Reports from the great universities show that their student roll is still increasing. Probably the attendance at several institutions will come close to 5,000 this year, while at others it will be carried above 4,000, though it has never reached that figure in the past.

It should be noted, however, that with these large totals there may be much diversity in the details. Americans have used the terms university and college in a haphazard way, and as a consequence there has been some confusion of ideas on the subejct. The old American conception of the higher education did not. go much beyond the curriculum of an academic department. Then came the scientific school, the law school, the medical school and finally the enormous addition of specialized work which we have at present.

With all this development there has been in some cases a gradual growth and extension, in others an increase by annexation or union. The old college may contribute a very large percentage of the total attendance or it may be overshadowed by professional schools which have been taken in at a single stroke and brought with them hundreds of students. At one institution, therefore, the educational problem may relate chiefly to the needs of undergraduates, while at another greater interest may attach to postgraduate courses.

Aside from this distinction, it is to be noted further that the institutions may be coeducational or boys' schools or girls' schools. The totals, in fact, tell very little without the added particulars, and parents who have children to send to college should look well into the latter. They may then find that one institution is the best for a certain purpose, another for another. After the examination the large university may appeal to them or the small college.

Upon certain points, however, there should be no difference of opinion. If the

student is young and is seeking a general education he will need the discipline of prescribed studies, the time for a thoroughly systematic training, and close contact with educators of the highest type.

MORE GRADUATES CHOOSING A BUSINESS

CAREER.

Figures which have just been compiled from the new directory of living graduates and former students of Princeton University show that the college graduate of today is more and more choosing a business rather than a professional career. These statistics show that nearly one-third of the living alumni of Princeton are in business.

The increasing number of college men who are entering and influencing business life in America is one of the marked changes that has come over our educated population in the last twenty-five years. It is not so long ago that practically all boys sent to college were destined for a professional career-law, divinity, teaching, medicine, journalism, engineering, etc. But all this is changed.

Exclusive of the class of 1906 there are 7.190 living alumni of Princeton. Of the 6,522 classified according to their occupation, 2,285 are in business, 1,498 in the law, 924 in the ministry, 699 practicing medicine, 433 teachers, 290 engineers, 104 journalists, 50 ranching and farming, 50 gentlemen of leisure, 41 students, 34 in the army, 31 civil service, 26 architecture, 19 chemists, 10 artists, 9 authors, 7 in the navy, 5 librarians, 4 musicians and 4 dentists.

Among the living alumni of the classes prior to 1841, who number 24, none is engaged in business; prior to 1850, only 5 per cent., and prior to 1870, only 15 per cent. In the 80s the number of graduates following a business career shows a marked increase, amounting to 25 per cent. This percentage remains practically the same for the alumni in the 90s.

In the classes which have been graduated since 1900 the increase is very marked, averaging 50 per cent.

It is a fair presumption that there will be an increase instead of a decrease in the number of students who will follow a business career and that the tendency of the times to educate a man for business by sending him to college for four years or a shorter period will increase rather than diminish.

THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.

A contribution by Charles F. Thwing, of Western Reserve University, in Harper's Magazine for October on the University of London describes the educational conditions in the world's metropolis. The London University is in reality merely a federation of all the higher educational institutions of the municipality. Each of these institutions maintains in a large degree its individuality, but the ties that bind all together are sufficiently strong to render the alliance an effective unit of educational effort. Unlike Oxford and Cambridge, the University of London has no ancient traditions to cherish. It is not merely a group of colleges, but is a university more after the American idea-a collection of schools for specialized work. It even includes a magnificent college for women. While the memory of a more or less glorious past is a splendid asset for any university, it should be far from essential as a requisite for greatness and efficiency. A past cannot be made to order, and it is not good sense to hold that with the progress of the world new universities shall not spring up from year to year as they are needed.

Another idea that has been worked out elaborately by the University of London is the allowance for "external" students. These students need not come near the university. Their studies are carried on at their homes, along prescribed lines laid down by the university, and at specified times they are examined by special boards created by the university governors for this purpose. If the examina

tions are successfully passed these external students are given degrees similar to those bestowed upon students who have spent the usual number of years within the university walls. This idea has never been put into effect in America, as the belief in the necessity of personal instruction is very strong. Inasmuch as students in the English colonies who have never been in London receive each year degrees from the University of London upon proof that they have satisfactorily completed their studies, there seems to be little reason in arguing that American students, who are unable to “attend college," but who are able to train themselves satisfactorily outside of the college, should not be allowed to reap the reward of their perseverance and diligence. A trial of this plan, at least,

could do no harm.

NEWSBOYS' HARVARD SCHOLARSHIP.

His

The commendable enterprise of the newsboys to put a comrade through Harvard has reached the stage where the money is raised, the boy selected and accepted for the college by President Eliot. Myer Heller, the winner of the scholarship, is seventeen years of age, nearly two years younger than the average who this year entered Harvard. He is the second oldest of three children. brother Charles, nineteen years old, is at present a forestry student at Harvard. He has a younger sister, Jennie, aged ten years. Myer attended the Phillips Grammar School and graduated from the English Grammar School in 1905. He has been a newsboy for eight years and holds a record of selling an average of 250 papers a day.

This scholarship is the outcome of a motion which passed on July 25, 1905, by the Newsboys' Union to establish a newsboys' scholarship at Harvard. The union proposed to raise $5,000 for the purpose, and $100 was appropriated by the organization to start the fund. Newspaper publishers, business men, labor unions and the general public immediately co-operated in the project.

UNIVERSITIES AND PUBLIC OPINION.

According to all accounts, the ceremonies on the occasion of the quartercentenary of Aberdeen University during the last week of September must have been most impressive. Harvard University was represented by two of its professors, one of them of its law school, the other of its academic department. A description by the latter of the splendid ceremonies taking place at the ancient Scotch seat of learning appears in the last issue of the New York Nation.

The motto of one of the colleges now forming a part of the univresity is: "They have said-What say they? Let them say." In this connection the Harvard professor gives vent to his feelings in the following manner: "Like the device of the Rohans, 'Roi ne puis. Duc ne daigne. Rohan suis,' it (the motto) tells a whole story, no less laconically, and with a fine contempt for public opinion such as our universities might do well to emulate oftener than they do."

Sapienti sat! says the Boston Herald. University life and teaching in the twentieth century, and especially in this country, should, above all, strive to come into closer contact with public opinion; and such is, in fact, the prevalent tendency in most of our institutions of learning. It is possible that the mind of the Harvard professor while at Aberdeen was unduly influenced by the mediaeval academic atmosphere prevailing there during the festivities or by the sight of the "glorious windows of stained glass," of the distinguished assembly "in scarlet fur-faced robes" and "picturesque academic costume" or by all of these. The spirit predominant in mediaeval universities reveling in exclusive caste privileges belongs to the past.

CORRESPONDENCE INSTRUCTION IN

UNIVERSITIES.

Correspondence schools invaded the fields of our higher institutions of learning and now they must meet a counter attack, says the Boston Advertiser. Their first competitor is the University of Wisconsin, which has established a department of correspondence instruction, de

signed to offer to the mechanic and tradesman the same advantages that have long been offered to the farmer through short course winter schools of agriculture, and to other classes by means of summer vacation schools. The old, well-endowed universities are not likely to undertake this sort of education, but there is something appropriate in the effort of a state university, as the capstone of its educational system, to establish more intimate relations with the people of the state. Of fulfillment of that hope there is reasonable assurance, for correspondence schools, which now give instruction in draftsmanship, civil engineering, the languages, and so on, have had remarkable success. Today they count students by hundreds of thousands. In its original endeavor the University of Wisconsin will receive serious attention merited by an effort to broaden the masses prevented, in most cases by circumstances beyond their control, from getting an education in their youth. If the experiment is successful, other state institutions will probably follow its example.

EDUCATIONAL ALLIANCE.

Further progress of the system of “educational reciprocity" is reported. A chair of German history and institutions, to be called the Kaiser Wilhelm chair, has been established at Columbia Univer

sity by the Prussian ministry of education, and it is to be filled each year by some eminent Teutonic scholar. During the past summer arrangements have been concluded whereby Italian professors are to lecture at the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania and other leading colleges of the United States, and reciprocally American professors are to give courses in the chief Italian universities. Moreover, the plan contemplates the recognition of Italian diplomas by our colleges and of American diplomas by Italian universities. Provision is also made for the reciprocal study of the two languages.

Educators believe that these arrangements are but the beginnings of a great movement for the internationalization of

university instruction and of education generally. As a reflex of them one educator calls attention to the exchange arranged between the public schools of France and Germany. The plan is that the pupils of each of the two countries named are to learn the language of the other from properly equipped native teachers.

There is as yet no regular arrangement for the interchange of professors between this country and England, but, of course, this is far less necessary than in the case of continental Europe. Community of language, culture and fundamental legal and other principles make Anglo-American understanding and sympathy comparatively easy and natural. Still, the exchange system is expected to extend to England in the course of time.

A "COMMON ROOM" IN DORMITORIES AT

HARVARD.

An innovation which has been exciting a good deal of comment at Harvard this year is the "common room" idea which is being worked out in several of the dormitories. The idea is not entirely new at Harvard, for Divinity Hall has had for several years a large common room on the first floor, which has been one of the chief attractions of this dormitory as a place of residence. The room has a piano, papers and magazines and other facilities, and is well equipped with lounging chairs. Last year the suggestion that common rooms be tried in other college halls was made by a student, who, while rooming in the Perkins last year, saw the need of some place where men could gather and make the acquaintance of their neighbors in the building. Perkins is one of the largest dormitories belonging to the college and has always had a particularly heterogeneous class of occupants, ranging from freshmen to men in the graduate and professional schools. Only a beginning was made last year in an unoccupied room in Perkins which the college authorities gave for the purpose and the men in the building furnished.

The plan appealed so favorably to the corporation, however, that this year two rooms on the ground floor have been combined into one room about 15 by 40 feet, about $500 being spent on the necessary alterations. The men have subscribed about $300 for the furnishings, which include tables and chairs, carpets, curtains, pictures and the rent of a piano. and pianola. The room is now nearly finished and will be ready for occupancy in about two weeks.

Across the street in Conant Hall, which is reserved this year for graudate students, an attractive common room has been fully furnished and is now in use. The university made the necessary alterations in the building and the result is a long, spacious room extending across the southern end of the building. The furnishings were given by Mrs. Hammer, wife of the Norwegian consul in Boston, whose generosity provided two years ago a concert of Scandinavian music at Harvard, and last year a recital from Ibsen's "Peer Gynt," with accompanying songs.

It is proposed to raise a fund among the men in the hall to defray the running expenses. Already a large number of magazines have been supplied and it is expected that a piano will soon be provided. An idea of the cosmopolitan character of the population in Conant, and of the service a common room can perform in promoting acquaintance and good fellowship may be gained from the following list of twenty-eight colleges represented among the tenants: Harvard, Richmond College, New York University, University of New Brunswick, University of California, University of Maine, Oberlin, Wisconsin, Amherst, Dartmouth, Haverford, Denison University, Miami University, University of Washington, University of Iowa, Trinity College, Toronto, George Washington University, Juniata College, Yale, Princeton, Ohio State, Rochester University, Acadia, Norwich, Kenyon, Cornell, Stanford.

In Hastings Hall the scheme has been somewhat less successful, partly because the room is unfavorably situated and partly because the men have not yet

learned the use of it. In Thayer, the room is nearly furnished and will probably be in good running order in a week. For furnishing this room the Thayer family contributed a substantial sum, and the occupants have also subscribed.

Taken altogether, the movement will be an experiment well worth watching, and it is hoped that a great deal of good may be accomplished by bringing the men in the dormitories together in a social way. That the college authorities are heartily in sympathy with the movement is shown by their willingness to provide the rooms necessary and even to make extensive alterations. The whole movement seems to show a tendency toward the English style of college life in making the dormitories the center of social activity. At Harvard the Union has done much in the last five years to weld the student body together, and it is hoped that the dormitory common room will contribute still more to the realization of this end.

JOHNS HOPKINS RECEIVES EGYPTIAN

ANTIQUITIES.

The Johns Hopkins University has received from the president and committee of the Egypt exploration fund a number of interesting antiquities from Deir el Bahari, in the burial field of ancient Thebes, in Upper Egypt. They were found on the site of the mortuary temple of King Mentuhotep II. (2176-2130 B. C.) of the eleventh dynasty, built about 2150 B. C.-the oldest building at Thebes. The remains of this temple were discovered in 1903, and the site has been explored since that time with signal success. The valuable antiquities found there, including those now in Baltimore, were recently exhibited at King's College, London.

Of the objects sent to the Johns Hopkins University, the most interesting is a block of limestone, about three feet in length, upon which is sculptured in low relief the figure of a crocodile holding in its mouth a fish. The relief is well executed, and is a good example of the art of the eleventh dynasty, of which little

was known before these excavations. The block formed part of the decoration of the southern colonnade of the temple. A fragment of stone bearing a deeply incised hieroglyph of unusual size appears to have formed part of an inscription dating from the eighteenth dynasty (about 1500 B. C.). The greater number of objects consist of pottery, ranging in date from the eleventh to the eighteenth dynasties (2100 to 1400 B. C.), and comprising 31 earthenware vessels of various sizes and shapes, with some fragments. of blue glazed fayence. The vessels are for the most part perfectly preserved, and include wine bottles, water jars, large pots for cooking, drinking cups and libation bowls. They were probably used by the priests and attendants of the temple. Two of the jars show the spiral decoration characteristic of the Mycenean pottery, where it is probably due to the Egyptian influence. A wooden mallet of the sort used by Egyptian stonecutters and some fragments of matting and basket work are doubtless memorials of the workmen who partly demolished the temple about 1100 B. C. to provide material for other buildings.

The donation of these interesting antiquities is due to the influence of Mr. James Teackle Dennis of Baltimore, who was at one time a student of the Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Dennis assisted in the work of exploration at Deir el Bahari during the past year.

MERCHANT MARINE LEAGUE PRIZES.

Prizes aggregating $1,000 are offered by the Merchant Marine League of the United States at Cleveland, Ohio, for the four best essays on "How to Build Up Our Shipping in the Foreign Trade." Only students in high schools, technological schools, colleges and universities in the United States are eligible to the competition. There will be four prizes, viz.: One of $400, one of $300, one of $200, and one of $100. Students desiring to compete for these prizes must register their names and the institution of learning which they are attending, with the league, in order to have their essays con