Apropos of the above a step that is being taken in many cities and towns of late, will undoubtedly do much to cultivate among us the lamented lack of “appreciation of art.” It is the establishment of city and village art museums. Worcester, Mass., has had $25,000 left to her, recently, to invest in an art museum. Smaller sums have been raised in several other towns. A good opportunity to study art thoroughly may be secured to any village by a donation of $1,000. Casts, photographs, engravings, and a few standard works are sufficient to cultivate correct ideas, and lay the foundation of knowledge. It is the only way in which to raise the standard of taste in the villages remote from the few cities of America which boast art museums.
The question of the date of the birth of Elizabeth Barrett Browning interested the readers of the C. L. S. C. some time ago. The year alone was ascertained. If any one was troubled that we were unable to answer the query exactly, the answer of Mr. Robert Browning to a lady asking for the date of Mrs. Browning’s birth may be of some consolation: “I know neither the day, month, nor year of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s birth. It is a subject upon which I have never had the slightest curiosity.”
One of the most active public men of the last generation has been Schuyler Colfax. He has been prominent, both as a political leader and as a public speaker. Mr. Colfax’s life of a little more than sixty years was immensely busy. He made his career, beginning as errand boy and clerk in his grandfather’s store. After he was eighteen years of age he took up the study of law, then launching out as a journalist, and finally, at twenty-five, entering the world of politics as secretary of the Whig National Convention, to which he had been sent as a delegate. When the new Republican party was started, Mr. Colfax was sent as a representative to Congress, and from that time he was closely identified with his party, serving particularly as Speaker and Vice President. He was of that large class of industrious, quick witted men who make themselves indispensable in whatever relations they are placed.
The “Imperial Dictionary” promises to be the rival of all the old standard dictionaries among scholarly people. Its form is four good sized volumes, which signifies that the English language grows and grows, and that words need fuller explanation. Mr. Gilder, editor of The Century, explained to us, when on a recent pleasant visit to the Century offices, that the “Imperial Dictionary” was built on “Webster’s Dictionary” in England, and that scholarly men had devoted ten years to the task. Now the Century Company have more than two hundred scholars engaged in making improvements on the English edition. It will be seven years before the new American edition will be ready for the market.
A timely and practical department of the Chautauqua University is the School of Journalism. This school is under the able direction of H. W. Mabie, one of the editors of the Christian Union. The demand for such schools is great, and the fact that all the work between teacher and pupil in this new undertaking will be conducted by correspondence, is an additional argument in its favor. The plan is briefly this: Three courses of study, with supplementary readings for those who have time for them, have been prepared; theses are expected on subjects assigned, and these will be criticised with special reference to vigorous style; constant correspondence will furnish needed help and hints. The plan is a wise one, its director is able, and there is no doubt but there are numerous young men and women to whom it will open the long desired way out of the woods.