THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



II 



Ncilvc. and can, if need be, make the 

 wheels themselves. Not only can he "run" 

 the engine, not only can he take It apart 

 and put it together, but he can, if need 

 be, build a new one. For before he can 

 graduate from a first-class technical school 

 he must be a draughtsman, a pattern 

 maker, a molder and a machinist be- 

 fore he is entitled to write the letters 

 "M. E.," which stand for "mechanical en- 

 gineer," after his name. 



■And more than this — he must also pass 

 au examination in physics, mathematics, 

 history, literature and modern languages 

 that would have crumpled up the old-time 

 <'ollege graduate like anything. He is not 

 only a thorough mechanic but an edu- 

 cated gentleman, and after a few years of 

 practical experience he stands forth, al- 

 ■fceit in overalls and with a smudge of 

 black on his nose, a man and mechanic 

 beside whom the seedy, half-starved law- 

 yers and doctors look like thirty cents. 



Such changes and progress have been 

 wrought in the mere matter of "learning 

 a trade;" and in all other avenues of en- 

 deavor an equal change has been wrought 

 and au equal progress made in the matter 

 of fitting the young man for his work. 

 But great as has been the progress made 

 in the matter of educating the young man, 

 that made in the matter of educating the 

 young ^oman has been greater. 



The "young ladies' seminary," with its 

 queer, pitiful product, is no more. Nearly 

 30 young ladies graduated from Armour's 

 Institute in Chicago as mechanical engi- 

 neers this spring, and every avenue of en- 

 deavor is open to them and is being 

 crowded by them. We believe the craze 

 of women to enter man's field has, how- 

 ever, reached its limit. The modern 

 methods of education are giving her plenty 

 of occupation in her old-fashioned sphere, 

 the home. Some of the large technical 

 schools have established a course in "do- 

 mestic engineering." This course relates 

 entirely to the science of managing and 

 conducting a home — cooking, sewing, hy- 

 giene, care of children and of the sick. 

 etc. — everything reduced to an absolute 

 science. This course occupies about the 

 same amount of time for a young woman 

 that the mechanical engineering does the 

 young man, from five to eight years, with 

 the same accompaniment of general edu- 

 cation along the lines of literature, his- 

 tory, etc., only of a lighter kind. And 

 when she is "finished" and qualified to 

 write "D. E." after her name she stands 

 forth in noble proportion as compared to 

 the "finished" product of the old-time 

 "young ladies' seminary." 



The plant of the Big Tree Lumber Com- 

 pany, formerly the Devereaux Lumber 

 Company, at Charleston, W. Va., was 

 burned June 12. Four large drj' kilns and 

 over 75,000 feet of lumber were destroyed. 

 The loss is estimated at ?15,000, partly cov- 

 ered by insurance. 



THE COLOR OF CESAR'S EYES. 



You may object that the color of Caesar's 

 eyes has nothing to do with the hardwood 

 lumber business, and that such a discussion 

 has no place in a lumber trade paper; but 

 the color of Caesar's eyes has to do with 

 human nature and human nature has much 

 to do with the hardwood lumber business. 

 The subject was suggested liy a discus- 

 sion which has been carried on in one of 

 the Chicago dailies. The editor of the 

 paper, who is evidently a grey-eyed man, 

 stated in an editorial that Caesar's eyes 

 were grey. A reader disputed the point in 

 a communication and quoted from some 

 eminent historian to the effect that the 

 great "Schoolmaster of Mankind" was a 

 dark-eyed man. The editor replied to him, 

 citing authorities in support of his position. 

 Then, admitiing that all statements in 

 this connection were more or less unreli- 

 able, he claimed that Caesar must have 

 been a grey-eyed man because most of 

 the eminently successful men of recent 

 times, men of the color of whose eyes there 

 could be no dispute, have been grey-eyed 

 men. Therefore Caesar, being an emi- 

 nently successful man, must have been a 

 grey-eyed man. 



But we do not see that anything of that 

 kind follows. In the time recent enough 

 that we have an accurate knowledge of 

 the color of the eyes of our great men, the 

 Germanic race has dominated the world; 

 and all the people of the Germanic race 

 have blue or grey eyes. In this country 

 to-day probably nine out of ten of the 

 men you meet are people of light colored 

 eyes. Whatever the proportion is, it will 

 be found to bear direct relation to the ratio 

 of the Germanic and Celtic people to the 

 entire population. The English, Scotch, 

 Irish, German and Scandianvian people 

 are the ones which have, in the main, set- 

 tled this country. They were grey-eyed 

 people and their descendants are grey- 

 eyed. The black or brown eyes among the 

 Americans were grafted on the race 

 tlu'ough the slight admixture of Spanish, 

 French and Italian blood, which comes 

 from the ancient Romans, who were <i 

 dark-eyed people. 



In ancient times, a dark-eyed race, the 

 Romans, dominated the world and fur- 

 nished the world its great men, who w^ere 

 presumably dark-eyed men. If Cffisar was 

 a light-eyed Roman, he was a freak. 



In modern times the Germanic people 

 dominate the world, and it is but natural 

 that the gi-eat men they furnish should be 

 gi'ey-eyed men. 



The great men of modern times are not 

 great because their eyes are grey. They 

 are great becanso they are the strongest 

 among the dominant people, which is a 

 grey-eyed people. We might as well claim 

 that the mechanics of ancient Rome were 

 grey-eyed because our mechanics are 

 mostly grey-eyed. So are our grocers, our 

 farmers and our bankers, for we are a 

 grey-eyed people. 



Another point against the sweeping 

 claim of the editor that Cfesar's eyes were 

 grey because the eyes of most successful 

 men are grey, is the fact that the Jews, a 

 race which has outlived the Romans and 

 bids fair to outlive the Germans, a race 

 conceded to be in many respects the 

 strongest race the world lias yet produced, 

 is a dark-eyed race. 



In fact, we don't believe the color of the 

 eyes has anything to do with a man's suc- 

 cess or non-success, and we write this lest 

 some dark-eyed man. feeling the color of 

 his eyes a fatal handicap, might go dump 

 himself in the lake. 



ST. LOUIS AND THE FLOODS. 



The St. Louis hardwood people are at- 

 tempting to resume business, but it is 

 stated by nearly all of the local operators 

 that the effects of the flood have not yet 

 passed off and that they are seriously 

 handicapped. Since the water has receded 

 it is learned that the damage done to St. 

 Louis yards is very immaterial, although 

 much cleaning up is necessary because of 

 the large amount of sediment deposited. 

 The damage to lumber is not serious, ex- 

 cept on the lower tiers of the piles, as 

 nearly all of the hardwoo<l yards are on 

 higher ground than are tlie cypress and 

 retail yards. The chief difficulty at the 

 present time is in the shipping facilities, 

 the railroads thus far being unable to un- 

 tangle the glut of traffic which accumu- 

 lated on both sides of the river during the 

 period of inactivity. Several thousand 

 cars which went through the flood on both 

 sides of the river are temporarily out of 

 business because of damaged journals, and 

 it will undoubtedly be some weeks before 

 normal traffic prevails. The bridges and 

 ferries are now open to business and are 

 being pushed to their capacity, so that ef- 

 forts are being made to straighten out the 

 tangle at the earliest possible date. The 

 hardwood yards report that a few empties 

 rire being placed upon their tracks and 

 that these are being loaded, although they 

 do not believe that many of these cars are 

 yet crossing the river. 



Other conditions are entirely satisfactory 

 from a St. Louis point of view, and it is 

 believed by the St. Louis people that the 

 flood will be beneficial rather than other- 

 Avise, in that the many mills situated in the 

 lowland portions of the southern country 

 back of the broken levees will be again 

 inundated and that the production will 

 thus be held to a low basis during at least 

 another sixty days. It is not regarded as 

 possible by the St. Louis people for the 

 production of southern hardwood lumber to 

 roach normal proportions before fall, and 

 it is believed that the natural increase of 

 trade at that time will more than take 

 care of the increased output of the mills. 

 Those who began to hesitate in their buy- 

 ing departments because of the continued 

 high prices have had their ideas materially 



strengthened and are now as bullish In 



