and performances of various kinds which are given under the auspices of
the appropriate committees. Perhaps one of the most profitable evenings
of the winter is when manufacturers and employers are invited to
meet those of the working class who may wish to be present to discuss
in an informal manner questions of common interest. Under the genial
leadership of Mr. Janssen and the director, much of the restraint usual
on such occasions is thrown aside and the employer and employee sit side
by side, and each listens to the undreamed opinions and experiences of
the other. At one of these meetings the question of a shorter work day
was discussed from the standpoint of the employer, the laborer, and the
humanitarian. The investigations of our own Bureau of Labor were quoted
to show the benefits resulting from a shortening of the day of work, and
it is more than likely that the outcome of the discussion will be an
intention on the part of the manufacturer to curtail the hours of work
just as soon as possible, while the laborers, in learning of obstacles
of which they were ignorant, will await more patiently the action
desired.
The classes or individual pupils contribute their services to the
committee in charge of entertainments. This committee sees to it that
three Sunday evenings of each month are provided for, either from the
ranks of home talent or with the aid of outside artists. In the concerts
some of the best performers of the land have gladly taken part, and the
music of the greatest composers has been heard here. As in all other
cases, there is a charge for admission--four cents for one and six
cents for man and wife. A feature here in vogue might well be copied.
In arranging the selections for a concert the effort is made to always
include at least one popular piece, or a song of national, artistic,
or patriotic interest; then on the programme the words of this song
are printed. The audience may be asked to join in the chorus, but even
if this is not practical the people can catch the air, and with the
words before them in later days they can make melody in their homes.
If we recall the class of people for whom these provisions are made,
and keep in mind the limited avenues of enjoyment open to them, we will
appreciate the boon of such a considerate act.
It might be tedious to enumerate the various classes here conducted, and
give even in brief an outline of the methods, experiences, and results.
Each lesson costs from two to four cents, and the pupils--many of whom
have reached middle life--show a commendable zeal in prosecuting their
studies. However, two topics deserve mention--the lessons in mending and
in cooking. Since it is the poorer people who are to be benefited by
the work of Our House, lessons in economy are needed, if not demanded,
and the earlier opportunities for acquiring these lessons have been
meager. The authorities have therefore wisely decided to so instruct the
housewives of these people that their clothing may look well even if
mended and the family meals be palatable though simple. It is believed
that the result of such teaching will make many homes more attractive,
and keep the men from seeking outside of the house conditions which they
should find within.
The clubs also serve as valuable adjuncts to the work in hand. They are
usually groups of persons of the same sex and near the same age who
meet under the guidance of some experienced man or woman for social
intercourse, for practice in debate, playing of chess, the reading of
some standard author, or the discussion of places and peoples. In all
of these meetings, as well as under all circumstances, the people in
attendance are taught polite behavior by example rather than precept,
and every precaution is taken to avoid any reflection or invidious
comparisons that might tend to keep away the people whom Our House is
intended to benefit.
A word might be said about the travel club. Early in each autumn a
proposition is made that during the following summer a trip will be
taken to such and such places, usually naming one near by, within the
kingdom, and another farther away, as Brussels or the upper Rhine.
Persons desiring to visit either of the places named unite in forming
a club. They meet at stated times to listen to accounts of the place
selected, its historical associations, and the points of interest _en
route_, and also to pay into the treasury an amount agreed upon. For
example, last summer one club, upon the saving of a cent a week by each
member, was able to go to Haarlem and spend the day in seeing the city
and the many places of interest in the neighborhood. In another, each
member contributed ten cents a week, and the club was able to make a two
days' trip to Brussels. By this simple means persons otherwise unable to
go beyond the confines of their native city have the opportunity to get
at least a glimpse of the outside world, and under such conditions and
with such special preparations as to obtain from the trip the maximum
interest and profit.
The only thing that is free in Our House is legal advice and the writing
of legal documents. In Amsterdam, as elsewhere, the poorer people have
too frequently an exaggerated idea as to their rights, and rush into
"law" for fatuous protection. Such persons are liable to fall into the
hands of unprincipled lawyers who help to nurse the fancied wrong and
encourage a suit for damages, or put up an idle defense for the sole
purpose of winning a fee. To protect this class by giving them the most
unselfish advice possible, a number of the best lawyers of the city
have cheerfully offered their services, and every Thursday evening from
eight to twelve o'clock one or two stand ready to give gratuitously the
best advice they can upon such legal points as may be presented. That
this service is appreciated may be seen in the fact that from ten to
twenty persons profit by this privilege every evening. On this evening
persons are present for the purpose of writing letters for those unable
to write, and also to draw up legal documents for such as need them.
Mr. Adma van Scheltema--a name closely identified with every good work
in Amsterdam--has organized in Our House art loan exhibits. For one half
of the days during which the exhibit is open there is no charge for
admission, while a slight fee is exacted on the other days. From these
exhibitions much pleasure as well as instruction has been derived, and,
located in a section which sends but few visitors to the art museums,
one can realize that they perform a good work, as missionaries in
cultivating the people's taste.
Such is, in short, an account of a practical charity--a charity, in
truth, not because something is furnished for nothing, but that so much
is given in return for so little. During the past year more than three
thousand persons were registered as enjoyers of the privileges offered.
Mr. Janssen gave the building and in one sense endowed the work; Mr.
Tours gives his time, wisdom, and energy in directing its affairs; they
both ask the wiser men and women of the city to give a few hours of each
month or year. They have not asked in vain, and the cheerful responses
give promise of the coming of the time when the only answer to the
question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" will be an energetic "Yes."
SKETCH OF FRANK WIGGLESWORTH CLARKE.
The great advance which chemical science has made in the United States
during the past thirty years has been brought about by the joint
operation of several factors, of which we may mention the formation and
the influence of chemical societies seeking to further its development,
the intelligent labors of individual investigators cultivating special
fields, and the systematic pursuit of experimental work with reference
to certain definite results. In this shaping of chemical research in
such a way as to make it most efficient, the work and influence of
Frank Wigglesworth Clarke have been prominent and important. His own
labors have been industriously and unselfishly pursued with an eye to
the advancement of the science, and their value has been generally
recognized. It seems as if he had taken to himself a hint thrown out in
one of his earlier scientific papers, and, giving up the transient glory
of brilliant experiments, had devoted himself to setting the science as
far forward as possible in single branches.
Professor CLARKE was born in Boston, March 14, 1847, and was graduated
from the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University in 1867.
Two years later, in 1869, he was appointed instructor in chemistry
in Cornell University, the first assistant ever appointed at that
institution. His next position was that of professor of chemistry
and physics in Howard University, Washington, in 1873 and 1874. In
the latter year he became professor of chemistry and physics in the
University of Cincinnati, in a position which he held till 1883, when he
became chief chemist to the United States Geological Survey and honorary
curator of minerals in the United States National Museum, where he still
remains.
Professor Clarke, having become a member of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science in 1869, assisted, in 1875-'76, in the
organization of its section on chemistry, a branch which had theretofore
been but little represented in the Proceedings of the association. Prof.
S. W. Johnson was elected chairman of the new section for the meeting
in 1876 at Detroit, and Professor Clarke was commissioned to make the
necessary efforts to insure a full attendance of chemists and others
interested in the applications of chemistry. In 1888 he presided over
the section; and he has ever been active in building it up, and in the
development of the American Chemical Society.
Professor Clarke has published about seventy-five scientific papers in
various journals, and many popular articles, especially in Appletons'
Journal and the Popular Science Monthly. His first scientific paper, A
New Process in Mineral Analysis, was published in the American Journal
of Science for March, 1869. Other important papers have related to
analytical methods, to the constitution of the tartrates of antimony,
and to topics on chemical mineralogy, including especially the
constitution of the silicates.
Many of his popular articles relate to educational affairs, and present
forcible arguments for a fuller recognition of science in the course of
instruction, and cogent demonstrations of the need of better teaching
of science and better qualified teachers. When occasion has arisen, he
has fearlessly exposed and denounced humbug in education. In a paper on
The Higher Education, published in the seventh volume of the Popular
Science Monthly, having defined the purpose of true education as being
"to develop the mind; to strengthen the thinking faculties in every
possible direction; to render the acquisition of new knowledge easier
and surer; to increase the student's resources; and to render him better
fitted for dealing with the useful affairs of the world," he sets forth
the advantages of science over the ancient and even the modern languages
for the accomplishment of it. Science, he reasons, furnishes as good
an instrument for cultivating the memory, and has the additional
advantage of strengthening the perceptive powers too, for in it the eye,
the ear, and all the instruments of the senses are trained to observe
facts accurately, as they are not trained to so great a degree in
language study. It again takes the lead in the cultivation of the pure
reason; for it gives grand laws and generalizations already deduced or
in process of deduction. "The discovery of these natural laws may be
counted among the greatest achievements of the human mind. To follow
out the processes by which they were discovered gives the mind its most
rigid training, and elevates the tone of thought in many other respects.
The intellect becomes self-reliant and yet conscious of its own weak
points." Also, in æsthetic development, scientific education is put
foremost. "The true student of Nature and her phenomena ever sees order
and symmetry coming out of chaos, and finds the rarest beauty hidden
where to the unaided eye naught but ugliness exists.... Can any student,
who looks upon the universe with vision thus unobscured, fail to find
in his studies the truest æsthetic culture?" But it had been alleged
that the scientific courses had been tried in many American colleges and
found less fruitful than the classical. In answer to this the author
considered the character of most American colleges, the qualifications
of many professed teachers and the methods of study, and showed that
these, as they actually were, were not competent for the conveyance of
genuine scientific instruction.
By the multiplication of competing colleges putting sectarian interests
in the foremost place, the means were divided up and frittered away,
which, concentrated in one institution, would hardly be enough to
enable it to do really effective work. "Each college acts as a drag
on all the others. Libraries, cabinets, and faculties are uselessly
duplicated. Naturally, one result of this state of affairs is a lowering
of educational standards.... Since, on account of this foolish division
of forces, most of these colleges are inadequately endowed, they are
compelled to work short-handed. One professor has frequently several
branches to teach.... In the majority of cases there is a chair of
Latin, a chair of Greek, and then--a chair of 'Natural Science.' Each
linguistic professor is to some degree a specialist; while the one who
teaches science is perforce compelled to be a smatterer. He is expected
to teach half a dozen dissimilar branches, each one being a life work by
itself. He is to be omniscient on about a thousand dollars a year."
That the character of these institutions, as well as their poverty, was
detrimental to the advancement of scientific education was more fully
shown in another article on American Colleges _vs._ American Science,
in the ninth volume of the Monthly. The colleges were described as
being to a large extent denominational institutions, "equipped and
endowed with, due reference to the perpetuation of sound faith, and
incidentally to the encouragement of what is supposed to be learning....
The very fact that a college has been established for theological
purposes, or for ecclesiastical aggrandizement, is adverse to good
scientific research.... Every year professors are chosen, not on account
of scientific ability, but for reasons of a theological or sectarian
character. If two men, one a Baptist and the other a Unitarian, were
candidates for the same professorship in a Baptist university, the
former, even if very much inferior to his rival, would almost certainly
be elected.... Theological soundness in such an institution far outranks
scientific ability. If Laplace had lived in America, no college would
have tolerated him for an instant. Almost any decayed minister, seeking
an asylum, would have beaten him in the race for a professorship."
These conditions were shown to have necessarily a bad effect upon
American science, and to be not likely to arouse or encourage the
scientific spirit. The student "becomes accustomed to regard the
sciences as comparatively unimportant," and "graduates in complete
ignorance both of the methods and of the aims of science, having learned
only a few disconnected facts concerning the great world about him."
Improvement in these conditions, the author argued, must come partly
from within and partly from without. The colleges must reform their
ways, and, not being likely to do it spontaneously, must be helped--by
pressure of public sentiment and, later, of legislation. This suggestion
proved to be introductory to that of a very important line of work, for
the furtherance of which Professor Clarke seems never to have been able
to labor too earnestly and industriously.
"But how," he says, "should public sentiment be properly shaped and made
available for service? How is the natural, though slow, growth to be
fostered and directed? Mainly by the efforts, organized and individual,
of scientific men. Personally, every worker in science should strive
to awaken in the community about him a comprehension of the value
and purposes of his particular branch. In other words, the real
investigators ought to do more toward popularizing their discoveries
instead of leaving that task to amateurs or charlatans. At present,
unfortunately, too many able scientific men depreciate popular work and
hold aloof from it. They do nothing themselves to interest the public,
and then lament the fact that the public does not become interested.
Yet just here is where the beginning must be made. With a wider public
interest in science will come deeper public appreciation, and this will
develop the tendencies necessary for the improvement of our colleges
and schools. Until the people see and recognize the difference between
true investigators and mere collectors of specimens, between original
workers and text-book authors, little real progress will be made."
While these pictures were correct, when made, of a very large number of
American colleges, a vast improvement has taken place since the articles
were written in the quality of instruction given; but there yet remain
too many institutions to which they are still not inapplicable.
This was not the beginning of Professor Clarke's efforts to show men of
science that the true interests of their cause lay in their making their
knowledge easily accessible to the public. In the first volume of the
Monthly he had an article on Scientific Dabblers, the purpose of which,
as he defined it, was, after calling attention to the silly character
of much that was called "popular science," to urge upon true scientific
men the importance of rendering real knowledge more accessible to the
masses. There is a demand for science, he said, "or the trash which
is written would not be read. It works into nearly all departments
of common life, and is, in one way or another, of interest to almost
every one. Yet, as I have already said, the current popular lectures
upon scientific topics are frothy and worthless; the theologian often
misrepresents science for partisan purposes; and the newspapers, with
all the good they may do, are too frequently conducted by those ignorant
of all science. The people ask for knowledge, and unwittingly get much
chaff with their wheat.... Therefore it seems to be time that true
students of science should seek to popularize their learning.... Men of
science constantly lament that the Government does not extend more aid
to scientific research. The Government is a popular one, and the people
must be trained before its help can be expected. Therefore it is for the
interest of the teachers, as well as for the good of the people, that
scientific truths should be popularly put forward in simple, untechnical
language, and made accessible to all."
Later, in his chairman's address before the Chemical Subsection of
the American Association, in 1878, he had this subject in mind, and
mentioned it as part of the work of the section "to attract public
attention to the subjects that interest us, and to do what we can
to secure for chemistry a wider appreciation and greater means for
development.... If the general public," he said later in his address,
"is not interested in chemistry, it is because we as chemists have
neglected a part of our duty. We have but to speak, in order to command
the public ear."
Another side of scientific advancement to which Professor Clarke's
working life has proved him much attached is presented in this address
at the American Association meeting of 1878, and more minutely as to the
particular point we have in mind in an article on Laboratory Endowment,
in the tenth volume of the Popular Science Monthly. In the association
address he insisted strongly upon the physical side of chemical
research, stated briefly as the study of the phenomena which occur
during the reactions in chemical experiments, or of the transformations
of energy, and upon the importance of the co-ordination of studies
separately pursued to the systematic and permanent advancement of the
science; for which purpose he considered endowed laboratories for
research extremely desirable. In such laboratories adequate corps of
thorough specialists should co-operate in those investigations which
individuals could not undertake; every worker should be assigned to
definite, positive duties, the accurate and careful performance of which
would eventually be sure to advance exact knowledge. The work would be
hard routine, and the real value of the institution would be independent
of everything sensational, and would rest upon considerations of the
most severely practical kind. As an example of such work he mentioned
the study of the connection between the composition of a substance
and its physical properties. Supposing this taken up systematically
by a well-organized body of investigators, the first step would be to
determine, carefully and with the utmost rigor, the physical properties
of the elements. Each one of these substances would have to be isolated
in quantity and in a chemically pure condition, such as has never
been attained as to some--a labor which would of itself involve a
great amount of research. Then would come the measurement of physical
relations, thermal, electrical, optical, magnetic, mechanical, and so
on; and the determination of all their "constants" under widely varied
conditions, notably of pressure and temperature; labors which would
in many cases involve the comparative testing of various methods of
research, and often the invention of new experimental processes. The
number of elements and of their compounds which should be taken up in
some regular order, series by series, would afford almost illimitable
fields of research to large numbers of students; all of whom, if
laboring under some plan of systematic co-operation, might contribute
directly and efficiently to the perfection of the science. "One chemist
might undertake to furnish certain of the elements in a perfectly pure
condition; another might carefully determine under varying circumstances
their densities and rates of expansion; a third could work up their
latent and specific heats; a fourth their electrical relations, and so
on. Failure to attain grand results would be impossible. Doubtless
the labor would prove irksome and monotonous, but the reward would be
sure. In five years, more would be done toward rendering chemistry
an exact science than can be accomplished in a century by means of
chemical investigations at present most in vogue." Chemists engaging
in work of this kind would have to make sacrifices, for it would offer
little promise of sensational reputations to be gained through dazzling
discoveries, and would have to look to the ultimate glory of the science
for their chief reward.
Professor Clarke has not omitted to practice what he thus preached; and
while he has not failed to win honors in other fields of the science,
has made it the chief work of his scientific life to advance toward
solution one of the physical problems of chemistry indicated above.
He has taken as his special field of research the "constants," and
of these, the one which is perhaps the most fundamental of all, the
revision of the atomic weights--not by experiments of his own so much
as by comparison and criticism of the work of all who have undertaken
the task, eliminating errors and finding from the sum of the whole
what is the nearest deducible approach to accuracy. In 1872 he sent
to the Smithsonian Institution a compilation entitled A Table of
Specific Gravities, Boiling Points, and Melting Points for Solids and
Liquids. This was accepted by Prof. Joseph Henry, who made it the first
publication of a projected series to be called The Constants of Nature.
To this series Professor Clarke has since contributed Tables of Specific
Heats, of Expansions, and a Recalculation of the Atomic Weights. A new
edition of the Specific Gravities was issued in 1886, and a second
edition of the Atomic Weights in 1897. For the past five years Professor
Clarke has contributed an annual report on atomic-weight determinations
to the Journal of the American Chemical Society, giving each year a
consistent table of values brought thoroughly down to date. These tables
are now used in all parts of the world as standards for reference.