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THE HESPERIAN.
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The DoPauw Adz contains a good essay on "Dangerous
Literature." The only objection is that it is clipped from
the Indianapolis Journal. The article deals with the
tendency of novelists to produce immorality by their works.
It is an article which should be read by everyone.
The Washburn Argo prints a directory giving the addrcs
ses of all the students attending that institution. Something
oi this kind would be a sweet boon to the boys who forget
where their company for society lives and trudge up and
down searching in vain for the place on Friday nights.
The Kentucky university Tablet discusses the co-educational
question, at some length in its October number. Al
though co-education has only recently been introduced there
the results are very satisfactory. The general tendency is to
make the boys better, morally and socially.
From the Pharos we learn that at the University of the
Pacific even the preps have gone into the busincsss of wear
ing class hats. With the Preps in many of the colleges or
ganizing it looks as though the dignity of class organization,
which at one time existed, will eventually be wiped out.
The enrollment at Ann Arbor this year is 2,100. While
we arc deploring the fact that the proportionate number of
young ladies in attendance at our University is decreasing, at
Ann Arbor the number is on the increase. The new girls arc
from the giddy class girls who are going to school for ap
pearance sake.
Up to the present the Donne Owl has refused to come
from its perch to make this office a visit. The Owl was once
a good paper and visited us regularly. Since our university
ball club went to Crete and did the Doane club to the tune
of about 25 to 3, however, the Owl has not appeared. Pos
sibly it went down in the rubbish with the Doane ball club.
Up to the present time we have received nearly a hundred
exchanges. Some papers with which we desire to exchange
have not been received, however. The fault may be in mail
ing. We will try to keep our list corrected and have the ad
dresses properly written and hope other exchange men will try
to do likewise. By a little attention many irregularities may
be avoided and more satisfaction had all around.
The Iowa Wesleyan is a neat paper. The matter con
tained is well classified into departments, making it pleasant
reading. The Wesleyan has a great deal to show in regard to
religious matters, as though piety reigned there supreme. In
the ads, however, we notice a large cigarette ad. liut then,
we suppose cigarrcttcs arc not bad. Cigarettes will blight
the religious tendencies in a man's heart quicker than benzine
will kill a cockroach.
The Southern University Monthly contains an essay en
titled, "Whither Arc We Tending?" The article is a review
ol the history oi Christianity and a prophesy of its future.
The writer fancies to himself the day when "every tongue
shall confess the name of Jesus." He argues that the world
is growing better. This will be good reading for those who
believe that the world is becoming worse. It is cheerful to
contemplate that we arc living in an age when men arc able
to enthuse in this manner upon their hobby.
The Dcnison Collegian exchange man takes occasion to
remark upon the lack of courtesy of the manager of this de
partment of Till'. IIicsi'KKiAN in saying anything about the
fraternities. He says wc arc ignorant on the subject. We
do not presume to know as much as some people nboitt these
organizations, but the Collegian man must not think that it is
ignorance which is the reason for the hostility lo fraternities,
In this university the fraternities arc detrimental to the best
iliti...i. nl tl.. cintlnntc cimtia nf i1ini linviiur members from
mit.ii.aiQ ui in. iu. .o,o...w w. .. ...... Q
the worst clement in the University. If the Collegian man
happens to be in a place where lip to the present the fratern
ities have succeeded in keeping out the bad, he is fortunate.
But such is not the case everywhere. The Collegian man is
ignorant. If he is a good, conscientious man, does he not be
come as guilty as the rest in defending fraternities in colleges
when he knows nothing of the kind of men in them? By the
way, what kind of a college is Denison? In the editorial wc
notice that an old gentleman who quit school at Denison
thirty years ago at the end of the Junior year has returned at
the age of sixty-six to graduate with the class of 'po. Deni
son must be a great institution if no advancement is made in
the work done in thirty years.
PKOG11ESS OF INVENTIONS SINCE 1815.
In 1845 the present owners of the Scientific American
newspaper commenced its publication, and soon after establish
ed abureuu for the procunngof patents for inventions at home
and in foreign contnes. During the year 1845 there were only
502 patents issued from the U. S. Patent Office, and the total
issue from the establishment of the Patent Office, up to the end
of that year, numbered only 4,347.
Up to the first of July this year there have been granted
406,413, showing that since the commencement of the pub
lication of the Scientific American.ihcrc have been issued from
the U. S. Patent Office 402,166 patents, and about one third
more applications have been made than have been granted,
showing the ingenuity of our people to be phenomenal, and
much greater than even the enormous number of patents issued
indicates. Probably a good many of our readers have had bus
iness transacted through the offices of the Scientific American
in New York or Washington, and are familiar with Munn &
Co.'s mode of doing business, but those who have not will be
interested in knowing something about this, the oldest patent
soliciting firm in the country, probably in the world.
Persons visiting the offices of the Scientific American, 361
Broadway, N. Y., for the first time, will be surprised, on enter
ing the main office, to find such an extensive and ele
gantly equipped establishment, with its walnut counters,
desks, and chairs to correspond, and its enormous safes, and
such a large number of draughtsmen, specification writers,
and clerks, all busy as bees, reminding one of a large banking
or insurance office, with its hundred employees.
In conversation with one of the firm, who had commenced
the business of soliciting patents in connection with the pub
lication of the Scientific American, more than forty years ago,
I learned that his firm had made application for patents tor
upward of ouc hundred thousand inventors in the United
States, and several thousand in different Ibricgn countries, and
had filed as many cases in the Patent Office in a single month
as there were patents issued during the entire first year of their
business career. This gentleman has seen the Patent Offiice
grow from a sapling to a sturdy oak, and he modestly hinted
that maiiy thought the Scientific American, with its large cir
culation, had performed no mean share in stimulating inven
tions and advancing the interests of the Patent Office. But it
is not alone the patent soliciting that occupies the attention of
the one hundred persons employed by Munn &Co., but a large
number arc engaged on the four publications issued weekly
and monthly from their office, 361 Broadway, N. Y., viz.: The
Scientific American, the Scientific American Supplement, the
Export Edition of the Scientific American, and the Architects
and Builders Edition of the Scientific American.
The first two publications arc issued every week, and the
latter two, the first of every month.
L. W. Noycs of Chicago, the maker of Dictionary Holders,
sends upon receipt of a two cent stamp to pay postage, a scries
of very pretty blotters of most excellent quality. One has a cut
of a little drum-major cupid at the head of two long columns
of Dictionary Holders, and this is his speech: "lama quiet
littlc'drummcr' for the Noycs Holders. It is my mission to
call attention to the fact that these arc the only Holders that
have strong springs to hug the book firmly together, thus keep
ing the dust out of the upturned edges. The possession of
Noyc's Dictionary Holders has made about 125,000 families
happy and accurate in the use of words, Buy a Noycs Diction
ary Holder from your bookseller and see how much more fre
quently you will refer to the dictionary."
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