Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, December 31, 1915, Page 7

4 j The Disrespectfulness and Indication of Shiftlessness in Absence of Rea- sonable Care in Spelling and Pen- manship. : y OR- CHARLES H. PARKHURST, A letter was recelved man who wanted a line of introduction some business house, with a view to curing a position. The name signed as_ 80 blindly and blunderingly written that in order to reply to iny correspond- ent 1 had to cut off the signature and paste it on the return envelope. A writ ing school is the place for such a man, ang not a business house It was a small thing, bat small things | . . yesterday from often afford the best evidence. It is proverbial that straws make the best weathervanes. A person's penmanship need not be like copperplate, but it is disrespecttul to one's correspondent, and a distinct sympton of a certain kind of shiftlessnese, not to shape one's words in a way to make them at least fairly lexible. Bad speliing is another symptom, point- ing in the same direction. Our language | is more difficult than some in that re- | spect—more so than the German, for | example—but it is no more pardonable | for an American to write with a brogue | than it is to speak with a brogue. Besides | that, dictionaries are cheap, and if one | needs an orthographic crutch he can zet ons for a few cents and conceal his deficlency, even if he is not a scholar enough to correct it Lame spelling and ambiguous chirog- | are a mila form of illiteracy, and | in these days of | arcely excusable opporiunity Liberal allowance | should be made. for such immigrants as lave come from regions where opportun- | iies are more m: e. But even m.ll tive or alien, one has not at- | ideal standard of Americanism | vead Engiish intelligently and | th respectable accuracy | : of illiteracy and the extent | in our counrty 1s a | v hether tatned il hie setiovs one, Mr. Winthrop Talbot, wnnl Las Leen employed b our government to study into the matter, reports that we have 5000000 il'iterates and many milllon more that are practically such. Giving a young fellow just sufficient in- struction in our language to enable him to get a job is not teaching him Englsh. In fact, it 's the most dirsct way ofjen- hint to be stperticial populgr sgvernment are individual life reqijifes’ » the life,of our cowrry, we think and couragin J Miteracy apd 4 incompatiblé, Ot be bound tp 1 1t cannot be unless | n our country's vernacuiar. To be American « ts in large part in being borne wlong in the current of national jdear, nailonal affections and aspirations, ne those must be interpreted to us through the medium of the natlon's lan- sune | | Such as have not attained to this are | ¢ segregated into communities avart, and ! have not been dizested by the hational ‘ life, and not bocome assimilated into | clements conet'tuent of the body politic. They are in America, but not of it. They | subsist on the nation's life, but without | ecoming forces contributory to that life; ey are members of the order of civis Vharasites, feeding on the body that they ought themselves to help feed. Closely connecteq With that i another matter | [ | that can properly be brought within the compass of this article and which has 1o do with college students’ ignorance of past and current events, especially the atter. It is suggested by what has recently Leen developed by a certain college pro- fessor upon examining members of his class concerning the location of places that have been made important and con- l cuous by events in the European war. such place, which has been for months the scene of sharp struggles be- tween the warring powers, and which has had emphatic attention cailed to it in al- | most every issue of the dally papers | since September, not a single member of | his elass could geographically locate. | It is safe to conclude that that entire | lass of colleglans knows very little about what has been going on in Europe ring the last sixteen months. Its mem- hers have probably been studying Roman | and Greek history of the ante-Christian age, and famfliarizing themselves with the languages and literature of that period, but as indifferent, as though resi- dents of another planet, to events of a magnitude and seriousness that eclipse anything. they can discover in classic ecords. Without speaking disparagingly of the value of a knowledge of the events that are past, no matter how long p yet there is an educating s'gnificance in studying history that is in the making that there is mnot in studying history that is made and finished and that, in one sense of the word, is dead and gone Those students, and all students, are today in the midst of a tremendously live world. Its historic processes are laid bare before their very eyes. They can hear the clanking of the machinery of events, and it is difficult to conceive how a mind that is really a student mind cal face the great tragedy, more immense than the combined tragedies of all the dramatists, and not succumb to its educa- tional and Inspirational pressure And these students are expected soon to quit the retirement of college life and enter into the great world and become part of it. But what can such recluses as the one described know about the great world? The study of the ologies | has been the means perhaps of accumu- lating for them a certain amount of gray matter and they will need it; but how about the adaptation of that gray matter to the actual conditions and requirements f the stage upon which they are ex. | tihg to play a role? | This war is calculated to develop a crop of great men, made such by the magnitude and Intense vitality of the times In which their nental and moral posaibilities are getting their impulse and training, and those university boys, it they want to be reckoned among the magriates, had better spend a part of their time standing out on the highway while the processioy '~ wolng by One Bees Home Ma THE BEE: OMAHA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3 3 1915, gazinhe Page Quaint Little People in Quaint Little Frocks Republished by Special Arrangement with Harper's Bazar. Is it a boy or a girl who wears this double-breasted Fashion says capes are popular. If for the old, why not for the young, especially when they can be edged with little linen tabs of white, enough trimming for a blue cotton dress? frock with double collar and cuffs of heavy linen embroidered in dots to match the material? Ry feather frock that has a complete In deep blue velvet, with collar and cuffs and a band at the Plaits in the front and plaits in the back and each one held with bottom of beaver fur a lit- tle mald cAn keep warm in spite of wintry winds stitching, to trim of handkerchief a linen linen collar to its prettiness. Rare and Priceless Jewels of Russia Wonderful Specimens of Greek Art l‘w in the Crimea Terra-cotta vase, Sphinx, 500 B. C. By GARRET P. SERVISS. in the peninsula called the Crimea Rus- sia possesses one of the richest sources of ancient Greek jewelry and other mas- terpleces in all the world. The great palace of the Hermitage In Petrograd ia remarkable for the number and splendor of these art gems, some of which are figured on this page. Three large vol- umns, prepared by order of the imperial government, are devoted to the contents of the magnificent hall containing these treasur It is regarded as & most re- markable fact that no other reglon in- cluded in the anclent world in which Greek civilization reigned has ylelded so vast a coilection of specimens dating from the zenith of Greek art as has this remote spot on the northern shore of the Black Sea. And yet it was so far from the center of human affairs at that time, that to visit it was an incomparably greater and more venturesome voyage than for us to travel round the globe. The Crimea was known to the Greeks as the Tauric Chersonesus, and also as the country of the legendary Cimmerians Greek settlements were finally fo there several hundred years before Christ and the city of Pantacapeum, or Bos- phorus, now Kertch, seems to have at- ta'ned considerable importance. The money value of the collection is wery great, for many of the things are composed of solid gold and silver. But their artistic value is still greater, whils thelr beauty of workmanship is un- rivalled by anything done today. Maxime Collignon, & French authority on Greek archaeology, says that it must be ad- mitted that on certain points the secrets of these ancient goldsmiths have not been discovered or disclosed, and that it is #till o matter for inquiry how the artists managed to give to thelr work such inim- itable beauty and finish He also rays that “granulation,” & kind coration which consists in covering of med | ( visible bosses of gold, is one of the secrets | that modern art despairs of discovering. One of the most famous pleces in the great collection is the ‘“rhyton,” or drinking horn, shown in one of the photo- graphs. This is in the form of a bull's head, exquisitely carved, with a repre- sentation around the cup of the assassi- nation of Priam's son, Polydorus, by Polymnestor, the king of Thrace, while Hecuba, queen of Troy and mother of the murdered youth, attacks the assassin The great silver vase seen In another the tireless’ attention to detalls which the 1nnm. gave to thelr work. The origi- | nality of the figures of the centaurs | torming the handles, and the animation |of the circle of battling figures round A silver vase, found in South Russia. of the illustrations is a fine example of | the center of the vase, make this an object of special admiration Great numbers of coins and rings are included in the collection, some dating back not less than 250 or 8,00 yearx One small cylinder of cornaline attached to @ golden chain and carved with fig- ures représenting the guardian spirit of a king battling with two lions, i supposed to have been the private seal of Mithwi- dates the Great, who dled at Pantaca peum in the year €3 B. C. Mithridates, who was a great patron of |art as well as a great soldier, was re- garded in Rome as the most dangerous enemy that the conquering mistress of the world ever encountered. Many of the finest treasures in the collection come from the ruins of what has been called A rhyton, found in Crimea. the tomb of Mithridates. The women of those days, in that dis- tant part of the world, decorated thelr persons, as these discoveries show, with Jewels of such artistic beauty and origi- nality that no money today could pur- chase their equals. There are, for ins stance, many earrings of gold exquisitfly shaped in imitation of heads of cupids, ses, of lions, of lynxes and other animals, and of inimitable workman- ship, Collars, bracelets, table ornaments, cups, jeweled mirrors, fantastic buttons or other objects for vestments, of gold and silver, or precious stones, abound. Some of the objects, according to medals accompanying them, date from the time of Alexander the Great, snd there are &old coins struck in his reign | Little | By H. H. STANSBURY. | Representative W. A. Cullom of In- |diana was standing with a group of | politicians at the headquarters of the national democratic committee in Wash. ington a few nights ago when an en- thusiastic young reporter approached and asked: “Congressman, what do you think about the president's preparedness program? How many battleships do you think we should built each year?" “Well, young man,” replied the gentle- man from Indiana, “I am not greatly in terested in preparedness and battieships We haven't any deep water in Indiana. Why, & school of fish in the Wabash river could raise a dust.” Senator Chilton of West Virginia likes a joke and likes better to tell one. This is his latest |ihe surface of gold leal with almost In- | An Irihman and an American entered | in'ess-she ke Stories of Big Men a place where liquid refreshments were sold and announced that they would !ike to have a drink “What sort of a drink will it be?" asked the polite attendant “Oh, give me o horse’s neck,” said the American, “Faith, end then can give me a horse's tall, and you won't have to kill two horses,”” sald the Irishman. In-Shoots The joy-laden auto is no respecter of persons. Some fellows appear to smoke just for the pleasure of wasting matches. actress can expect th be r &nized «ps a dog of some kind Representative Ben Jo'nson of Ken- tucky, while shaking hands with Chair- man Hay of the house military afiairs committes on the opening day of con- gress, asked “Do you beliéve, Mr. a long session?" “I am afraid we are In the as the darkey who recently had the mis- fortune to appear before Judge Crutch. field, In the police court of Richmond,” replied Mr. Hay. “The dcfendant was charged with having participated in a cutting affray the night before, and was asked whether he desired to plead guilty or not gullty., This was his answer “‘No, sah, Mr. Jedge; I wouldn't be- have In dat way. I knows bettah. You #ee, I b'longe in New York. I don't mix wid dese Virginia darkeys.’ “ “You'll mix with Virginia darkeys for next six months,’ sald the judge, xt case.’ " Hay, this will be th By BEATRICE FAIRFAX. I wonder why most of us are so afraid of belng kind? We seem to conduct life on the principle that to be kind is to be misjudged. We act for the most part as It kindness and weakness were Kynono- mous. The world would be for the most of us an infinitely happler place if we frankly lived up to our kindly impulses. *The new family at the end of the block seems very pleasant, s Mirs. Smith, Y : Hints About Pets To keep canaries in song a frequent change of dlet is necessary. Flageolets are sometimes used in order to teach bulifinches to whistle, During the winter the cage of a canary thould never be hung In & room without a fire, A little brimstone put occasionally in the milk given to cats is a preventive of disease. “T'd really 1ike to eall, but I'm afraid they'd think I was intruding.” And Mrs, Smith does not call. She conquers her impulse to be friendly and neighborly lest she be misjudged—and she is misjudged! Says Mra. Brown, head of the new fam- ily, “Oh, T wish we had never come inte this netghborhood. It's so smobbish and Muitiply the instance & hundred fold. Dally each of us, because of some foollsh self-conscious and eelfish personal fear that our actions will be misinterpreted, neglect to do the little kindness it lles in our power to offer to some one else. It is very cowardly to fail in & manifest duty merely because there is a chance that motives may be questioned. Be honest with yourself where thers arises such a situation. Ask yourself quite frankly, “What would I want done for me if T were in his or her position?" And then with a fine frankness and = simple honesty offer the best service you have in your power to give to friend- ship. Vi is to be given next and believe me she is a very pretty dolly. She has snch sweet winuing ways that we would like to have her go to some little girl that didn’t get a doll for Xmas. She would make that little girl so happy. Put on your thinking me plight | caps little Busy Bees, and see if you cannot re- member some such little girl, and try to make her happy by collecting a few pictures to help her win Florence. Florence will be given free to the little girl un- der 12 years of age that brings or mails us the largest number of dolls’ pictures cut out of the Daily and Sunday Bee before 4 p. m., Friday, ||| December 31. Remember, you must send your pictures in ONE DAY EARLIER of Saturday. this week, because Saturday OONTEST WILL CLOSE AT 4 P. M. FRIDAY, instead Florence pictures will be in The Bee every day this week. Cut them out and ask your friends to save the pictures in their paper for you too. See how many pie- tures of Florence you can get, and be sure to turn them in to The Bee office before 4 p. m. Friday, December 31. You Can See Florence at The Bee Office is New Year’s Day, so the