THE recent theft of the famous Mona Lisa of Leonardo da Vinci from the Louvre, which is such a loss to the artistic world, has brought to light the fact that many other valuable works of art have been stolen from the Louvre and other public museums without any arrests following. One thief is reported as having admitted that he lately stole many small pieces of sculpture from the Phoenician gallery in the Louvre and sold them for trifling sums. He lately returned a statuette to the museum in return for a payment, and the authorities admitted that it was actually one from their collection. Three years ago there were forty sculptured heads in one of the cases; now there are about twenty! There seems to be no hope of regaining the Mona Lisa at present, but, just as the famous Duchess of Devonshire of Gainsborough was restored after many years upon the payment of heavy blackmail, it is possible that the robbers will take some favorable opportunity of realizing a large sum by the return of Leonardo's masterpiece.

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For the first time since the creation of the French Academy at Rome, a woman has been admitted as a student at the Villa Medici. Mlle. Lucienne Heuvelmans, the successful winner of the famous "Prix de Rome" for sculpture, had to compete against nine other contestants, but her remarkable ability compelled the judges to decide in her favor and to establish an entirely new precedent. Her subject was The Sister of Orestes Guarding her Brother's Sleep.

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The Norwegian Academy of Sciences has just recognized the claim of woman to admission to that body for the first time, by admitting Miss Kristine Bonnevin of Christiania, a doctor of philosophy and an eminent zoologist. She is Conservator of the Zoological laboratory of the Christiania University, and has produced several interesting scientific works in Norway, Germany, and the United States.

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A complete revision of the rules of the road is being made in France. Instead of vehicles keeping to the right, as has hitherto been the custom, they will now have to travel on the left side of the road. This will bring France into line with Great Britain and most other European countries, and will be a great advantage for many automobilists and cyclists touring in France, for the difficulty of breaking through the automatic habit of turning to the left when another vehicle approaches is very great to those who have been accustomed to keeping on that side. Americans, who obey the rule of keeping to the right, will however find the new French regulation irksome. It is claimed that the rule of the left is more sensible for many reasons.

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The French people seem very quick to modify old-established customs when something they consider better is offered. They lately adopted Greenwich Observatory (England) as the place of first meridian for time and nautical calculations, as it was shown to be practically advantageous; they did not let an exaggerated patriotism stand in the way, though it may be questioned whether the change would have been made a few years ago, before the entente cordiale between France and England had been established, to which the indefatigable efforts of King Edward VII so largely contributed.

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Everyone who has read Irving's Alhambra and has felt the charm of that delightfully romantic account of the celebrated Moorish palace in Granada, will be glad to hear that the Spanish Government is taking active measures to remove the dÉbris which has collected during the last several centuries and to clear out the watercourses, and otherwise prevent the famous masterpiece of Moorish architecture from falling to ruin. Many interesting antiquities have been discovered and the finds have been removed to the old palace of the Emperor Charles V, which is being turned into a museum. Beautiful arabesque decorations have been discovered in unexpected places, and a hitherto unknown staircase has been laid bare, leading to a large system of underground vaults.

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It is difficult to realize that it is only six years ago since the Wrights made their first flight of eleven miles in a power-driven aeroplane, and now we are reading of attempts to fly across the United States from ocean to ocean, and speeds of over a hundred miles an hour for long distances are continually being made. The days of racing and sensational exhibitions are apparently nearing an end, for a demand is arising for less flimsy aeroplanes which can be used for practical purposes. It will certainly be many years before the art of aviation arrives at perfection, and before it becomes as safe and practicable to travel by air-line as by train or automobile. Nothing but careful and scientific experimenting, free from the sensational element, can bring this about. The days of the big gas-bag type of flying machine, the dirigible, seem to be numbered, for the numerous accidents which have happened to these machines, even when directed with the greatest skill and caution, have greatly disappointed their supporters. A mere puff of wind, which would have presented no terrors to a heavier-than-air machine, destroyed the British naval dirigible lately. Its cost—about $400,000—would have paid for eighty of the best aeroplanes of the heavier-than-air-type.

The lifting power of the air is being utilized in man-carrying kites for war-scouting purposes, and they have proved quite practicable. They have been adopted by the British navy and are now being tried in that of the United States. Large six-sided box-kites are used; the total pull of fifteen of these, carrying a man in a boatswain's chair, is more than two thousand pounds. At the height of four hundred feet observations covering a range of some forty miles can be made.

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The celebrated Boston Symphony Orchestra completed its thirtieth year of existence and uninterrupted success on Oct. 22. At the last Symphony Concert of the Harvard Musical Association in Boston, in March, 1881, a Concert Overture was conducted by the composer, Georg Henschel, whose brilliant performance attracted the attention of Major H. L. Higginson, a music-lover who had for several years been maturing a new scheme of symphony concerts, and who was willing and able to subsidize it out of his own pocket. He was only waiting to find the orchestral conductor in whom he could have sufficient confidence. The Harvard Musical Association, then more than twenty years old, had been gradually declining in popularity, and he saw that there was an opening for a really first-class orchestra in Boston. Large audiences were attracted from the very first, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra has advanced from success to success. Its twenty-four annual performances now fill a very large place in the musical life of Boston, and the orchestra has now a double fame and a double audience, for it gives ten concerts yearly in New York, where it is equally popular. Of the original seventy members four are still playing in the orchestra, which at present numbers one hundred and one.

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It is surprising that there is so much misapprehension in Western lands about the real character of the Turkish people. During the present difficulty with Italy many most exaggerated charges have been made against the Turks, which those who know them best deny with indignation. A writer in The Boston Transcript has just published an article which is unusually fair and which is marked with a due appreciation of the weakness of our frenzied manner of life which we call civilization. A few quotations will be of interest to all who are not prejudiced against the "heathen." Mr. Cobb, the writer, says:

No people in the world are more likeable than the Turks. They are kindly, honest, and generous-hearted.... The English and Americans who live among the Turks like them—come to feel a real affection for them.

To the charge that they are cruel, he assents, but he says that the reason is that they possess to a marked degree the Oriental indifference to physical pain, and that, above all, they are still in the condition we were during the later middle ages.

It is only a few centuries ago that we too held life and suffering in little value.... We burnt men at the stake in order to save their souls.... Even within two or three centuries we could have found in England the prototype of the modern Turk—the cultured English gentleman, the kindly, dignified merchant, who could witness with calmness, torture, execution, burning at the stake.

Already there has been a great refining process in the Near East during the last half century; and within the lifetime of this generation we shall see the East purged of its cruelty and physical roughness.

Speaking of the new movement in Turkey towards a better interpretation of the KorÂn, Mr. Cobb says:

A protestant wave is sweeping over IslÂm; quietly and cautiously a translation of the KorÂn into modern Turkish is being prepared. The grip of the clergy is waning in proportion as the people are becoming educated.

It must be said in justice to IslÂm, that it has never been as fanatical and intolerant of heresy as the Christian Church. There has never been any Inquisition in IslÂm, and persecutions for religious differences have been far rarer than in Christianity. The Turks are the broadest and most tolerant of all Mohammedans.

While both Turkey and Persia are yet mostly in the middle ages as regards education,

In both countries there are a number of leaders who have received a European education and are thoroughly in sympathy with its ideas. Their influence is radiating throughout the country and in the end it must pervade the masses.

Mr. Cobb speaks in a most significant and welcome manner about industrial conditions in Turkey:

In methods of industry and business the medieval form holds sway.... Their hours are long, but their labor dignifies instead of degrading them. Now and then they stop work, light a cigarette and dream. There is a chance for a bit of meditation, a broadening of the vision of life.... Compare all that with the feverish activity of our modern industrial system with its soul-racking machines and unhumanizing servitude to work.... Poor East! Little does it dream, in its silent, meditative happiness, that it will one day have to face the industrial system—the age of machinery and iron. Already this is creeping upon them—already factories are being established, and labor is being chained to the loom....

Let us hope it will profit by the bitter experience of the West, and keep the good things it has. The Turkish craftsman

makes a living—he is happy, he lives near to God.... Will you undertake to show him the possibilities of combination, of fierce competition, of ostentatious wealth? Will you take away his soul and give him a few millions in return? Pray do not! Leave us some distant corner of the earth where we can flee when the shadows of industrialism oppress us; when the soullessness of human faces arouses our despair.... The East is yet a land where one can seek the eternal solitudes of the spirit.... The despotism of the East is over. No more can its rulers consign to death at their whim.... Will the East be able to keep its characteristic of peace?

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The Irish-language demonstration held in Dublin on September 17 was impressive and successful; indeed the citizens appear to celebrate this annual event as a festival day. A considerable number of those taking part wore the ancient national costume. The first part of the procession, consisting of branches of the Gaelic League, occupied half an hour in passing a given point. Then came various schools. Next the National Foresters formed a picturesque element, an innovation being the attire of two branches of the lady Foresters, who appeared in green velvet cloaks and hoods which imparted a very realistic Celtic touch. Numerous labor organizations brought up the rear.

At the subsequent mass meeting Dr. Douglas Hyde, the energetic President of the Gaelic League, presented resolutions dealing with the education question in connexion with the preservation of the Irish language and industrial development. He said the National Board of Education had informed him that the managers of the schools and the parents of the children were colder towards the Irish language than the Board itself. "The priests of Ireland are the managers of the schools," he went on to say, "and if it was true that the priests are colder than the Board it is a sad state of affairs. I do not believe it, but I will leave this question because it does not touch us." He concluded by asking the Gaelic League members to have a welcome for every person who was an Irishman, and to apply no tests except that when members came in they should leave religion and politics outside the door.

One cannot but admire the optimism of Dr. Douglas Hyde, and if the course he outlined be followed many will soon realize that the words unsectarian and non-political, sound a keynote of progress. And the Gaelic League is surely for progress! There is an eastern book called The Arabian Night's Entertainments. It contains the Story of Es-SindibÂd, who had the ill-luck to encounter trying adventures, among which was the task of carrying an Old-Man-of-the-Sea on his back. Perhaps the parents, the National Board, and Dr. Douglas Hyde might think of an Irish version. Meanwhile the children suffer most.

Talking of translations, we wonder whether some Gaelic League member will think of putting Atlantis, by Ignatius Donnelly, into Irish. To be sure, it would give young folk a wider outlook on life, but this might not be an insuperable objection.