reasonably protected from injury by accident through some form of compulsory insurance.

Business on the

Traffic movements on the Great Lakes during November, 1907, as measured by the volume of shipments from the various lake Great Lakes ports, totaled 8,970,748 net tons, compared with 8,594,533 net tons shipped during November, 1906, and 7,402,414 net tons shipped during November, 1905. The only item showing a large increase over the corresponding 1906 figures is coal, all other large classes of merchandise showing but slight increases or even decreases. This is particularly true of lumber, the shipments of which were thirty-three per cent below those reported for November, 1906. Domestic iron ore shipments for the month, mainly from Lake Superior and Michigan ports, 4,042,237 gross tons, show hut slight variations from the quantity reported for November, 1906. Like shipments for the eleven

allege any threat to injure property, and second, because it does not allege that the threat was to do an unlawful injury. The decision has the effect of invalidating the other four indictments charging Schmitz as well as Ruef with extortion and renders void the plea of guilty made by Ruef. There are still a large number of other indictments standing against both men, however, so that in order to gain their freedom, heavy bail would have to be found. Almost immediately upon the announcement of the court decision, Superior Judge Dunne, before whom Schmitz was convicted, made a statement criticiz

one symptom of this feeling. Current discussions in newspapers and magazines exhibit the same conception. But such a point of view would make our universities simply purveyors of amusement to the public. What the reformers want is not perfect football, but a reasonable adjustment of athletics to the main purposes of an educational institution. They are perfectly willing that the teams representing

Sex Drama

their institutions should not be too perfect football players. Between these too points of view there may be compromise, but more probably there will be a fight to the finish. In the East the public-amusement idea seems winning. In the West, notwithstanding the regrettable defection of Michigan from the Conference, it begins to look as if the educational mission of universities was winning. Speed the day!

The height of the season has brought a little procession of old and new problem plays dealing deviously with the question of sex. Viola Allen has imported Anthony P. Wharton's Wharton's English-made "Irene Wycherley," and is appearing for the first time in several seasons in an emotional rôle in a modern setting. The play deals daringly with a question of sex wholly tabooed in refined society. Even the press has been chary in printing outlines of the plot. Yet its financial success has been marvelous. It would seem that a reform of the stage should begin with a cleansing and uplifting of the taste of the public. "The Comet" is another malodorous comedy by Owen Johnson, dealing with

the life of an actress, which though acted with skill and courage by Alla Nazimova, has been called a bad breath in a bundle of soiled lace. Mrs. Fiske's revival of Ibsen's "Rosmersholm' has at least the merit of sincere attachment to the highest art in dramatic technic. Her performance of the leading rôle has been generally regarded as a creation of great reserve power and beauty. Mrs. Patrick Campbell completes a quartette of stars appearing auspiciously in sex drama. reappearances in "The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith," "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray" and "Magda" have been something of a triumph for this singularly gifted English woman, with her force of nerves and her voice of gold.

Her

MRS. PATRICK CAMPBELL An English star who is playing in the sex drama, The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith"

Historical

Romantic costume comedy-drama has two admirable examples newly exploited during the month by Julia Marlowe and Olga NetherPlays sole. In "Gloria," a brisk, daching comedy of Italian manners in the sixteenth century, by James B. Fogan, Miss Marlowe has a rôle well-suited to her brilliant, exuberant comedy method. "Gloria" is palpably a composite imitation of Shakespeare's "Beatrice" and "Kate," yet it is another pleasing character to be added, no doubt permanently, to Miss Marlowe's repertoire. Olga Nethersole recently produced a comedy-drama by Charles H. E. Brookfield called "I Pagliacci," by special arrangement with the owners of Leoncavallo's opera. The English author has had recourse for the source of his inspiration to a French drama of the seventeenth century. The play, a powerful and tragic one, has proven an undoubted success and is destined to become a permanent acquisition to the metropolitan stage.

Comedies of American

The dearth of good comedy at the present hour has made "The Man From Home," by Booth Tarkington and Leon Wilson, Life loom up like something akin to a brilliant achievement. Its clean little plot, filled with a universal tenderness and sympathy, its chivalry, its cosmopolitanism, its apt, well-turned lines have made it a well-deserved success. William T. Hodge has created in the titlerole a heart-warming American character, simple and homely, but welded in iron and gold. In "The Land of Dollars," by George Ade, Ezra Kendall has succeeded in finding an adequate vehicle. This is a play which once failed, but has been rewritten and revived with some measure of success. Mabel Taliaferro, known for years as one of the most charming and promising child-actresses on our stage, has now at twenty reached the dignity of a full-fledged star in Margaret Mayo's "Polly of the Circus." While the plot is conventional, the novel atmosphere of the circus invites attention and it may be justly designated as a representative comedy of one phase of American life.

"Living Portraits"

Three novel entertainments for charity have recently been held in Orchestra Hall, in Chicago. The first, a pageant vivant, netted $22,000 for the Destitute Children's Convalescent Home. A committee of well-known society leaders planned and carried into execution this unique form of entertainment, which consisted of exact reproductions of famous portraits by English and French masters, posed by society women. The backgrounds of the tableaux were painted by Frederick Clay Bartlett, and the poses and details of costume were admirably arranged by Ralph Clarkson. The second entertainment was for the benefit of the Chicago Hebrew Institute. Famous pictures by a group of pre-Raphaelite and modern French and English painters were posed in exact copy by men and women under the direction of Charles Francis Browne and Abbie Birdsall Phillips. A number of massive paintings were chosen, difficult of reproduction in pose and costume. A musical program was given by a group of artists from the Italian Grand