(£ 1 “***•«•••.•*"* 5 1 I 1 L. i * • | 
AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 
Established 1875 Incorporated. Massachusetts, 1892 Incorporated. Connecticut, 1910 
Allen Samuel Williams. 
BY CAYNE T. K. NORTON, NEW YORK CITY. 
Nature lovers will be sorry to learn 
of the death of Allen Samuel Williams, 
director of the Reptile Study Society of 
America, author, lecturer and one of 
the best known authorities on reptiles. 
Founder of the Camp Directors’ Asso- 
ciation, and frequent lecturer and vis- 
itor at boys’ camps, American boyhood 
has suffered a severe loss in the passing 
of this well-known and deeply loved 
naturalist. 
For many years Mr. Williams has 
made his home in New York City. He 
was one of the founders of the old Wil- 
liamsburg Athletic Club. For years he 
was one of the managers of the Sports- 
men’s Show in Madison Square Gar- 
den. In company with his wife, he has 
explored South American jungles and 
taken many valuable reptile specimens. 
His last illness developed followng a 
lecture at a Boy Scout camp. He suc- 
cumbed on February 5, in the sixty- 
fourth year of his life. He is survived 
by a wife and a sister. 
Son of the Reverend Samuel Wil- 
liams, Allen Williams was horn and 
educated in Akron, Ohio. For a num- 
ber of years he was a reporter on “The 
New York Times,” and later he was 
associate editor of “Truth” and editor 
of “The St. Louis Chronicle.” 
Thirty years ago he wrote “The 
Demon of the Orient,” a hook that 
caused a profound sensation, describ- 
ing the opium habit. This book caused 
an agitation that resulted in the pas- 
sage of stringent laws in regard to the 
use of opium. Prior to writing the 
book Mr. Williams spent many months 
in Chinese quarters in several cities 
where he investigated the opium habit 
thoroughly. 
For the last twenty years Mr. Wil- 
liams has devoted most of his time to 
lecturing on natural history subjects 
and the American Indian Last sum- 
mer he lectured to more than 30,000 
boys. He has given much time to de- 
veloping the Reptile Study Society of 
America, an activity very close to his 
heart, which under his competent direc- 
tion grew to a membership of nearly 
six hundred. At the time of his death 
he was perfecting a national organiza- 
tion and putting the weight of the so- 
ciety behind protective legislation. 
The Reverend Franklin D. Elmer, of 
Colgate College, read a beautiful fu- 
neral service that was a loving tribute 
to Mr. Williams. Raymond L. Dit- 
mars, Curator of Reptiles, New York 
Zoological Society, and T. Gilbert 
Pearson, President Audubon Societies, 
spoke as comrades and friends before 
Dr. Elmer delivered the committal 
service. 
Reading the Eternities Instead of the 
Times. 
Henry David Thoreau speaking of 
the greater value obtainable in reading 
nature than in reading the frivolities, 
crimes and petty doings of mankind 
thus laconically expressed his thought : 
“Read not the Times but the eterni- 
ties.” 
A similar remark was recently made 
to me by a prominent New York busi- 
ness man who appreciates our educa- 
tional work. He said, “Do you know 
it really pains me, as I go down on the 
subway, to see everybody reading a 
newspaper, and I think what, after all. 
does it amount to. How much more of 
real good material could be obtained 
from The Guide to Nature.” 
Personally the editor of this maga- 
zine is inclined to accept that as over- 
praise, and I think further that 
Thoreau’s advice was not well consid- 
ered. We have never advised any one 
to be a recluse and to avoid contact 
with mankind. We believe in living 
