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The Last War in the World. A Story of the Future. . H. G. WELLS

By the author of "Tono Bungay," etc.....

The Heart of India......

By the author of "The Relentless City," etc..
Picture from photograph.

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...566

.E. F. BENSON .....581

.CHARLES HANSON TOWNE .....587 ROSE STRUNSKY ......588

From photographs by..... .H. RAVELL
.Facing page 592

W. MORGAN SHUSTER

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A Philharmonic Concert, Ultra-Modern (SIMEON STRUNSKY. Drawing by LUIS MORA)-A Modern Valentine (E. L. MCKINNEY. Pictures by HARRY RALEIGH) -Carriages at 10:45 (GEORGE JEAN NATHAN)-Growing Old Disgracefully (LOUIS UNTERMEYER. Pictures by THELMA CUDLIPP)-Deliquescent Socialism (THE SENIOR WRANGLER)-An Abject Apology to Colonel Watterson-Drawings by

HELD.

In the United States and Canada the price of THE CENTURY MAGAZINE is $4.00 a year in advance, or 35 cents a single copy; the subscription price elsewhere throughout the world is $5.00 (the regular price of $4.00 plus the foreign postage, $1.00). Foreign subscriptions will be received in English money at one pound, in French money 25 francs, in German money 20 marks, covering postage. We request that remittances be by money order, bank check, draft, or registered letter. All subscriptions will be filled from the New York office. The Century Co. reserves the right to suspend any subscription taken contrary to its selling terms, and to refund the unexpired credit. All subscriptions for and all business matters in connection with THE CENTURY should be addressed to THE CENTURY CO., Union Square, New York, N. Y.

WILLIAM W. ELLSWORTH
IRA H. BRAINERD
GEORGE INNESS, JR.

Board of Trustees

WILLIAM W. ELLSWORTH, President
IRA H. BRAINERD, Vice-President
DOUGLAS Z. DOTY, Secretary
RODMAN GILDER, Treasurer

GEORGE L. WHFELOCK. 4ss't Treasurer

TH

THE CENTURION

HE Centurion cannot refrain from reprinting a tribute to the "new spirit of THE CENTURY," paid by one of the most acute journalists of his day, William Allen White, of the "Emporia Gazette":

"If you have fifty cents to spend for Sunday dinner, spend fifteen cents for hamburger steak, and thirty-five cents for the November issue of THE CENTURY MAGAZINE, and you 'll have a great Sunday. For that number marks the high-water mark of magazines in America. It is a great magazine-great in its conception, great in its execution. It is the fruitage of a long season of blossoming. It is a forward-thinking magazine; it has gathered and garnered and translated into the highest use all that was good in the cheap magazines of the past decade, and held and improved all that the older magazines held. It is the ripened fruit of all that has been thought and longed for among the best thinkers in American letters for a generation. It is, indeed, the substance of things hoped for; a propagandist of progress that is not sensational; a guide that shows only the established routes-but always the shortest and best; a beacon that is clear without flaring. This magazine is the product of a scholar who lives with men and aspires with the high gods."

H. G. Wells, whose romantic imagination soars in this issue, concludes his prophetic trilogy in the March CENTURY. "The World Set Free" is the title of the story with which he rounds out this notable group.

Following Lawrence Perry's sympathetic story "Mother" in this issue of THE CENTURY, comes "Catching It," a lighter comedy by Amy W. Stone, in the March number. The small heroine of this tale is not only a comedian but a poet, as is shown by some of her occasional verses, which include the following, composed a short time after she had "caught it":

"My arms have a thousand specks,

My ear but one;

Another story in the March CENTURY is called "What Happened Afterward," a blend of humor and romance with a new turn to it. That this story does not cling too rigidly to facts is indicated by its scene, which is a farm on the top of a sky-scraper.

The reverberations from Professor Edward A. Ross's notable papers, now running in THE CENTURY, on immigration, which are heard throughout the country and are especially noticeable in and about the national Capitol, lend special interest to "The Origins of the American People," by Professor Ross, in the March CENTURY.

Professor Ross quotes Dr. Samuel Johnson's genial remark about Americans: “A race of convicts," who "ought to be content with anything we allow them short of hanging." Professor Ross goes on to say: "It is estimated that between 1750 and 1770, twenty thousand British convicts were exported to Maryland! alone, so that even the schoolmasters there were mostly of this stripe. The colonies bitterly resented such cargoes, but their self-protective measures were regularly disallowed by the home government. American scholars are coming to accept the British estimate that about 50,000 convicts were marketed on this side.

"It is astonishing how quickly this 'yellow streak' in the population faded. No doubt the worst felons were promptly hanged, so that those transported were such as excited the compassion of the court in an age that, recognized nearly three hundred capital of fenses. Then, too, the bulk were probably the unfortunate, or the victims of bad surroundings, rather than born malefactors. Under the regenerative stimulus of opportunity, many persons reformed and became good citizens."

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The number of pages in THE CENTURY MAGAZINE is so great that a rich variety contents is possible. Nor is it necessary t confine the different kinds of contributions. literary and artistic, to unsatisfactorily smal portions. Of late there has frequently been room in THE CENTURY for a long poem The March number contains an eloquent po (Continued on page 6)

But I'll have some more, you bet,

With the rising sun."

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etic work by Robert Haven Schauffler, called "The Crucible," from which the following lines are taken:

"Great-heart Kentucky, whose common crust Holds for my children such splendors in trust,

Ere your sun be set shall you beget
Some child of as deep-hearted likeness to you
As ever the land of Jeanne d'Arc knew?
Or, in caverns of sleep more wild and deep
Than the path of a meteor's earthward leap,
Shall you rouse from his inter-vital rest
Some Barbarossa of the West?
Aye, Kentucky! And this were best,
That you fare but forward as you began
When you rocked on your gaunt and hollow
breast

The deepest-hearted American."

The present agitation in favor of prison reform lends special interest to Richard Barry's article in the March CENTURY, "The Next Step in Prison Reform."

"What About Russia?" is the title of a wellinformed paper by James Davenport Whelpley, author of "The Trade of the World."

There is a special appeal to all lovers of the theater in William Winter's writings. He is at his best in an article on "Twelfth Night," which is part of his series "Shakspere on the Stage."

Reginald de Koven, another authoritative writer, has an article on "Opera in English."

While the Editor was out buying Christmas presents, the Centurion slipped into his office and abstracted the following "bouquets" from his desk. The first is from an editor who writes from Iowa:

"I have just opened my current CENTURY -it is simply magnificent! I can fancy the joy of your work, in being able to give the world of living men and women such a work of pure art-that 's what it is-art in a great and beautiful sense. Its influence must be wonderful-wherever THE CENTURY is read or even seen.”

A regular subscriber in Nebraska writes: "I have been receiving THE CENTURY through my newsdealer for a good many years, and the 'new spirit of THE CENTURY' is certainly evident in the last few copies of the magazine. Your periodical ranks supreme."

A professor of political economy in a Western State writes of the November CENTURY: "One could hardly let an issue of such splendid import come to one's desk without making some comment upon it. It is seldom that a periodical is so uniformly excellent as was that issue. From my point of view the verification will be the uses which I made of that issue in my several classes of the university, which required the purchase of additional copies of THE CENTURY. The one on 'College Life,' 'The Old World in the New,' 'The Battle with the Slum,' and 'The Militant Women-and Women,' are all articles which I have assigned to different classes for reviews and reports because they were live, up-to-date, vital subjects handled in a masterly way. I thank you for such publication.”

Another educator, in the South, says:

"I have never written a note of commendation except at request or out of appreciation of personal friends. I am constrained to break my precedent after reading Mr. Churchill's quest for a new religion. It strikes a note in religious thought that has not been equaled in many days. I wish I had a few bound copies (book form) to distribute to a few friends. If you should publish it separately, place me among the first subscribers."

The Centurion was laboriously copying out the above, when the Advertising Manager appeared at his elbow with a letter from an advertising expert of the Middle West, which contained the following paragraph:

"I am glad you asked me how I like the new editorial management of THE CENTURY. There never was any danger of THE CEN TURY losing its premiership among American magazines, but it seems to me to-day to be stepping so far in advance of the rut, that none of the rest of them can get within hailing distance. To my mind, neither a big circulation nor a big book nor yet a big lot of advertising is the dominant factor in the making of a magazine, but that periodical which can catch and crystallize into the printed word and picture the big, broad spirit of American prog ress and culture, is the ideal magazine. CENTURY Comes nearer the attainment of this standard to-day than it has ever done before, and not only does it embody this spirit, but it leads on to higher and better ideals."

THE

THE CENTURION.

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