Smithsonian Institution and National Museum
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THE SMITHSONIAN BUILDING AT WASHINGTON.
NORTH HALL IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM.
edge among men."
Tliis fortune amounted
to between $,j00,(lim mi l
$7."(,ij(in, a large sum
In the perioj lef. re
the war, but the trust
was accepted by con
gress only after an In
termittent ten years'
debate of the ques
tion: Should or should
not the United States
government accept the
unprecedented positlin
of a guardian to a
ward? Fortunately the
answer was affirmative,
and an act of congress-
created an "es
tablishment" consist
ing of high govern
ment officers to ad
minister the Smith
son fund for the
JAMES SMITHSON, ENGLISH FOUNDER
OF AMERICA'S CHIEF SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25. -(Special
Correspondence of The Bee.)
1 Perhaps the most universally in-
1 cresting "free book" ever pub-
and nearly 2io illustrations, has just been
i.-'HUfd by the national government for gen
ual distribution to the American people
through their congressmen. "The People's
Own Book," iudeed, would be a truer title
than the ne it bears "Annual Report of
the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian
Institution" but although the name is not
exactly eloquent with promise, yet the
same volume in the hands of a corps of
energetic book agents would probably find
its way into the libraries of a goodly pro
portion of American homes.
The new report always an event in
Washington scientific circles marks the
beginning of a new century for the Smith
sonian institution and is the latest and
most comprehensive expression of its two
fold purpose of increasing learning and
diffusing knowledge among men. The first
purpose applies to readers already inter
ested in technically scientific matters; the
second is distinctly popular, appealing di
rectly to the far larger class whose iuteresi
is general rather than technical. Science
In these days is a large field, and aldc
from the reports of the various great de
partments that have grown up under the
protection of the Smithsonian, the volume
is practically a library of modern progress
during the last year, ranging from popular
maga.ine articles on automobiles and auto
mobile racing, the aerial experiments of
Santt s-Dumont. or the epoch-making dls-
V' overy of wireless telegraphy, to expert
analysis of fitch technical subjects as re
cent investigations into gravitation or the
discussion of bodies smaller than atoms.
But what Is the Smithsonian? The name
is familiar enough, but perhaps for that
very reason the meaning and purposes of
an institution established by the United
States government ami therefore ene in
which every citizen has, or ought to have,
a personal interest, are rather hazy in the
minds of a good many among its millions
of proprietors. And this despite the fact
that it has made Washington the center
of a scientific correspondence that covers
the whole civilized world, and that the
Nati' nal Museum at Washington, supported
by the government but managed by the
Smithsonian, is yearly visited by over 250,
UOfl sightseers.
In ls:'!i, James Smithson, an Englishman,
died in Getica, leaving his entire estate
10 the United States of America, "to found
at Washington, under the name of the
Smithsonian institute, an establishment
for the increase and diffusion of kuowl-
benefit of science the
world over. The pos
sible activities of the
Institution are there
fore limitless. Its
board of "regents." as
they are called, form
perhaps the best con
necting link in the
world between capital
seeking a wise avenue
of benevolence and
science handicapped by
lack of money to
carry on its thousand
and one special In
vestigation. Even
where the institution
cannot directly over
see scientific expendi
ture, Its authoritative
position is in it self a
guaranty of wise sug
gestions and advice,
whether to the donor
or to the scientist
himself. "The rela
tions of the general
government to the
Smithsonian," to quote
apropos of this point,
from ita latest volume,
"are most extraordi
nary, one may even
say unique, since the
United States sol
emly bound itself to
the administration of
a trust. Trobably
never before has any
ward found so power
ful a guardian." The
"trust" Is obviously
of a different kind
from others with which
public is more familiar.
First of all, therefore, the Smithsonian
exists to increase IcarniiiR and diffuse
knowledge. One of theeo two abstract
propositions has taken concrete form In
financial assistance to scientific investigat
ors. The second has been attained by a
general diffusion of scientific literature,
both technical and popular, on so stupend
ous a scale that, were the packing boxes
used in Bending "exchanges" of pub'lca
tions Its own and those of nih t scien
tific organizations from the United Slates
to foreign countries during a single year
piled up one on top of another, they would
make a column that would now tower five
times as high as the Washington monu
ment. But the Smithsonian has naturally be
come associated with other work of a more
stric tly national character, provided by na
tional appropriations and entrusted by the
government to its ward as the body best
situated to carry it to a successful conclu-
J, S ' ' - r '
LARGEST AND SMALLEST BIRDS OF PREY THE
TINY HAWK COMPARED FOR THE CHILDREN.
the American
sion. In this way it has become Identified
with the important task of studying tha
aborigines of nur own continent, through
the Buteau of Ethnology, and with the man
agement of the great astrophyslcal observa
tory, the National museum and the Na
tional Zoological garden at Washington.
Ri ports are rot ordinarily very exciting
reading, yet it is hardly necessary to say
that all these interests brought together
in a single volume make an exceptional
publication the morn so ai a period when
scientific progress, taking such practical
form as improved means of transportation,
lighting and communication, is a matter to
appeal to the curiosity of everybody. For
that matter the Smithsonian report is
really only about one-sixth "report;" the
remaining five-sixths are a general appen
dix of misce llaneous papers, the authors of
which include such men as Marconi, Four
nler, the famous French aulomoblllst; Hear
Admiral Melville of the United States navy;
Albert Blgelow Paine end Sir William J.
Herschrll. Altogether this appendix con
tains some fifty arti
cles, many of them
f 1 (1111 popular as well
as scientific magazines
and periodicals, pearly
all profusedy Illus
trated with pictures,
ranging from a com
parison of the largest
and smallest eggs to
the final scene in 11
great French nut 01110
bile rnce. The aver
age reader has seen
"profusedy Bluest rated"
volumes in which tie'
illustrations consisted
of a frontispiece and a
decorated capital, but
in this case the ex
pression embraces no
less than 17!l Illustra
tions, some of them
beautiful examples of
the modern art of
color printing. Knowl
edge, that is to say,
is takeMi in its broad
est sense, and modern
Intelligence, as repre
sented by the ordinar
ily well Informed In
dividual, is credited
with an interest suffi
ciently diversified to
Include not only the
latest development of
the submarine boat,
but also the peoples
that once inhabited
our continent, the pos
sible Improvement of
the human race under
existing conditions, the
result of a century's
study of meteorites
or an essay on the Im
portance of the sea in
the life of nations.
One of the more peip
ular articles, for ex
ample, is a study of
the National zoo by
Ernest Thompson Se
ton, which is reprinted
from a leading maga
zine, accompanied by
all the original Illus
trations from the brush
and pencil of this fa
mous portrayer of ani
mals. Hero one may read
about the newest dis
coveries in astronomy;
the explorations of the
atmosphere by means
of kite, one of the most interesting recent
scientific experiments; the latest investiga
tions lu'o the X-ray; wireless telegraphy;
transatlantic telephoning; the 1 11 veil t ion of
the te lephonograph, an application of the
tedephone that Is already dedlvering the
daily news to the numerous subscribers in
some European cities; color photography;
the history and mechanics of motion pic
tures; American "emigrant" diamonds dia
monds found where the mineralogist
wouldn't expect them, that Is; forest de
struction and Irrigation; the traps used by
the American Indian; fire-walking In Tahiti;
the dinosaurs, or "terrible lizards," once na
tive to this continent; or the latest adven
ture's of the submarine boat. In a word, the
whole world is drawn upon for material
that shall interest and Instruct.
One of the most dedlghtful articles In
the volume is about the "Children's Room,"
where Dr. S. P. Iangley, the secretary
and executive of the Smithsonian, h'ts de
voted a part of the space at his command
to the sole pleasure of the small fry who
' ' ' ' ' ' ''v ' " .:j
.i-
HARPY EAGLE AND A
SAMUEL PIERPONT LANOLKY. SECRE
TARY SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
are still a long way from the ballot box.
Here the Institution, forgetting for a
moment the serious business of corre
sponding with learned societies in Europe,
Asia, and Africa, to say nothing of the
either continents, sets Itself to the task of
amusing and interesting the very youngest
minds in the A B C'a of science. "The
cases are arranged," says the author, Dr.
Albert Blgelow Paine, in an account that
originally appeared in St. Nicholas, but
now adapted, with exquisitely colored pic
ture's, to the uses of the Smithsonian re
portJust "as a child would wish them, and
he will begin, perhaps, with those on the
left as ho enters the cases of the birds.
At the first of these he will linger. Within
are the 'Largest and smallest birds of
prey.' He will look at the great condor
of the Andes, and the bald eagle, and then
at the tiny sparrow hawk; and he will
wonder why these are so big and that so
little, and If the bald eagle could whip
tho condor in a fair fight. He thinks It
likely, because the condor has blunt claws
so blunt, tho card says, that he cannot
carry oft the big animals ho sometimes
kills. The condor Is bigger than tho bald
eagle, but he is not so good looking, and
the child does not like him. Ho likes much
better the largest owl, the great eaglo owl,
who lives in the vast, trackless woods of
northern Europe and Asia a monarch of
the far, dim silliness; and if the child Is
little, she adores tho smallest of his
race, the tiny elf owl, who might well be a
real sprite to dart from tho leafy, dewy
tangle of evening.
"The small observer passes on. 'Some
Curious Birds' come next, and he must
see them, even If he has to come back to
the bald eagle and the condor, and the
different-sized owls, by and by. He won
ders and laughs, too, at tho curious birds.
Truly they are a funny lot. Some of them
have fans that fold. Others have veils,
aprons, crowns, lappets, armor, and what
not? Tho toucan has such an absurd big
bill. The black skimmer's flat bill is set
the wrong way. A queer paradise bird hai
one tall where It should be, besides two
very long tails that are half saw and half
feather, and that start from behind his
enrs. Then there Is a row of little bat
pierrakeets that sleep with their heads
hanging down. The child wonders why the
blood doesn't run to their heads, and how
the umbrella bird can see through the
thick tangle of his head covering. Almost
all the curious birds have funny attach
ments, something they don't seem to need
all except the poor apteryx from Austra
lia, who has much less than he should
have, because he Is left over from some
(Continued on Seventh Page.)
