Kerne id of Reviews, 



Leading Articles, 



191 



THE AUTHOR OF "QUO VAD1S " AT HOME. 



Mr. L. Harvey Scott contributes to the January 

 number of Cassell's Magazine a sketch of the home 

 life of Henrvk Sienkiewicz, the author of the famous 

 book "QuoVadis." 



Sienk-iewicz's town house, we are told, is at War- 

 saw. Here he lives a quiet, regular life. He rises 

 late, not breakfasting before ten. Then he reads the 

 papers, dines about one, takes a walk into the city, 

 and has tea and a light supper before he begins 

 work. He prefers working in the night, and often 

 far into the early morning, but his health has re- 

 cently compelled him to keep more reasonable 

 hours. 



In the summer he lives on his estate, Oblengorek, 

 in Southern Poland, which was presented to him in 

 1900 by his fellow-countrymen. Here he spends 

 much time in the open air, riding, driving, and 

 shooting. 



Sienkiewicz is described as a systematic worker. 

 He thinks out his stories carefully before he begins 

 to write them, and his manuscripts are consequently 

 remarkably free from corrections. 



Ever since the Russo-Japanese War began he has 

 devoted much attention to Polish national politics, 

 and he is said to hate Russia with a holy hatred. 



The reason of his popularity among his country- 

 men is his ability " to paint the brilliant scenes of 

 Poland in such glowing and vivid colours as to 

 create an interest in the country far beyond its own 

 borders.'' His books seem to have brought him 

 more fame than monev. Russia's lack of copyright 

 laws has made it so difficult for him to protect his 

 work abroad that he now lets his books first appear 

 in English. 



Two Hundred and Twenty Millions Wanted for 

 Foreign Missions. 



Mr. W. Gordon contributes to the Sunday Strand 

 several " startling facts about the world's foreign 

 missions.'' He estimates that there are 950 million 

 non-Christian people in the world, roughly, double 

 that of the so-called Christian population. To con- 

 vert this heathen world there are onlv 15,460 mis- 

 sionaries, or little more than half the number con- 

 sidered inadequate to the needs of England and 

 Wales. If the heathen world were to be evangelised 

 oh the same scale as England and Wales, the mis- 

 sionary army would have to number yo^.ooo and the 

 annual revenue would have to 1^-^22^,000.000. What 

 the world is actually Spending on missions to the 

 heathen is ^320,000 a year, or one-thirty-fifth pari 

 of the amount which England alone spend on in 

 toxicants every year. He adds a consoling para- 

 graph:— 



It is consoling to us to find that England is in the van 

 in this good work. Of everv 100 missionaries throughout 

 the world she contrihutes 53.2, or practically 1 of every 3. 

 The United States rank next with a contribution of 26.6 

 per cent ; Germany follows with nearly 1 in 10; and Scot- 

 land does nobly with 1 in every 24. 



FOOTBALL: END OR MEND ? 



An American Discussion. 



The American Review of Reviews for January pub- 

 lishes a brief article, " Shall Football be Ended or 

 Mended?" It opens with a statement by President 

 Butler, of Columbia University, in which he ex- 

 presses his entire approval of the unanimous vote of 

 the Committee on Student Organisations to put an 

 end to the present game of football at Columbia 

 University. The Columbia University cannot re- 

 form football, which must be played, if at all, ac- 

 cording to the rules laid down by other authorities. 

 Therefore, as they cannot reform it, they abolish it 

 altogether, for the following reasons: — 



The game -which this committee has devised and de- 

 veloped is not a sport, but a profession. It demands pro- 

 longed training, complete absorption of time and thought, 

 and is inconsistent — in practice, at least— with the devotion 

 to work which is the first duty of the college or university 

 student. It can be participated in by only the merest 

 fraction of the student body. Throughout the country 

 it has come to be an academic nuisance because of its 

 interference with academic work, and an academic danger 

 because of the moral and physical ills that follow in its 

 train. The large sums received in irate money are a 

 temptation to extravagant management, and the desire 

 for them marks the game as in no small degree a commer- 

 cial enterprise. The great public favour with which even 

 the fiercest contests are received is not a cause for exulta- 

 tion, but rather for profound regret. 



President Wheeler says that the present Ameri- 

 can inter-collegiate game is not good. It has been 

 fashioned out of the old Rugby scrimmage by a 

 process of militarising. The participants are not 

 players, but cogs in a machine; one man does prac- 

 tically all the kicking, two all the carrying, and the 

 rest keep each to their own pushing. It is a spec- 

 tacle, not a sport. He recommends the introduc- 

 tion of the Association game for average men, and 

 the restored Rugby, with perhaps its American modi- 

 fications, for the healthy and more vigorous men. 



Mr. Finley, President of the College of the City 

 of New York, thinks that it is because football has 

 been professionalised too much, but he hopes that 

 it can lie evolved into a genuine college sport again. 

 that can be played without professional skill, tuition. 

 1 ir paraphernalia. 



Dr. Sargent, the Rector of the Hemenwa) Gym- 

 nasium, Harvard University, suggests that for 

 modern football there should be a game thai should 

 combine the good points of football and basketball, 

 so that twentv or thirty could pla\ on a side at one 

 time. 



Dr. Euther H. Gulick says that college football 

 needs to he controlled and remodelled, and that this 

 can onl) ho done wisely b\ men who continuously 

 demonstrate the college sports as a means to exer- 

 cise rather than as an inter-collegiate means of eon 



tesl. 



Mr. frank Newball contributes to the Magazine of 



/•Die Arts tor December ,\n interesting notice of the 

 etchings l>\ Van Dvck. 



