Answers to Question

As the publishers of the Century Dictionary, Cyclopedia and Atlas, THE CENTURY MAGAZINE, ST. NICHOLAS, a long list of text-books for use in schools and colleges, hymn-books for churches and institutions of learning, and a varied array of general books on all subjects, we have unrivaled facilities for answering questions covering a broad field of information. We are glad to place these facilities at the disposal of readers of THE CENTURY, and in many cases to answer by mail direct (when accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelop) such questions as the following:

an inch or an inch and a half thick at the middle, but thinner towards the ends, an inch wider than the shoe of the user, and turned up in a curve at the front. Skees are secured, one to each foot, in such a way as to be easily cast off in case of accident, and are used for sliding down a declivity or as a substitute for snow-shoes.

"Ski, then, as will have been already gathered, are long narrow strips of wood, those used in Norway being from three to four inches in breadth, eight feet more or less in length, one inch in thickness at the center under the foot, and bevelling off to about a quarter of an inch at either end. In front they are curved upwards and pointed, and they are sometimes a little turned up at the back end too." Nansen, "First Crossing of Greenland" -I, 75. From the Century Dictionary.

What is "Absolute Zero"?

"Absolute zero of temperature," the lowest possible temperature which the nature of matter admits; the temperature at which the particles whose motion constitutes heat would be at rest; that temperature at which, if it were maintained in the refrigerator of a perfect thermodynamic engine, the engine would convert all the heat it could receive from its source into work. This temperature lies 273 degrees below the zero of the centigrade scale.

"Absolute temperature," temperature measured from the absolute zero of temperature on the absolute or thermodynamic scale of temperature, which is defined by the condition that the area included between two fixed adiabatic lines and any two isothermal lines is proportional to the difference of temperatures for those lines on this scale. This absolute scale of temperature differs by very small quantities, usually negligible, from that of an air-thermometer, and by the absolute temperature is often meant the temperature on the latter scale above the absolute zero.

From the Century Dictionary.

If a salaried man (or woman) who has no goods to put up as a pledge wants to borrow $50 from me, and if for any reason I do not care to lend it, is there any public institution to which I can refer the would-be borrower?

The "Morris plan" of banking provides for this in the institutions founded by the Industrial Finance Corporation, which will make possible the turning of character and earning power into collateral. This plan to extend borrowing facilities to the person of small means was first worked out in America by Arthur J. Morris, a Virginia lawyer, and has been adopted by the Industrial Finance Corporation, which is putting it into operation all over the country. It is designed for the man showing a legitimate borrowing need, and with a reputation for honesty among his associates and employers.

The bank lends in proportion to a man's earning capacity, having as security only a note, bearing interest at 6%, with two of his friends' signatures. The borrower purchases a certificate of investment equal to the amount of the loan, making weekly payments at a 2% rate. At the end of fifty weeks this collateral certificate becomes full paid and the owner can cash it, paying the money over to the bank, or if he is able to discharge his debt from outside sources he can retain his certificate with interest of from 1 to 12% more than savings banks allow, using it as collateral for a future loan which will require no indorsement. Or, again, he may borrow from the bank the sum needed to pay off the first loan, putting up the full-paid certificate as collateral. When the second loan is repaid he owns the first certificate of investment outright. The investment certificates are issued in units of $50, and their purchase is not confined to borrowers alone.

THE NEW INDUSTRIAL DAY

Secretary of Commerce Redfield, who is giving acts and figures in support of his claims that inustrial and commercial conditions are improving apidly, is the author of "The New Industrial Day," published in October, 1912. In this discusion of labor and its problems, Mr. Redfield, who as been an active manufacturer for many years, ays, among many other stimulating things:

"When you have good stuff to sell, well
and cheaply made, properly designed and
of regular quality, well packed, you will
have no trouble to sell it abroad. What
one country or market won't take another
will. It's a large world."

"The new industrial day means not compromise but comprehension. Not alone humanity or welfare work, though these are good, but a larger outlook, a spirit of earnest self-criticism looking inward, and the spirit of 'lend a hand' looking outward."

In "The Rise of the American People," to be pubished next month, Dr. Roland G. Usher presents a

philosophical interpretation of American history and life, which aims to give the reader a lucid account of results and not of processes, and to explain briefly but in a manner to stir and hold interest, the facts of our national development.

THE NEW HYMNOLOGY

That "The Modern Quest for a Religion," discussed by Mr. Winston Churchill in the December CENTURY, is bearing fruit is evidenced by the new hymnology. Until the key-note of social service was struck by the Rev. Josiah Strong in 1898, the greater proportion of our hymns dwelt on individual needs and the hope of future reward. From that time there has been a steadily increasing demand for hymns based on humanitarianism-brotherhood and social service. As a consequence our present-day hymnals are embodying less of creed and more of Church unity.

TEACHING SELF-PRESERVATION

The principals of Chicago schools are instructing their pupils in the first law of life, self-preservation. The children are cautioned as follows:

Cross the street at regular crossings, not
in the middle of the block.
Obey the police signals at crossings.
Look in all directions before crossing the

street.

Do not cross in front of a moving vehicle. Danger signals from automobiles and cars should be heeded by every one.

Roller-skating in the roadway is forbidden by city ordinance.

Children should not hitch on to moving vehicles.

The majority of accidents to children do not happen when they are going to school or returning from school. There is great danger in playing backward and forward across the street, running across the street in the evening, hurrying to the show or the store, trying to overtake companions, running after a hat.

A BY-PATH OF SCIENCE

The late Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, during his long years of active work as a physician and scientist and his thirty years or so of production as a novelist and poet, explored many fields. No subject that he studied, either scientific or social, is more curious than the one he described in a little known paper entitled "Of Ailurophobia and the Power to be Conscious of the Cat as Near, When Unseen and Unheard." In this paper Dr. Mitchell declares that there are persons who have been able to distinguish the presence of a cat by its smell but cannot any longer do so, and yet who retain ability to detect

unseen cats.

"It is likely," he says, "that the cat emanations may affect the nervous system through the nasal membrane, although unrecognized as odors. Why these emanations should, if plainly perceived as due to cats, cause certain symptoms in those who dread cats, is readily understood.

"The ultimate cause of unreasonable terror of cats I cannot explain."