Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 16 September 1909, Page 1449

Current Topics

Cook v. Peary The exchange of compliments between the two explorers and their followers to which we have been treated during the week is a little reminiscent, and is likely to become more and more reminiscent

. . . of the row That broke up our Society upon the Stanislous, as immortalised in Bret Harte's poem, in which little disturbance In less time than I tell it, every member did engage In a warfare with the remnants of a paleozoic age; And the way they heaved those fossils in their anger was a sin, And the skull of an old monarch caved our chairman's head right in. Commander Peary cables : ' Cook never reached the Pole, and he stole my Eskimos.' Dr. Cook replies : ' The Eskimos were as much mine as Peary's, and I paid a great deal more for them.' Commander Peary wires : ' Don't worry about Cook. I have him nailed.' Dr. Cook replies: ' Peary is no gentleman, and I won't degrade myself by answering him ; while one Mr. Osborne, secretary of tho Arctic Club of America, threatens ' that when Commander Peary sets foot in New York he will have affidavits and facts published stamping Commander Peary as the most colossal faker which America has ever produced.' * Verily, if Commander Peary is ' the most colossal faker which America has ever produced,' he has therein achieved a record hardly less remarkable than that of finding the Pole itself. For America has produced a fairly heavy crop of ' fakers,' and not a few of the scientific variety. Two or three years ago there died in the United States a certain Dean Shaler, of the Lawrence Scientific School, about whose scientific claims some irreverent undergraduates published a .rather clever skit in a little book -,f caricatures and verse entitled Harvard Celebrities. The students' version ran as follows : ' This is Shaler, Fairy-taler. Scientific mountain-sealer, Penetrator Of each crater From the poles to the equator, Tamer of the hurricane, Prophet of the wind and rain, Hypnotiser Of the geyser, - Wizard of the frozen plain. Hark! What is that deep and distant subterranean roar, Arising near Memorial and reaching out to Gore? 'Tis the rumble of applause When the speaker makes a pause In relating an adventure from his fund of earthquake lore.' We do not for a moment suggest that these lines can be fairly applied to either of the explorers now before the public; but Mr. Osborne, who evidently has rather a gift for vituperation, will probably find a use for them when the two principals get properly into ' holts.' * In the meantime, the honest, reasonable, common-, sense view to take of the whole question has been pithily and breezily expressed by our friend, Mr. Clement Wragge. In a letter to the Grey lliver Argus, he thus deals it out to the doubters on both sides, and puts on record the only sane view of the situation : 'I, as a scientific man, wish to enter my emphatic protest against the absurd jealousies and bickerings rampant among the adherents of Dr. Cook and Commander Peary. Interesting scientifically though the journey has been, such miserable and petty feeling is calculated to bring the whole business into disrepute. By what right has doubt been cast on Dr. Cook's observations? Surely he knew how to apply the corrections for refraction ! As well question Shackleton's observations ! For God's sake, let us be true to our nationality, and treat every 1 man as honest till the reverse has been conclusively proved. In the light of the eternaruniverse, and the name of noble science, " what does it matter " who first set foot on the Pole? Englishman though I am, I trust I should be the last to refuse honor to a fellowman when honor is due, no matter what his nationality. We are all brothers, or ought to be. As a Fellow -of the Royal Geographical Society of over 35 years' standing, 1 regret that the society has apparently snubbed Dr. Cook,

and that Admiral Nares has seen fit to apply the minus sign without further knowledge. Petty jealousy, of which as to results I have had much experience, is most utterly contemptible and disgusting, and is beneath any man who claims to be a true scientist.' Her Royal Highness the Cook Harriet Martineau used to say that if it were not for the fact that literature paid better, she could, and would, have earned her living as a cook. She had good reason to be proud of her double gift, but if she were alive to-day she would probably find that it would be the culinary, and not the literary, talent that would prove the most remunerative. We are pleased to see that the Otago University Council have decided to try the highly interesting experiment of establishing a Chair of Domestic Economics at the Otago University, and if the result should happily be to raise the status of domestic service and attract larger numbers to its ranks the Council will have rendered a real service to the community. In the meantime, while the demand is so enormously in excess of the supply, the cook is absolute mistress of the situation. She can command almost any price and any terms. And even where all her wishes have been complied with, whenever the fancy seizes her she can at a moment's notice throw up her situation ' and leave the household hi confusion with the utmost serenity of mind, well knowing that there are half a dozen other households round the corner ready and waiting to snap her up. In the columns of one of our Wellington contemporaries a much-enduring citizen has sought relief in poetry, and has hit off his sufferings in the following pithy lines: One more unfortunate, Frenzied his look, Rashly importunate, After a cook. Bows down with deference, So does his wife, Asks for no reference; Not on your life. Pays a large salary, Offers her treats. Nix on the gallery — Orchestra seats. Pets her and pampers her, Handles with care, Never once hampers her; Never would dare. Stands all her flightiness, But one sad day Sees her high mightiness Flutter away. Life on Mars Mr. 'Clement Wragge, in his popular and interesting lectures, waxes enthusiastic about the superior intelligence of the inhabitants of Mars — our nearest neighbor except the moon — and is emphatic in the opinion both that communication between the two bodies will in due time be effected, and that it will be our neighbors, and not ourselves, who will devise the first signalling apparatus. In the meantime it is consoling to reflect that we are making some progress in our effort to piece out, bit by bit, the life-story of this interesting planet. The latest step forward was chronicled in the daily papers of Saturday last in the shape of a cable message from New York to the effect that ' Professor Percival Lowell, of Boston, has observed oxygen in the atmosphere of Mars.' In these days of disputed discoveries and ' fake ' discoverers it would have been' natural and pardonable to be sceptical about this latest announcement, but fortunately Professor Lowell's previous study and observations regarding Mars have placed his reputation and credibility above all question. He it *s who has settled for all time the question as to whether or not the much-talked-of ' canals ' really do exist in Mars ; and the evidence^, which he has adduced is now generally accepted as proving conclusively that these canals are not chance fissures, but really canals, dug by intellfgent beings for an intelligent purpose, this purpose being primarily not navigation, but. irrigation.

The history of Professor Lowell's observations on this point is somewhat interesting. Some thirty years ago an Italian astronomer, Schiaparelli, announced that he had observed a vast number "of regular channels or canals in Mars, and that their existence indicated that the planet was inhabited. For some time this idea was accepted, but latterly the pendulum of popular opinion had swung backward, and the Italian astronomer's belief had become somewhat discredited. It was suggested that the canals were

mere optical illusions, and that they existed only as sh adows of the blood-vessels in the strained and oversensitive eye of the astronomer, who was told, in effect, by the critics that his explanation of tlie phenomena should have simply been, --'Oh, it's all my eye!' In 1905, however, Mr. C. O. Lampland^" one of Professor Lowell's assistants at Flagstaff, Arizona, and" in July, 1907, an expedition, despatched by Professor Lowell to the Andes, both obtained photographs of Mars,- and these afforded final proof that the canals are not illusions, that they are really there, and not here, and that they are continuous lines, and not chance dots or spots. As seen in the photographs they are thus described : ' Starting at the polar caps or circles of eternal snow and ice at the poles, the canals run for thousands of miles to the equator. Cross canals intersect them, and in the Martian spring-time, when the sun melts, the polar caps, they fill with water, and the banks take on the greenish tinge of vegetation. . . As the Martian winter approaches, the canals fade, even the permanent dark patches turn lighter in shade, as if the vegetation were dying, and the general appearance is the same as the earth would look if viewed from a great distance at the same time of the year. There is no natural explanation that can account for the phenomena, and the only reasonable solution is the canals are the effort of an intelligent and highly civilised life to maintain its existence on a planet whose surface is an arid desert.'

In the meantime, while this airy optimist is complacently working out a satisfactory answer on abstract and theoretical lines, the American people are giving a practical answer as to the trend .of which there is not a shade of ambiguity, and in contact with which Forrest Crissey's pleasing vision topples over like .' the baseless fabric of a dream.' In the North American .Review for May Mr. 'Frederick L. Hoffman gives appalling figures as xo the baby famine now prevailing, and likely to increase, among the ranks of the ' better^qlasses ' in America. [n New England the average number^-df children in 1800 was 6.1 per family.. It had fallen to 2?o~iirTß72, and m the upper classes of Boston to 1.8 in 1900.. The native-born English-speaking American of the besfc stock, Mr. Hoffman declares, is being submerged and, if present conditions persist, will ultimately become extinct. The foreign population marries earlier, marries oftener, and has more chil-

dren 'than the native-born. Statistics are lacking except in ajlew New England States, but there the average birthrate' of the foreigner is practically twice, arid sometimes nearly thrice, that of the native-born. - 'If we assume that the difference in the birth-rate is the same" in other States, then the actual deficiency in the annual number, tf births of native-born women of native stock "will approximately amount to more than one and a quarter million. In other words, the actual deficiency in the numerical increase of the native population is about the same as the' present annual influx of foreigners, mostly from the 1 " Southern States of Europe.'

Curiously enough, the declining birth-rato is even more strongly marked amongst the highly educated women, especially amongst University graduates. 'If the fecundity of native women as a class,' says Mr. Hoffman, 'is very considerably below that of the women of foreign birth, the condition is stilL more deplorable among educated women, and in particular" among those who are graduates of higher institutions of learning. Among others, for illustration, of Vassar graduates duirng the ten years ending with 1896 only 28 per cent, were married .iy 1903, with an average number of children of 1.6 per mother, while a considerable number were without issue. The results of other colleges are practically the same, and in all' cases the percentage of married women is less, the age at marriage is more advanced, the number of children is small, and large families are the rare exception. According to Dewey, quoted by Stanley Hall, 37 per cent. of married ' college graduates had no children, although the average number of years of married life was. over six. Hall concludes that ' from the knowledge at hand, it is plain that our race would be speedily extinct if it depended upon the rate of replenishment of the educated classes.'

'Hondai Lanka' Tea is playing an ihiportant part in I 'Cups of Comfort!' ' Hondai Lanka' is welcomed at many households— it is giving tea-time satisfaction I Try | the table. It is soothing, refreshing, and invigorating.

Society, was in Rome during his last illness. He solicited an audience with the Pope, which was granted to him. He at once began to address him on the necessity of a change of heart, belief hi the one Hope of sinners and abandonment of all creature mediators. He announced to him the glad tidings, and assured him there was pardon for all. He warned him against the figment of baptismal regeneration, and then, proceeding to apply the word, he urged him, though in the eleventh hour, to .receive the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible. The Pope listened with marked attention, and displayed considerable emotion. "Wheu it was ended, he answered Mr. O'Niggins that it was his fervent hope tha/b they two would not ,die without finding themselves in one communion, or something of the sort. He declared, moreover, what was astonishing, that he put his sole trust in Christj ' the source of all merit,', as he expressed it — a remarkable phrase. " . . ' This was not all,' continued No. 2; 'he called together the Cardinals, protested that he earnestly desired God's glory, said that inward religion was all in all, and forms nothing without a contrite heart, and that he trusted soon to be in Paradise — which, "you knowj was a denial of the doctrine of Purgatory.' And bo these good people went on, quite convinced that the Pope had been ' converted,' and that he had been snatched as ' a brand from £he burning.'

The notion that anyone would seriously think of attempting to ' convert ' the Pope is not so far-fetched as it might appear, and the American Catholic Historical Researches for July gives an account of an old-time Philadelphia lady who actually set out for Rome on that very mission. She was so satisfied herself of the truth and force of Protestantism that she was sure she had only to see the Pope, put the matter "before him, and he would l«e immediately convinced. The journal just named quotes the facts concerning this Protestant apostle from Mr. George Hazlehurst in the Ledger, February 3, 1907. Particularly interesting is the conclusion of the mission and its effect on the lady's own opinions. This zealous lady was the wife of the British Consul, Mr. Peter. Mr. Hazlehurst says : ' She was Sarah Worthington, of Cincinnati, the widow of Edward, youngest son of Rufus King, and a greataunt of Nicholas Longworth, the husband of the President's daughter. Among other things, Mrs. Peter, after she was a widow for the second time, conceived the idea that she had received from heaven a message to convert the Pope into a Protestant, and, accordingly, after borrowing the necessary funds for a journey from her brother-in-law, James Gore King, she set out for Rome on her arduous mission. I can well recall the story told me by one of my aunts, who was in Rome at the time and who sat next to Mrs. Peter at a midnight Mass in St. Peter's. In the middle of the Mass Mrs. Peter turned to my aunt, asking her what her impressions were of the service. Of course, my aunt, being a Protestant, replied in the usual denunciatory language so common even among educated people at that time. Mrs. Peter made no reply, but three weeks from that time was seen walking barefoot in a religious procession, carrying a lighted candle through tho streets of Rome. On her return to America she gave her property in Cincinnati to the Church of her adoption, and ended her days as a religious devotee.' There may be a good deal in the idea that ' the way to convert Romanists is first to convert the Pope,' but the 'efforts so far made have not been very encouraging.