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RANDOM READINGS FROM THE REVIEWS. 



Frank ! 

 Gwendolen Overton, writing in the November 

 Forum on democracy and the recall, quotes a recent 

 admission of Governor Woodrow Wilson : — " For 

 fifteen years," he said, "' I taught my classes that the 

 initiative and referendum wouldn't work. I can pro\e 

 it yet. The trouble is that they do." 



\V.\R Not Necessary to Herois.m. 

 War against physical nature and the evils of human 

 nature and their ultimate subjugation to the intel- 

 lectual and spiritual dominion of man, constitute a 

 .struggle which will give ample scope to the energies 

 of the race beyond our remotest ken. We cannot even 

 guess its ultimate possibilities ; but so long as there 

 are mountain barriers to be overcome, floods to be 

 controlled, deserts and swamps to be reclaimed ; or so 

 long as men are denied equal opportunities, and 

 " predatory wealth " has any other than a historic 

 meaning, man need not feel that war is necessary to call 

 forth the best there is in him. As we do not want 

 holocausts or mine explosions or flood or pestilence in 

 order to give us heroes in action, so we do not want war 

 simply to draw forth the heroic in human nature. 

 Neither do we want these perils for mere efliciency"s 

 sake. — General Chittenden, in February Forum. 



Huw Much Depends on Trifles. 



We are reminded of Mr. Powell's work a few )-cars 

 ago in the orange district of Southern California. 

 Much of the fruit was rotting en route to the east. 

 The Department of Agriculture at Washington sent 

 Mr. Powell out to investigate. He found that the rind 

 on the orange was being pricked b\- the finger-nails as 

 well as by the scissor-clippers of the pickers. He cut 

 off the ends of the clippers and manicured the finger- 

 nails of the pickers, and soon there was practically 

 doub'e the amount of fruit coming through sound and 

 whole. The net result of the experiment was that this 

 little trip of .Mr. Powell's resulted in the saving to the 

 fruit-growers of one district of as much every year as 

 the whole cost of the new Government agricultural 

 buildings at Washington — about 1,500,000 dols. 

 annually. — British Columbia Magazine. 



Disappointed in the Ten Command.ments. 

 1 have the privilege of knowing two young ladies, 

 daughters of a well-known member of the House of 

 Commons, whose conversation is occasionally illumi- 

 nated by startling flashes. The elder is aged eleven, her 

 sister seven. One morning they had read out lo tlicm 

 the tweniieth ( hapter of Kxodus, wherein it is written : 

 " I the Lord thy God am a jealous God. visiting the 

 iniquity of the fathers on the children unto the third 

 and fourth gener.ition of them that hate me." " I am 

 very sorry to hc.ir that." said the younger, a note of 

 profound disappointment in her voice. '' 1 have always 

 understood He had no faults,"— Sir Henry Ltcv, in 

 Cornhitl. 



Women as Jurors. 



As jurors, in a number of recent cases, women in 

 the Western Stales of America elicited praise and 

 recognition from judges and high-minded lawyers. 

 They did not di.splay the supposed prejudice of their 

 sex against certain classes or sets ; they tried the cases 

 on the issues of law and fact ; they were anxious to 

 do justice and avoid mistakes of the heart as well as 

 mistakes of the mind.^The Chautauquan, February. 

 The Rhodes Scholars. 



There were last year 176 Rhodes Scholars in resi- 

 dence at Oxford — seventy-seven from the British 

 Dominions, eighty-nine from the United States, and 

 ten from Germany. Of the ordinary Honours Schools 

 at Oxford that of Jurisprudence (forty-four students) 

 attracts nearly twice as many Rhodes Scholars as 

 Natural Science (twenty-three), and History (eighteen) 

 makes a good third ; while the famous " Greats " or 

 Lilera Hunianiores School is being taken by fourteen 

 and Theology by ten. The lines of work taken up by 

 the scholars who left Oxford in 1906-10 are, it appears, 

 from a statement just issued as follows :— Education, 

 eighty-four ; law, sixty-six ; religious work, nineteen ; 

 Civil Service (Germanx). thirteen ; medicine, eleven ; 

 scientific work, nine ; business, eight ; journalism, five ; 

 mining and engineering, fi\e ; agriculture, three ; 

 Diplomatic Service (Germany), three ; Diplomatic and 

 Consular Service (U,S.A.). two ; Indian CwW Service, 

 two ; forestry, two ; Consular Ser\-ice (British), one ; 

 Colonial Service, one ; Army, one ; secretarial work, 

 one : miscellaneous and unknown, ten. — The University 

 Correspondent. 



Sei.f-advkrtisinu Ani.mals. 



Some animals walk delicately, some lie low, some 

 fade into their surroundings, some put on disguise. 

 On another tack, however, are those that are noisy 

 and fussy, conspicuous and bold, — the self advertisers. 

 The theory is that those in the second set can aftbrd 

 to call attention to themselves, being unpalatable or 

 in some other way safe. The common shrew, for 

 instance, is fearless and careless, and makes a frequent 

 squeaking as it hunts. It can afford to be a self-adver- 

 tising animal, because of its strong musky scent, which 

 makes it unpalatable. A cat will never eat a shrew. 

 Similarly, the large Indian musk-shrew is conspicuous, 

 even at dusk, fearless in its habits, and goes about 

 making a [K^culiar noise like the jingling of money. 

 But it is safe in its unpleasant musky odour. The 

 common hedgehog is comparatively easy to see at 

 night ; it is easy to catch, because it stops to roll 

 itself up ; it rustles among the herbage, and " sniflTs 

 furiously " as it goes ; it is at no pains to keep quiet. 

 Nor need it, for although some enemies sometimes 

 eat it, it is usually very safe, partly in its spines, and 

 partly because it can give rise lo a most horrible 

 stench. The porcupine is another good instance of a 

 sclfadverliscr, and so is the crab-eating mungoose. 

 - Professor J. A. TncMSON, in KtwwUd^e. 



