Some Great Men of Our Time
I—RODIN—SCULPTOR
Ten club meetings are planned here, but as many more may be arranged by taking up the work of other men along the same lines as those mentioned.
The great sculptor of our day is Auguste Rodin. He was born in Paris in 1840, studied at the Petit École and later with Barye. From the latter he gained the double idea that statuary should suggest action and be literally life-like. Some of his statues are "St. John the Baptist," "The Hand of God," "The Thinker," "Adam and Eve." "The Bronze Age," now in the Luxembourg, caused a heated controversy, the charge being made that a plaster cast of the model had been used. Rodin is a pronounced realist and his figures are filled with force. He has inspired this generation of sculptors with a new conception of their work.
Read from "The Life and Work of Rodin," by Frederick Lawton (Scribner). For other meetings on modern sculpture study the work of St. Gaudens, Lorado Taft, MacMonnies, Niehaus, Mrs. Vonnoh, Miss Yandell, Mrs. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and others.
II—ROSTAND—DRAMATIST
Edmond Rostand, the dramatist, represents the literary playwright. He was born in 1869, and educated in Paris. His first play, "Les Romanesques," was staged in 1894. The next year came "La Princesse Lointaine," and two years later "La Samaritaine." But the height of Rostand's brilliant career was reached when he presented "Cyrano de Bergerac," a heroic comedy which took the artistic and literary world by storm. "L'Aiglon" followed this, and Rostand was then honored with an election to the French Academy.
"Chantecler" appeared in 1910; it was an attempt to imitate Aristophanes by putting birds and animals on the stage, but though largely advertised it was not a success.
Read from the study of Rostand in E. E. Hale's "Dramatists of To-day" (Holt). Have a number of selections read from "Cyrano" and "L'Aiglon." A meeting on Maeterlinck should follow this, and another on Ibsen, with criticism, comparisons, and readings.
III—JAMES—PSYCHOLOGIST
The man who has made philosophy popular to-day is William James. He was born in New York City, educated in London, Paris, Boulogne, and Geneva, and then in the scientific and medical schools of Harvard; he became professor of psychology and philosophy there. His chief books are "Principles of Psychology," "The Will to Believe," "Human Immortality," "Varieties of Religious Experience," "Pragmatism," and "A Pluralistic Universe." He died in 1910.
Professor James, like his brother, Henry James the novelist, was a man of letters. He dealt with the fundamental problems of human life in a distinctly fresh way and wrote of them in a style of singular clearness, vivacity, and humor. His philosophy is based on the idea that truth is that which has the value of truth to us.
Many clubs would enjoy a whole year of study of James's books. At least there should be several meetings for readings from "The Will to Believe," and "Pragmatism," and from the biography, "William James," by Emile Boutroux (Longmans).
Study also the work of the French philosopher, Bergson, and that of the German, Eucken, recent visitors to America.
IV—BOOTH—RELIGIOUS LEADER
Gen. William Booth was, religiously, one of the notable figures of our times; but aside from that he was one of the greatest organizers of his generation. Born in Nottingham, England, in 1829, he early became a Wesleyan Methodist, but later independent. He founded the society which developed into the great Salvation Army, modeled after the English Army, but involving a discipline even more strict.
At first Booth met bitter opposition: churches where he had preached formerly were closed to him; he was called a mountebank and accused of having brought religion into contempt; but he steadily won favor for obviously great good done. In 1890 he published his book, "In Darkest England and the Way Out," suggesting social and religious methods of helping the very poor. This book made his work respected by intelligent men everywhere. He died in 1912. Telegrams of sympathy were sent to his family by kings and emperors, presidents, governors, and great men of all nations. His funeral was a wonderful spectacle.
Read from the "Life of General William Booth," by G. S. Bailton, published by Doran, and have several papers written on different phases of the work of the Army. Read the poem: "General William Booth enters Heaven," by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay (Mitchell Kennerley).
Another great religious leader of the times was Dwight L. Moody; have a meeting on his evangelistic work and the Northfield schools.
V—TOYNBEE—SOCIAL WORKER
Clubs will be interested to follow this study with one of a man who inspired as great a work as Booth, and founded as important an institution—Arnold Toynbee, the originator of the social settlement.
Toynbee was born in London in 1852. He spent ten years at Oxford as undergraduate, tutor and lecturer, and there came under the influence of Buskin's social teachings. He took a deep interest in trades unions, and worked for better hours, more sanitary homes, open spaces in cities, and free libraries.
In 1875 he took lodgings in Whitechapel, one of London's worst slums, in order to live among the poor and help them in a neighborly way. On account of his delicate health he was unable to continue there long; but his example brought other Oxford men, and when he died in 1883 they organized a social university settlement and called it Toynbee Hall. This was the first fully equipped institution of the kind, and at once it attracted attention everywhere and was immediately followed by the establishment of others in England and America, and later in all lands. To-day in the United States alone there are more than five hundred such settlements.
Read "Arnold Toynbee," by F. C. Montague, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, and see the "Handbook of Settlements," by R. A. Woods, published by the Sage Foundation, New York. Clubs may also have a meeting on Jane Addams and Hull House, and read chapters from the book, "Twenty Years at Hull House," by Miss Addams (Macmillan).
VI—EDISON—INVENTOR
Thomas Edison is one of the greatest inventive mechanical geniuses who ever lived. His life story is outwardly uneventful. He was born in Ohio in 1847, and at twelve became a train boy; he took advantage of an empty express room in a car and printed a little newspaper called The Grand Trunk Herald, and also carried on chemical and electrical experiments there. These came to an end when he set fire to the car accidentally, and was dismissed by the angry conductor.
He learned telegraphy and practiced it in several cities, coming after a time to New York. There he invented a printing telegraph machine, known as "the ticker," to record stock quotations. This brought him in forty thousand dollars and enabled him to set up his famous laboratory at Menlo Park, in New Jersey.
His first really great invention was the quadruplex telegraph, which makes it possible to send four messages over one wire at the same time. Next came the carbon transmitter. Edison's third great work was the discovery of the carbon filament for the incandescent light, and his next the phonograph, which has developed into extended and various use. His work on the cinematograph has brought moving pictures into a conspicuous place not only for amusement but for education.
Read from "Edison—His Life and Inventions," by F. L. Dyer (Harper). Clubs interested in modern discoveries, should take up in this connection the work of Marconi and the Wright brothers; there is material here for several meetings.
VII—MORGAN—FINANCIER
No study of the men of our time would be complete without considering one of the famous financiers of the present age of wealth. Among a group of several, J. Pierpont Morgan stands easily first as the greatest organizer.
Born in Connecticut in 1837, he studied in Boston and later in Germany, and at the age of twenty became a banker. His first large business deal, however, was in the acquisition of a railroad, taking it from the hands of an infamous ring who controlled it and reorganizing it. After this he adopted the syndicate method for floating bonds.
He financed many trunk lines of railway, the ocean steamship business, the coal and railway business of Pennsylvania, the Guarantee Trust Company, with a capital of $150,000,000, and the United States Steel Corporation, with a capital of $1,400,000,000. It is said that he controlled three billion dollars of railway properties.
The secret of Morgan's success lay in his skill in estimating railway values, his unerring memory, and his extraordinary genius for detail. He had immense determination and force hidden behind a profound reticence. His aims were broad and his outlook was over the country as a whole. His fame rests on his ability both as a financier and as a great collector, for he used much of his enormous wealth in building up one of the world's great collections of books, manuscripts, pictures, and curios.
Read from "The Life Story of Pierpont Morgan," by Carl Hovey (Sturgis and Walton). Study the lives of other financiers of our time, comparing and contrasting them, taking especially the two men of great wealth, Rockefeller and Carnegie.
VIII—KELVIN—SCIENTIST
William Thomson, later Sir William, and later still Baron Kelvin, the greatest exponent of physical science in our age, was born in Belfast in 1824, the son of a teacher of mathematics. At twenty-two he was made professor of natural philosophy at Glasgow, and he held this position for more than fifty years.
In 1851 he read his first paper before the Royal Society; its subject was "The Dissipation of Energy," and it was the original statement of the law now universally accepted. He made many leading discoveries concerning elasticity, electricity, heat, vortex motion, and magnetism, and was recognized as the leading authority upon them. He was also a practical inventor, with fifty-six patents to his credit. He devised the instrument which made ocean telegraphy practical, the device now universally used for measuring electricity, the present form of the marine compass, the tide gauge, and the deep sea sounding apparatus. He was knighted for his work in 1866 and made Lord Kelvin in 1892, besides receiving countless honors from universities, academies, and governments. He died in 1907.
Read from "Lord Kelvin," by Andrew Gray, in the English Men of Science series. Clubs may also study the work of Sir William Ramsay and the Curies.
IX—PEARY AND AMUNDSEN—EXPLORERS
The finding of the North and South Poles is among the great events of our times. The discoverer of the former was Robert E. Peary, who was born in 1856 in Pennsylvania, was educated at Bowdoin College, and became an engineer in the United States Navy, ranking as lieutenant. In 1886 he explored Greenland and five years later headed an expedition to that country and proved that it is an island.
Four northern trips succeeded this, the latter two under the auspices of the specially formed Peary Arctic Club. He was then given the rank of commander and was made president of the American Geographical Society. In 1905 and 1908 he went north in the ship Roosevelt, and on the latter trip the Pole was reached April 6, 1909.
Clubs should read Peary's own book, "The North Pole," published by Stokes, and also the book written by his wife, "The Snow Baby," the story of the little daughter who was born in the Far North. Read also the account of the claims of Doctor Cook to have found the Pole.
The South Pole was discovered by Roald Amundsen, who was born in Norway in 1872. Like Peary, he became a naval lieutenant. In 1891 he made observations of the East Greenland currents, and two years later he gave nineteen months to observations connected with the magnetic pole. In 1904 he made the Northwest Passage.
In 1910 there was a race to discover the South Pole, between the British, led by Scott, who perished after reaching the goal, and the Danish, led by Amundsen. The latter sailed in the little ship Fram, landed on the Great Ice Barrier, marched rapidly on more than eight hundred miles and, December 16, 1911, reached the South Pole.
Read the discoverer's own account: "The South Pole," published by Keedick. Clubs may make a serious study of polar expeditions, which have been many, and of their stories of bravery and tragedy. Read the books of Sven Hedin.
X—GOETHALS—ENGINEER
The construction of the Panama Canal is one of the striking engineering feats of to-day, and its success is owing mainly to George W. Goethals. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1858, was graduated at West Point, and began his career as a second lieutenant of engineers. He taught at West Point for a time, and was chief of engineers during the Spanish-American War and also a member of the Board of Fortifications. After 1907 he was chief engineer of the Panama Canal, and it is his work here that has made him famous. To secure efficiency great power was placed in his hands. He was chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission, president of the Panama Railway, and governor of the Canal Zone. He had forty thousand men working under him in different departments.
The completed canal cost $375,000,000 and is one of the most colossal engineering achievements of history.
Read "Panama, Past and Present," by Farnham Bishop (The Century Company), "Panama and the Canal To-day," by Forbes Lindsay (The Page Company), and "Old Panama," by C. L. G. Anderson (The Page Company). Clubs should study also the history of the canal in past years and especially the story of De Lesseps.