Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/58

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48
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

have been more or less reported in our public press, in particular that of Mr. James Bryce, on Jingoism, which has naturally attracted considerable notice. Of this, and the many kind and enthusiastic words that were uttered on this occasion, there is no space here to remark. Suffice it to say that there is a profound belief in the minds of cultivated and thoughtful men of both Britain and America that the real heart of each nation is friendly to the other, and that the harsh and reckless utterances of a sensational or partisan press are no index to the true feelings of the people. Lord Lister expressed this precise idea in a brief conversation with the writer, as Mr. Bryce has also most forcibly done in both public and private relations.

Other aspects of the meeting must perforce be omitted, although there is much temptation to linger upon them. The private hospitality so freely shown, the attractive lawn parties in beautiful grounds and houses of the city, such as "The Grange," where Prof. Goldwin Smith received the visitors, and many like occasions of social converse; the labors of the Local Committee, from the hard-worked and efficient secretary, Professor Macallum, to the many courteous assistants whose names are unrecognized and overlooked; the immense impetus given by such a meeting to many forms of scientific interest in the community and the Dominion, to bear fruit and achieve important results for years to come—all these, and many more, are subjects of delightful remembrance. For us, in "the States," there should be also the influence of a healthful pride and a kindly rivalry to strengthen and build up our own association, and to appreciate more than perhaps we have before its importance to the country and to science. The next meeting will signalize its first half century, and it will be held, very fittingly, in Boston. President Putnam, at the closing banquet, invited the British members to come over and be our guests in 1898. At all events, let us endeavor to make that meeting a memorable success, as was the British meeting at Toronto.



Projects are in agitation in England, France, and Germany for taming African elephants and training them to work. It is proposed to establish stations at suitable points in settlements near regions inhabited by elephants, to which young animals may be brought, suitably cared for, and broken in by skilled trainers imported from Asia. "Such is the innate folly of man," says Sir William Martin Conway, in his First Crossing of Spitzbergen, "that when he sees a beautiful view, he desires to be in the midst of it. . . . But the beauty is not there, but here, whence it is beheld. Not on that golden surface of the rippled sea, not on that rose-tinted peak, but here. Tell a man this a thousand times; repeat it to yourself; it is useless."