Only 28,114 immigrants arrived in New York during August this year, as compared with 104,727 for the same month last year. The first five days of September established a low record in the number of immigrants that passed through Ellis Island.

Francis Grierson, the English musician and author, writes of the French composer Auber in the "Century " for October that "if I were asked to name the most typical Frenchman I ever met, I should not hesitate to name Auber." The composer at the time spoken of was eightyfive, and among his idiosyncrasies was his pref erence for servants of equally advanced years. He had five domestics, "the youngest, whom he called the baby, being the coachman, who was seventy-five."

Two snake-infested countries, India and Brazil, maintain "snake farms" at which a scientific study of serpents is being pursued. The venom from the poisonous ones is extracted and made into a serum for curing persons who have been bitten. The Brazilian institution, situated near Sao Paulo, is maintained at an expense of $40,000 a year. Besides preparing serums, the "snake farm " tries to spread knowledge about snakes and induce farmers not to kill them indiscriminately.

The change from the old-fashioned "chemist's shop," with its suggestion of alchemy and the Middle Ages, to the modern "drug store," with its suggestion of the department store where everything is sold, is neatly hit off by "Life:" "First Metropolitan Drug-Store Proprietor: 'I see there is going to be a great scarcity of drugs.' Second Ditto: 'Fortunately that doesn't affect us, as we stopped carrying them long ago.""

What is described as one of the finest high schools in America has just been opened in New York City for Roman Catholic students. It has cost $500,000 and will care for 1,500 pupils who will come to it from the parochial schools of the city. The school has been built through the activities of the Jesuit Fathers.

Within the last two months, "Rider and Driver" estimates, the apparent wealth of the country has been increased about $1,000,000,000 through the advance in the value of horses and mules. Horses increased in value about $40 a head, and mules rose relatively to even a higher level.

Always the alert housekeeper is discovering something new. In these days she prints it for the benefit of her sisters. A contributor to "To-Day's" says that a milk or cream pitcher can be prevented from dripping at its "lip "after pouring, thus avoiding the soiling of a tablecloth, by the simple device of rubbing a bit of butter across the inside of the pitcher's lip. Another

says that roses and orange blossoms will retain their fragrance and freshness a long time if the flower's stem is inserted in a hole bored in a very small potato. A third declares that the smell of medicine can be easily removed from a glass or spoon by wiping the article with dry paper before thoroughly washing it with hot water.

In The Outlook of September 16 we commented upon the fact that Mr. Isaac Fisher, of Vicksburg, Mississippi, had won the first prize of $500 offered by "Everybody's Magazine" for the best article on the liquor evil. A correspondent informs us that Mr. Fisher is a young colored man who worked his way through Tuskegee Institute, of which Dr. Booker T. Washington is the principal, graduating at the head of his class. Mr. Fisher is now the editor of the "Negro Farmer " published at Tuskegee.

New York City's subway carried a daily average of 1,001,215 passengers during the last fiscal year-an increase of more than 38,000 over the average of the previous year. The busiest station was Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, where 22,557,773 passengers boarded the trains during the year.

Oliver Morosco, a successful young Western producer of plays, says in the "Dramatic Mirror" concerning one of his most successful productions," Peg o' My Heart," that "any actress with mentality and youth can play 'Peg o' My Heart.' That has been proved with six' Pegs.' Mr. Morosco, it is stated, has six authors in the West who are now at work on dramatic material that he has given them. It is gratifying to learn that he doesn't like the " coarser things like rough-and-tumble farce. The production of real comedies is what I like best."

The extraordinary popularity of the Diesel engine is evidenced by the fact that, according to "Shipping Illustrated," there are now at least eight entirely different types of these engines used in various parts of the world. The result, according to the same authority, will probably be the elimination of several of these and the production of a marine oil engine that will be in every way satisfactory.

In the paragraph in The Outlook of September 16 on the Yale School of Religion, on page 118, a typographical error caused the Yale School of Religion and Christian Service to be called "the Yale School of Religion and Christian Science." It is unfortunate that a special connotation of the term in this connection has robbed the word "science" of its ordinary signification; a school devoted to real Christian science might well be associated with religion. Proof-readers and copy-holders of other publications please take notice and be warned lest they fall into similar errors.

A

NOTHER week has passed-September 30 to October 7-without any decisive results in the Battle of Northern France; the fighting has extended over too great an area to be longer called after any one river..

No important alterations in the battle line have been reported from the Allies' right or center. Conflicts, which are said to be of decreasing vigor, are still in progress on the line from the Vosges north to the neighborhood of Verdun and westward from Verdun through Rheims to Noyon. The Allies' left has not been able to envelop von Kluck's army. There have been pendulum swings back and forth; some districts have been fought over four or five times.

The two outstanding facts of the week are: first, and most important, seven more days have passed without any notable victory for the Germans; second, the Allies' left wing has gradually pushed north until its influence has been felt in Belgium and may soon reduce the pressure on Antwerp.

ANTWERP

What is happening about Antwerp is very obscure. It hardly seems credible that the Germans would, at this juncture, undertake the extra work of an unnecessary siege. But the "official" reports of the Belgian and German General Staffs, which contradict each other on every other point, agree that the outer ring of the Antwerp forts is being heavily shelled. And the British censor allows a despatch to pass which indicates that the bombardment of the city itself is imminent.

The Belgian army of approximately a quarter of a million men has been a thorn in the flesh to the Germans from the beginning, and has of late been an ever-present menace to their lines of communication. And it requires at least as

large a German army to hold them in check. If things were going smoothly for the Germans elsewhere, nothing would be more natural than for them to attempt the capture of Antwerp. Aside from the value of the city itself, the main Belgian force is practically cornered there. Driven from this stronghold, they would either have to cross the frontier into Holland and be disarmed, or attempt to retreat towards Ostend through a very narrow gap, which has probably already been occupied by the Germans. Antwerp is a river port, not a seaport, and the Scheldt runs through Holland. The city can be provisioned by water through this neutral territory; but it cannot be reinforced.

The destruction of the Belgian army would free the two or three hundred thousand Germans now facing them for work against the French and English. But while this number is enough to keep the Belgians bottled up in Antwerp, it would be an almost incredible feat of arms to capture the city without heavy reinforcements. And all the reports-even those from Berlin-indicate that the Germans need every man they can find elsewhere.

I am inclined to think that their attack on Antwerp has not been serious. They have a large number of their famous 11-inch field mortars, with which they demolished the forts of Liège and Namur, ready for the siege of Paris. And I imagine that to keep them from idleness they are now being used to smash up the defenses of Antwerp. But I will be surprised if they develop a serious infantry attack. And not even these deadly Krupp siege guns can take a city by themselves.

The light Belgian dog-drawn machine guns have already proved their efficiency, and it is reported that they have been reinforced by heavy English artillery. The Belgian infantry have been seasoned by two months'

campaigning, and very likely they also have been reinforced. Smashing up the outer ring of its Antwerp forts will not materially reduce the fighting power of this little army.

If the Germans could spare half a million men for a week or two, they could probably take the city, smother the Belgian army, and be free for service elsewhere. But this half million men seems to be more needed at this moment in other places. It might turn the balance of chance on the Aisne or in Poland. I can think of only two contingencies which would justify the Germans in detaching a large force from the principal campaigns for this side issue.

Some weeks ago I referred to the rumor that Russian troops had been landed at Ostend. Certainly-now as then-the Allies, if they could conjure up a new army, could find no more desirable place for it. We have had ominously little news from Ostend. It is possible that in the two months of the war the small force of English marines who landed there may have been reinforced to threatening proportions. If the German air scouts have brought back reports of serious danger there, the German position is indeed desperate. This new peril would be twice as formidable with the Belgian army still intact in Antwerp. But with the city in German hands the danger from Ostend would be greatly lessened. The German General Staff would be justified in taking great risks elsewhere to meet such a situation.

It is also possible that the Germans are less seriously pressed along the battle line in France than the French and English reports lead us to believe. In that case they might be able to spare the necessary infantry to co-operate with their heavy artillery before Antwerp.

If we hear in the next week that the Germans are seriously pushing this siege, it will mean either that relief for the Belgians is approaching from France or Ostend or that the German military situation is much more favorable than the recent despatches indicate. It will be a great surprise if the Germans take Antwerp.

THE EASTERN CAMPAIGN

Russia has now had two months to complete her mobilization, which she began, at least in part, before the declaration of war. Her forces ought now to be close to their maximum. It is probably very much less than the 6,000,000 claimed. Of course,

Russia has an almost limitless supply of men, but it is extremely improbable that she has modern equipment for so large a number. She could maintain her army at the maximum for several years in spite of heavy daily losses, while the effectives of the French and German armies are decreasing more rapidly than recruits can be found.

According to the "Statesman's Year Book," France spent on her army in the fiscal year 1913-14 about $287,298,300. France expects to equip and put into the field around 3,000,000 men; the estimates vary from two millions to four; roughly, one man per hundred dollars.

The Russian military budget for the same period was between $375,000,000 and $400,000,000. But a very large part of this appropriation was absorbed by the army reorganization, which meant the "scrapping" of much old material and the buying of a larger quantity of equipment per man than the French. Once the "reorganization was completed, she could put as many men in the field for each hundred dollars spent as France, but she certainly cannot do so to-day. I doubt very much whether she can-in spite of her larger population and greater expenditures-put more men fully equipped in the field than France.

And Russia cannot utilize all her force on her western frontier. Large parts of Siberia, Mongolia, and the Transcaspian require military guards. She is not loved enough in Persia to dare to withdraw her troops from there. And she is probably holding large forces in the Caucasus near the Turkish frontier.

If to-day, after two months to prepare for action, she has two million men in the field against Austria and Germany, she is doing very well. Under the most favorable circumstances, I do not see how she could muster three million for this campaign.

The Russian General Staff, and their friends the French and English, with whom they discussed their plans, of course knew their resources. Within a week after the declaration of war they could gather a million men in the concentration camps within a hundred miles of the frontier. This does not mean that they could throw anything like this number at any one point, but the men would be under arms, ready for a campaign, some of them much nearer the border. Within two months they could double the number.

Servia and Montenegro could put a quarter of a million men in the field and could be counted on to keep that number of Austrians busy. Austria was expected to send substantial assistance to Germany for the French campaign. But uncertainty over Italy's attitude reduced her help to two, or at most three, army corps. In the first stages of the war Austria could not have put more than half a million men in Galicia. The military expert of the "Scientific American" estimates six army corps of 34,000 each-less than a quarter of a million.

These were the rough outlines of the strategic problem which faced Russia. At the outbreak of the war she would have more men near her frontier than the enemy. But the enemy's means of communication were much better. They could dispose their men to better effect.

And, as their mobilization was

much more rapid, within two weeks the numerical superiority would be theirs, to swing back with time to the Russians. And unless the Germans could quickly smash the French and bring their western army to the east, the Russians would permanently and largely outnumber their enemies.

The goal of Russian strategy must be Berlin-the heart of Germany. There were three roads: (a) the northern route through East Prussia; (b) the central route through Poland; and (c) the southern route through Galicia.

There

The East Prussian route is long. are few roads, and cross-country movement is almost impossible because of the lakes and marshes. And the way is blocked by the Vistula River, which is heavily fortified. It is the least attractive route of the three.

Poland has few of the disadvantages of the East Prussia route and many advantages. The railways converging on Warsaw are good. Brest-Litowsk, the great concentration camp, while it is too far from the frontier to be used as the base for a sudden attack, is, on account of this distance from danger, an ideal place for assembling and co-ordinating a large army. The vital spots in Germany are not far from the Polish border. But the route has the grave disadvantage of being exposed on each flank. The network of strategic railways in Prussia would allow large forces to be concentrated on the north of any army advancing from Warsaw, and the Austrians would be to the south.

The Galician route was much longer than the Polish, but it had manifest advantages.

Much of the population was Slavic and might rise in welcome to the Russians. It was territory which the Czars had coveted for centuries. Troops from the populous southern districts of Russia could be concentrated there more rapidly than farther north. A blow at Austria would relieve the pressure on Servia and would do much to increase the prestige of Russia throughout the Balkans. It was also generally recognized that the Austrian army was less formidable than the . German. It was good policy to strike at the weakest spot. And, in case of success, the forces in Galicia could easily be merged with the main advance through Poland.

All this was obvious. The snapper in the Russian plan was the raid into East Prussia. It was eminently successful. Even if the Russians do not reconquer the territory which for a few days they occupied and from which they were driven, they have accomplished their purpose in this campaign. German attention was called to the north. offensive movement into Poland must have been weakened to resist this attack, and Austria was left alone to meet an overwhelming Russian army single-handed. The Germans rushed their reserves-and there are continual reports that they even withdrew first-line troops from France-to East Prussia. I doubt if there were more than one hundred thousand Russians in this raid. They were driven back to the Niemen River, where they held the Germans till reinforcements once more gave them numerical superiority. They report a hard battle and another "great victory" at Augustow. The future operations in this northern theater will probably be less important than those of the last two months. General Rennenkampff, the Russian commander, will have it for his duty to protect the northern (right) flank of the Army of Poland-i. e., to keep the German forces in East Prussia too busy to trouble it. Of course, if he can reoccupy East Prussia, and reduce Königsberg and the Vistula fortresses, it will be advantageous for the Russians, but it can hardly have more than secondary importance.

The moment war was declared both Austria and Germany invaded Russian Poland. Of the German advance we have very scant details. It was probably much weakened by the diversion of troops to East Prussia. One Berlin despatch announced the occupation of Lodz. And recent reports indicate fighting even nearer to Warsaw. The Russians ap