars has been pledged to defray the cost of this admirable and intelligent hospitality, Good for Harvard College! Good for Boston! IIere is a phase of expansion that has no sting to it; that is wise and kind and full of the promise of benefit to all the parties to it. Our national cor- tract with the Cubans, that in due time they shall govern themselves, is in no way prejudiced by such efforts as this to disclose to our neighbors the redee ing features of the imperfect civilization which we represent. That the Cubans should know us aud that we should know them is to the advantage of both parties. ‘That their school-teachers should get an understanding of our way of keeping school is also desirable, for our school system is pretty good, and Cuba may borrow from it to advantage. HE disclosure of the aspirations of Mr. J. M. Barrie, the British story- teller, to becomea member of Parliament will interest his friends in this country. Why Mr. Barrie wants to be in Parlia- ment is not quite clear. Perhaps he hasa parliamentary novel in view ; perhaps he thinks a course of blue books would put Sentimental Tommy out of his head, and that his appearance asa legislator would help to disassociate him in the public mind from that somewhat questionable character. It is conceivable that a real man might not care to be identified too cloxely with the unconscionable ‘Tommy. At any rate, Mr. Burrie’s aspirations remind us that any Briton, even a story- teller, who has money in the bank, may aspire to help govern the Empire. Would that a seat in Congress was equally ac- cessible to American men of letters. Think what an edifying Congressman Mr. Howells would make, or Paul Leicester Ford, or John Fiske, and what a wholesome and agrecable change a period of legislative activity would af- ford to minds jaded with bookmaking. It is one of the drawbacks to entering the literary vocation that though a mul titude of roads lead into it, very few that are at all attractive, lead out. The professorships of literature that are worth having are limited in number, Now and then a book- writer or a poet gets a diplomatic office, but not often, Some authors turn editors, but ‘*business men” who are responsive to the demands of the market. are apt to be preferred nowadays for editorial jobs, The common lot of au- thors is to go on writing to the bitter end. It is a pity that they are not in more request as Congressmen, HE documents in the case of Captain Chadwick, who has been reproved by the Secretary of the Navy for an ex- posure of his sentiments regarding the nductof Admiral Schley, cannot afford very much satisfaction to the friends of Schley. Along with his reprimand Secretary Long gave out for publication Captain Chadwick's letter, explaining the mischance by which his sentiments got into the newspapers, and setting forth very explicitly what those senti- ments really were. Captain Chadwick was the victim of misplaced confidence in a newspaper correspondent, and has suffered for it, but his sufferings have not been entirely in vain. Most of us have been disposed to run away from the Sampson-Schley dispute. We have not wanted it to be thrashed out. We have preferred that it should be smoothed over, whether justice was done or not. We shall all be relieved when the case is outlawed by the Statute of Limitations. Captain Chadwick docs not feel about it as we do, A statement of his views amounts to an indictment, A statement of ours reads very like a confession. He seems to have the advantage of us, for in and out of season he has the courage of his convictions, comicbooks.com