The Sunday Oregonian., October 25, 1914, SECTION TWO, Page 16, Image 38

16
TJTE SUNDAY OREGOmX. PORTLAND. OCTOBER 2.1. 1014.
l Portland's Success
BY DEAN COLLINSr-
THE reputation for being: "a pow
erful worker in the uplift of de
mocracy" Is more to be desired
than jewels; yea, than much fine gera
merjr and precious stones, especially in
these stirring- political times.
The woods and fields, and also the
teeming city ways, are filled with can
didates of all varieties glimmering un
der the halo of this especial virtue and
"pointing with pride" to their record
In the fray for liberty and democracy,
which waxes so especially keen in
cycles of two and four years.
But, while they pass in review be
fore the people with their halos. mer
ited or assumed, In the non-political,
non-offlceseeking walks of life may be
found many and many a person whose
labors for the spread of democracy
have been effective over so much great
er fields that the work of the peren
nial politicians looks like' a ping-pong
game beside them.
And these successful tribunes of the
people are not all men, any more than
they are all men these days in the
purely political field. '
Woman Hu All-Reaehing Post.
Just by comparison, it is really
doubtful if there is a candidate for
any office in Multnomah County whose
efforts in behalf of the spread- of de
mocracy have been broad enough to
make every man and woman and child
in the county who can read, regardless
of race, religion, condition or party af
filiation, personally indebted to him for
his efforts.
That Is Just where Miss Mary Frances
Tsom, libarian for the Library Associa
tion, is in a position, if she should
care to do so, to say "Pooh-pooh" for
the minor politicians' claims as work
ers for the spread of democracy, for
every man, woman and child in the
county who can read is indebted . to
her in the manner mentioned.
It has been a matter of a dozen years
since the Portland Library was turned
Into a public library by the association.
In that time it has grown and reached
out, a steadily-increasing educational
power, practically to everybody in the
county.
. library la Democratic
"A public library," as Miss Isom has
said, "is the most democratic Institution
in the world. Its help is available to
everybody, no matter what may be his
or her condition in life, and whether
rich or poor, highly educated or in
differently educated, everybody in the
course of the year comes sooner or
later to the doors of the library to en
joy the benefits and assistance it can
give."
All this is why Miss Isom can be in
cluded among the list of those who
have been the mightiest promoters of
democracy In this part of the world,
for there is hardly a step in the prog
ress of the Public Library in these
years in which she has not been di
rectly active. From 1902, when the
library occupied one floor in the build
ing' on Stark street and Broadway, to
the present day when It is housed in
its imposing: new home at Tenth and
Tamhill streets and has branches in
every section of the city and county,
she has, to a large degree, planned and
directed its expansive growth.
It is really a difficult thing to sep
arate her from the library sufficiently
to obtain an interview of a personal
tone from her, for her enthusiasm and
interest are thoroughly merged into
the work.
Library Her Favorite Theme.
When the interviewer seeks to draw
out her philosophy of life he is apt
to get. Instead of philosophical max
ims and formulae, definite information
about the library and the work it is
doing in the social organization of
Multonmah County.
"Really I may perhaps better say
that I have no cut-and-dried philos
ophy of life," said Miss Isom. "I am
quite an opportunist. I find that if one
frrasps the opportunity that offers and
does the work that comes first to hand,
it usually proves to be the best method
of getting ready to grasp the next op
portunity and to be ready for the next
work that is to be done.
"In the development of the library
we have not had time to map out, in
minute forms, large plans for the fu
ture. The demands for the present
have always been enough to keep us
working at our best, and by attending
to them as they came, we have always
been ready when the time for the next
step in advance came, to go on and
make it."
Her Opportunity City Gain.
The long-locked deity that presides
over opportunity seems to have had
an active part in Miss Isom's entire
career as librarian. The two or three
nundred thousand people who reap an
nually the benefits from the library, out
of all their indebtedness to this op
portune deity, really owe him a few
sticks of incense even for the first cir
cumstance that brought their librarian
to Portland to take charge of the des
tinies of the institution.
Miss Isom took up the study of li
brary work in Pratt Institute Library
School and was studying advanced
cataloguing when the opportunity of
fered for her to come to Portland. The
library had not then been made a pub
lic institution.
Mins Isom was invited to come to
Portland to catalogue the John Wilson
Library, which had been given to the
association and which was to form
the foundation of what has since
grown into the reference department.
"I felt that it was really quite a
venture to come all the way from my
Thome in Cleveland out to the Pacific
Coast." said Miss Isom, "'but I decided
to try the work. -I expected to be in
I'ortland about two months when I
started; I am here yet."
Permanent Place Won.
So many other things were found to
re done that Miss Isom was kept busy
long past the two months that she had
planned to spend, and then she was
asked to accept the position of libra
rian; the decision having been made to
open the library as a public institution.
"There were so many other things
to do, by the way, that the cataloguing
that I came out here to do was not
finished vntil about eight years after
ward." she said. "It's all done now,
however, so I can say that I have per
formed the task for which I was first
called."
The library was opened to the pub
lic in 1902 after having been closed
for two months to complete- the cata
loguing of the departments first to be
opened. It had been thought by many
that its opening as a public institu
tion was. at best, a doubtful experi
ment, but the way in which the public
swarmed to patronize it from the first
day, soon made it evident that it must
succeed. In 1905 the sArt Museum
moved to its own building at Fifth and
Taylor streets snd the library occu
pied the entire building at Stark street
and Broadway. When the library first
opened to the public Miss Isom had
one assistant. Today there are between
40 and 50 assistants under her in the
Central Library alone, and about 100
others in the various branch libraries
In the city and county. She also is an
officer in the Pacific Northwest and
the American Library Association.
The Portland Library Association
lias supported her enthusiastically in
every new step she has proposed and
the policy has been continually to
)jiak the service of the library avail
I V' " i l
I C 1 , III
'y ' "?& J .
suaiCf
able to all In every division of society
and its activities.
Nothing Baffles Library.
People today can go to the library
with almost any problem under the
sun and the great, smooth-running in
stitution will have available for them
the material to solve the problem at
almost a moment's notice. No sooner
is a new demand apparent than the
library Bets about to fill it.
When there is an important social or
political movement on, the Library
hastens to make available all the in
formation that may be demanded by
the public upon it. The new commis
sion form of government had hardly
become a fact in Portland before the
Library had compiled a special depart
ment bearing upon this subject. Al
most simultaneously with the outbreak
of the war in Europe, the shelves in
the reference-room mustered & special
library of information bearing upon it.
Out through the county in every di
rection flow and reflow from the Cen
tral Library, the volumes that supply
the demands for information or enter
tainment of persons of all ages and in
all places. If one follows any of these
currents back to the original motive
force, he will be led invariably to Miss
Isom's office in the Central Library
building, where, with untiring enthusi
asm, she directs her equally enthusi
astic co-workers In the fascinating
task of supplying the flood of present
demands, which makes it possible to
supply the greater flood of greater de
mands that the public will bring in the
next day.
Great Entaaaiasm Shown.
In the library system there seems to
be an enthusiasm as unfailing as the
sunrise and the ability of growth to
infinity. The history of the develop
ment of the Library seems to be much
like some of the old seven-volume nov
els, with the Portland public still on
the first volufne and the finis so far in
the future as to be indistinct- But ev
ery chapter is a marvellously interest
ing one.
One can't help liking the opportunist
philosophy of Miss Isom, if that is
what it is. It is so very effective.
capable of accomplishing so many re
sults, and yet seemingly so unhurried
and self -controlled.
The librarian herself, whom we must
regard as the incarnation of this sys
tem of practical philosophy, somehow
gives one that Impression. When I
went to interview her, I knew she had
an appointment at another place with
in half an hour and that if I overstayed
the half hour, it would interfere with
it. But the interview being the work
in hand, she took hold of it calmly and
unhurriedly, and I was blessed with the
feeling that nobody was to hold the
watch on me to shoo me away the in
stant that the half-hour was up.
Interview Is Pleasnre.
But when the half hour was up, I
went my way and Miss Isom went to
her appointment, and I was unvexed
with the feeling that perhaps I had en
croached unwarrantedly upon the time
of a busy person.
If all the persons in the world, who
must be interviewed, were "opportun
ists," what a paradise this world would
be for those who must interview, and
how pleasantly and entertainingly
would the days of the scribe pass by.
"The work of a librarian is the most
fascinating in the world," said Miss
Isom, "and for that reason offers a de
lightful field for those whose interests
may lean in that direction. It is a
liberal education in itself, and it brings
one into a closer touch with humanity
than is afforded in almost any other
profession.
"Still, I. think sometimes tnat li
brarians, like poets, are born and not
made. If one is to go into the work,
they should have a great love for books
and for people not persons, but peo
ple tor they are brought into very
close touch with them all the time, in
the work. The library in these days
is becoming, in the truest sense, the
great social center of a community.
"Do we find ourselves inclined to fall
into a rut in library work? Well, if we
do fall into a rut at any time, we will
not have an opportunity to remain there
long, for the demands of our work will
shake us out of it in short order."
DUTCH ADOPT EUGENICS
Hygiene Office at The Hag-ue Gives
Talk to Those Intending to Wed.
LONDON. Oce. 5. (Special.) While
eugenics still is a matter of academic
discussion among some progressive
nations, the practical minded Dutch are
putting it to a test.
E. B. Maxse, British Consul-General
to the Netherlands, in his report, says
that the committee for the study of
public hygiene opened an office at The
Hague during last year, at which a
medical man daily examines and gives
suitable advice to persons of both
sexes intending to marry. The object
is two-fold, to prevent the union of
the iinfit and .to check race suicide.
PARIS SCHOOLS OPENED
Kill: X CI I CAPITAL RECOVERING ITS
NATURAL ASPECT.
Examinations to Be Arranged With
View to Avoid Low of Time to .
Students Now at Front.
PARIS, Oct. 24. (Correspondence of
the Associated Press.) Since the re
treat of the Germans from the vicinity
of Paris, the city has to a srreat extent
recovered its natural aspect, except for
numerous closed shops, some of which
are still boarded up and carry on their
fronts a varied collection of official
posters, emanating from the military
government announcing mobilization,
details from the Department of Pub
lic Instruction relating to the reopen
ing of the schools, from the prefect of
the Seine advising housewives to see
that their fruits and vegetables are
washed in water previously boiled and
other hygienic and administrative
measures.
The reopening of the primary schools
has brought out the usual number of
pupils. In accordance with instructions
from the Department of Public Instruc
tion the session was opened by the
teachers with a patriotic address to the
pupils reviewing in simple words the
causes of the war, and the necessity for
fathers and brothers to be absent fight
ing for their country.
j.ne Department or public Instruction
is arranging for the organization of
examinations so as to avoid, so far as
possible, the loss of a year to students
who are .unable to present themselves
this year on account of absence at the
front- It Is understood that medical
students will he permitted next year to
take two years' examinations in one.
The grulllotlne that once decapitated thou,
sans of hapless Frenchmen on the Place d
la Concorde is now In London at Madame
Tussaud's waxwork exhibition, on Maryle
bone road.
BEAUTIFUL CHINESE GIRL WHO
BE MARRIED
I'm . . Y V
V ' f i ,VK'. M
( t ' ' ....
I ' T. . V ' ' it'
MISS T0I1G TO WED
Beautiful Chinese Girl to Be
Aviator's Bride.
LONG VOYAGE IS PLANNED
Bridegroom With Price on Head In
Home Republic, Seeks Safety In
Philippines and Wedding Will
Take Place There. .
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26. Miss Lily
Tong is one of the most charming and
petite of the Chinese belles in San
Francisco's Chinatown. Her suitors
have been many, for her beauty has at
tracted scores of lovesick Chinese
swains, who have laid their all at her
feet and worshiped at her shrine. She
would, however, have none of them, for
she has promised Tom Gunn. the San
Francisco Chinese aviator, that she and
he would soar together through life.
Tom Gunn is the young Chinese
whose daring. aerial feats, witnessed by
General Lau-Tien Wei when the Chinese
General visited San Francisco, resulted
in Gunn's appointment as chief aviator
of. the Chinese Republic. Before Tom
could reach China there was a change
in government and, fearing that Tom
was to head a corps of aeronauts to
drop bombs on Pekin, President Yuan
Shi Kal placed a price of $5000 on Tom
Gunn's head. Tom valued his own
head at a far greater sum and went
to the Philippines, where he estab
lished a lucrative school for flying.
Lily Tong in the meanwhile had been
receiving ardent letters from her ab
sent lover, and when the daring young
ster had decided that he had enough
money to start housekeeping he sent
for his sweetheart. That is why. in
Chinatown, in the home of Miss Tong.
Lily is busily engaged In making the
preparations for the long Journey of
6000 miles to become the wife of the
intrepid young flyer.
Tom Gunn was born In San Francisco
and received his education here.
ON THE VALUE OF PHRASES
One Live Sentence Will Do More
Than Volumes of Argument.
Philadelphia Ledger.
William J. Bryan nominated himself
for President or the United States by
uttering just 24 words about "a cross
of icold.
One sentence spoken by Webster
about "liberty and union, more than
any other thing, crystallized the North
into thinking the slaves could be freed
and the country still live.
Captains of Industry had better learn
to esteem the value of phrases. Van-
derbilt's "the public be d " made
more enemies for his railroad than a
book full of logic, could convert into
friends.
"All the traffic will bear," was the
most deadly boomerang for the rail
roads, for. while it lays down a per
fecently sound principle. It makes peo
ple believe they are being swindled.
That was a genius among railroad
workmen, who thought of calling it
the "full crew" law. It gave the im
pression that the crews on trains were
incomplete, and so carried conviction
among folks who do not stop to reason.
Lawson's "system" was a powerful
argufier, and Colonel Roosevelt's
phrases about the "privileged" classes
and "predatory wealth" swung more
people to his way of, thinking than, a
volume of sound arguments.
A foolish phrase beat Blaine for
President. Hancock's blunder In say
ing the tariff was a '"local Issue" prob
ably cost him the same high office.
George F. Baer never said he had a
"divine right" to operate the coal
mines, but lots of people thought he
did, which had the same effect.
It would pay big business to hire
some happy phrase-makers.
An Impression.
(Sacramento Union.)
"I think I've made an impression on
that young lady."
"Why?"
"She's trying to remember who it
is I remind her of."
WILL JOURNEY 6000 MILES TO
TO AVIATOR.
' V it" jr.. 44.'$4 ... : V
At Meier & Franks
Monday 9 A. M.
3500 NECt
Worth
Tomorrow at
Just Received by
Express
Imported Silks,
( SEE
Agents
Hats 0Wt
for Men
MORE WHEAT TAKEN
Farmers' Holdings Thought to
Be Reduced 75 Per Cent.
$1 FLAT PAID IN COUNTRY
Absence of Cable Prices From Lon
don Taken to Indicate Censor
ship Is Imposed Because of
Purchase for Government.
So heavy has been the wheat buying
recently that weil-posted grain men
now estimate from 70 to 75 per cent of
farmers' holdings in the Pacific North
west have changed hands. In the past
two weeks sales in the three states
have aggregated fully 4,000.000 bushels.
The war demand is strong and the only
limit to the business Is that caused by
farmers holding back. Many of them
say they will hold until after the turn
of the year, but every advance in prices
brings out offerings. And prices are
advancing continually.
At the Merchants' Exchange yester
day bids on export wheat were one to
two cents higher than on Friday. As
compared with the public quotations
of one week ago. bluestem wheat is 6
cents higher and club wheat is worth
7 cents more.
Country reports told of buying at the
best prices of the year. Fortyfold
wheat was bought in the Palouse sec
tion at a price equal to $1.13 laid down
in this market. In Walla Walla Coun
ty there were a number of sales of club
wheat at it net to the farmers. This
is the price that many wheatgrowers,
when the war broke out, determined
they would hold for. Milling bluestem
wheat again sold on the local market
at $1.15.
No wheat quotations were cabled
from England. The Merchants' Exchange
cable from Liverpool merely said the
market was strong, with an advancing
tendency. On a number of occasions
since the war began the English censor
has prohibited wheat prices from being
cabled to this country, and it has since
been learned that on those particular
days the English government was a
heavy purchaser of wheat. It is be
lieved, therefore, that big buying of
grain for the British forces was in
progress yesterday.
No further business was reported In
the flour market, but it is said on good
authority that a large quantity has
been sold for later shipment to Eng
land. It is also said the quantity of
oats sold to the British government far
exceeds the first reports.
BERLIN WOMEN ARE SAD
Soldiers Wed and Ieave for Front in
Ten Minutes.
NEW YORK, Oct. 22. Berlin is
city of saddened women. They make
change on the buses and tram cars
in place of the men gone to war. They
keep the shops. They sweep the
streets. Actresses, singers, store man
agers all the higher-paid workers
are living in fair comfort on what they
have saved. Others are buying 10
Dfennla" dinners which the govern
ment provides. Those who have not
the 10 pfennigs, but do have appe
tites, eat what their kind-hearted rich
sisters cook and distribute for them at
stations 'round the city. For the rest
well, there are many too heartsick to
eat. These are the war widows, who
were given 10 minutes at many mob
U.zatlon centers in which to marry
their sweethearts if they chose thus
to Insure their little pension money.
Edith Donnerberg Duneaw, who
would be famed as a beauty if she
were not as a writer, and. falling both,
would deserve honors for being "the
happiest married woman in the world,'
has Just arrived from the stricken city
of Berlin, where she was taking a
university course In philosophy.
"I am feeling too nlghtmare-ish'
yet," she laughed, "to talk intelligent
ly. My mind is one confused jumble
of Impressions women's tears, mutilat
ed soldiers, hungry babies, artillery
rattling on country roads, girls knit
ting stockings as they take kaffee
klatsch In public cafes, women collect-
lag hospital supplies, old mea and
$1.00 Each
69s
Exclusive Patterns Fuths-ned id
WINDOW DISPLAY
tas7 m
rue Quality" Storp op Portland
WIN, 3bct. Xorrtaor. Aider 9tw
children doing strong men's work.
Oh, this war, which Is rending Ger
many and which I believe will go on
until her last soldier fa'Js!"
"Before I escaped from Berlin," said
Madame Cunaew, "I saw sights that
will stay in my heart forever.
"The city is full of girls and women
who force their lips to a patriotism
their souls reject. A mother utters
the words, "My sons died for their
country; I am glad.' But her heart with
ers as she says it.
"In Berlin I worked ' for the Red
Cross. Everybody helped who was able
to hold a needle or make a soup.
"I have seen scores of girls who mar
ried their soldier sweethearts ten min
utes after the first call to war, and
found their names in the list of killed
within a week thereafter.
"That is the way to marry, though.
The woman who falters and questions
and wants time to prepare is not the
woman who truly loves. She who knows
real love knows it instantly and should
trust her heart.
"My husband and I met one evening
In ParisMax Kordau Introduced us
and we were married the next day. Not
for an instant did either of us doubt
or fear. We simply looked, spoke and
knew. Our love can never change.
"But we were talking of Berlin and
Its little war-widows! Something sad
der still is when the soldier-sweetheart-
husband comes back from the battle
field maimed and crushed. Limbs gone,
eyes put out, reason shattered. Oh,
these are the terrible tests!
"I have watched hospital scenes dra
matic enough, tragic enough to build
hundred plays upon. I have seen
girls rush out, bring back a priest and
go through the marriage ceremony
right there, while the poor, shattered
creature on the cot wept, half in pro
test at the sweetheart s sacrifice, half
in grateful Joy.
"And I have seen the other side;
when the girl couldn't accept her cruel
fate: when her spirit crumpled under
the test: when she turned away from
the maimed form, unable to endure
what fate required of her.
"War is woman's aupremest test in
every way. I pray the women of Amer
TSie Strain
of the Movies
1 If the Pictures Hurt Your Eyes,
It's Your Eyes, Not the Pictures.
J Don't wait until eyestrain compels you to look
after your eyes. Give the eyes the aid they demand
before permanent injury develops.
CJ From our 25 years' daily experience as experts
in eye examinations, treating eyestrain and the cor
rect fitting of glasses, we are in a position to advise
as to the very best course to take. .
I You can consult us with confidence. We abso
lutely refuse to supply glasses in any case that does
not need them.
THOMPSON OPTICAL INSTITUTE
209-10:11 Corbett Bldg., Fifth and Morrison
Home of Shur-on Eyeglasses and Kryptok Lenses
Men's
Store
Temporary
Annex
Agents
Hole
Proof ica may never be called upon to endure
such anguish as their sisters in Ger
many are bearing today."
CHILE'S PART IN THE WAR
South American Country Furnishes
the World High Explosives.
Kansas City Star.
A curious fact bearing on the pres
ent European war is that the source
of practically all of the gunpowder and
other explosives used In the military
operations is found to be in one of the
most peaceable countries in the world
Chile, whose wealth of nitrate of
soda furnishes an element of explosive
to every other country in the world.
In times of peace Chile prepares war
for other countries. And more than
that, when the other countries are at
peace, Chile goes on furnishing this
same nitrate for peaceful purpose; the
substance is just as good as a soil fer
tlizer as it is for explosives.
The Chilean government is said to
have a practical 'monopoly on the ni
trate business for the entire world.
For years its mines have produced a
quantity to meet any demand, whether
for ammunition or for crop maker. Ex
tensive lands in the province of Tara
paca, Chile, have never been opened
up to nitrate production, but the prov
ince is known to contain a supply
equal to the fields which have here
tofore supplied the world. These lands
in Tarapaca were sold on August 10 by
the Chilean government at public auc
tion. The nitrate of soda produces nitric
acid by an easy process and the acid
Is necessary to the manufacture of
nitroglycerin, dynamite, smokeless
powder, and so far no efficient, quick
explosive has been found practicable
that does not contain that product.
The revenue derived from export duty
of the nitrate product of Chile would
give $10 annually to each Inhabitant
If divided, and the demand for the
European war is expected to raise it
to almost double that figure.