FROM THE MAGAZINES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 215, 7 September 1912, Page 15

FROM THE MAGAZINES.

UNLUCKY THIRTEEN. Is thirteen an unlucky number? "No," says a Paris periodical, commenting on the "Philadelphia Thirteen Club," "as far as America is concerned." Our contemporary shows that the history of the United States is closely bound up with the number thirteen. At the time of the Declaration of Independence the States numbered thirteen, and the flag in consequence bore that number of stars, together with as many stripes. The motto "E pluribus unum" contains thirteen letters. The emblems of the Republic are Liberty and an Eagle. The crown of Liberty has thirteen stars. The eagle holds a thunderbolt in one of its talons, and this has thirteen darts. In the other is nn olive-branch of thirteen leaves. Thirteen is again represented on the shield, and there are thirteen feathers in each of the eagle's wings.

THE 810 SHIP CRAZE. The "Economist" thinks the British Admiralty is largely to blame for starting the oraze for vessels of enormous size. The Dreadnought fashion -was introduced by British naval designers, and has already cost the taxpayers of the world "almost incredible millions." To quote further:—"The Dreadnought mania, after provoking a rivalry very profitable to the great armament interests aJI over the world, was speedily reproduced in the merchant service, with tihe help of big shipbuilders, who wanted to lick creation.' As that time the great American lines had already reached what we think will prove to be tlbe best size and the most reasonable speed, combining safety with comfort and economy. There .are many shipping experts and experienced navigators who said bdfore the awful disaster to tlhe Titanic, and before the proofs that have been multiplying in the last few months, of the unmanagpa'bility of super-sliips, that ships of the type of the Baltic, steady as a rock. ■would require a very great deal of 'beating. It is quite easy to prove, as a matter of naval finance, that the British fleet at the present momejit would have been far more powerful, -both relatively and absolutely, at a much smaller expense if tilie ■Dreadnought and the superBread nought had not been introduced; and the utter waste of the system could not 'be better illustrated tlian by Mr. Ohurchrli's appeal at Glasgow for a huge expenditure on deepening and widening docks in order to provide for the 'bigger and bigger ships which this madly foolish "policy eeeiks to perpetuate."

SECRET OF SUCCESS IX MARRIED I.IKE. In an article contributed recently to an American magazine, Mr. Theodore Roosevelt made strong plea, for the conservation of the home. That plea was backed by the unalterable truth that ■woman makes the home whatever it is. During the first fpw months off married life is determined generally the attitude of husband and wife. It is the impressionuible stage.—the wife ready to listen, to learn, and to understand ; the I •man joyful in his possession, willing and eager to discuss his dearest hopes, his plans, and 'his ambitions. Those first 'few months are the crucial stage, for the I average couple. The writer remembers hearing once a woman bemoaning her fate, and wringing her hards, because marriage for her had proved disastrous. "I was the best housekeeper tiliat could be found," said she. '"but it "was quite natural that I didn't like my hustianil walking into the house with his miidxly boots." The poor man was made to change them in the laundry before he ■was allowed to cross the threshold of that too perfect home. Home-making there cam? to gTief on the shoal of muddy boots and too excellent housekeeping. The world is full of su<& women. When a man is working in the city all day. or in the fields, maybe., home at sundown is heaven, or should ■be. It is the holy <*' holies, into which can be taken not only -muddy 'boots but the little vexations of tihe day, the trials, the joys, and the successes which have come the "way of the ■bread'winnor. That is his right, to be able to 'bring them home is to be understood. Men

need encouragement. Every woman knows that. As David Graham Phillips on-ee said, "A man is as often in need of coddling as the baby of the house." A wife during the course of her -married life is caffled upon to play many parts. In turn shy is sweetheart, counsellor, .wife, mother , , housekeeper, and servant. To be all itlhese things, and be them ■well, is one of tire privileges of her sex, ibut the greater the actress, the more solid the 'family structure remains. DOLLARS .VST) ART. To what extent are the resources of wealthy Americans helping the advent of a renaissanceor "naissanee" —for their ; country? This interesting query is suggested "by an article which appears in the July "Century Magazine" under the heading "Large Fortunes and the Imagination," in which the -writer dra-ws attention to the extraordinary contributions being made to the progress of the country 'from the resources of rich men, living or dead. The great benefactions -which beaT the names of Carnegie, Rockefeller, Sage, Girard, Peabody, Cornell, Hopkins, Stanford, Pearson. Janes, Kennedy, Burt, Magee, Speyer, Widener, Phippa. and Harrnnan, and thousands of other foundations have given an impulsion to progress in America which -fifty years ago would have 'been thought the wild imagining of a dream. In scientific research, in the fight against disease, in higher education, in the spread of knowledge, in remedial effort, in the furtherance of peace, in social uplift, in the etudy of social problems —is there anyone so blind (asks the writer) as not to see the vitality which has been given to such work by the resources of wealth? Again, a score of men are creating galleries of art ■which will some time attract visitors to America as now we go to see the London National Gallery, the Louvre, or the Uffizi. It is idle to call these purchases, extravagant. These treasures -will some day all be at the service of that "leisure" of the working man for which he naturally desires shorter hours of labour. Many of them are already as much the property of the public as though the most socialistic theory were in force. And in the years to come, when our renaissance shall arrive, the chance of the artisan will be all the more fortunate because our museums will supply him with models of beanty ■in a hundred articles of handicraft— models which now are often regarded as useless curiosities. In general, in one generation a new standard, a new mind. has obtained among our rich men. Call their motive for these benefactions what you will—and it may run from penance to patriotism— they are operating to make the New World a vastly better one pa live in.