NOTES AND NEWS

On Saturday morning, October 6, 1917, Mr. L. A. Wilkins, inspector of Modern Languages in the City of New York, delivered a most interesting talk before the Modern Language Section of the High School Teachers' Association of the City of New York, on the "Requirements of an Up-To-Date Modern Language Teacher."

Mr. Wilkins is the editor of a valuable little publication called "Bulletin of High Points." This bulletin always carries a wellwritten editorial by the editor, numerous notes, announcements, reports, syllabi, etc. Another notable feature of the bulletin is the section devoted to "High Points" in the teaching of modern languages. Here is included an account of the most useful devices, methods, stunts, etc., observed by Mr. Wilkins in his rounds of inspection. In a word, it is unique, original and useful.

The City of New York is making rapid strides in the teaching of Spanish. The student body is growing by leaps and bounds. Every one of the high schools in the city has a course in Spanish. The universities and colleges are continuing to add courses in undergraduate and graduate Spanish. Hunter College has just added a course in Materials and Methods in the Teaching of Spanish. This course is under the direction of M. A. Luria, of the De Witt Clinton High School.

Residents of Chicago have recently been offered the rare treat of seeing a classic Spanish drama well acted and sumptuously staged. The play was "The Judge of Zalamea," Fitzgerald's well known rendering of Calderón's Alcalde de Zalamea. The credit of this production is due to Mr. Leo Ditrichstein and his managers.

The attitude of the Chicago dramatic critics was disappointing. Most of them showed not the slightest understanding of Calderón and affected an attitude of amused superciliousness. One spoke slightingly of the play for no better reason than that it was three hundred years old. If a statute of limitations is to be applied to masterpieces, many a greater writer than Calderón will be ruled out. In contrast to this unsatisfactory "high brow" attitude that of the "low brows" was all that could be desired. The audiences thoroughly enjoyed the performance, even if they failed to grasp all the

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niceties of the pundonor. And why should they not? The Alcalde de Zalamea is replete with dramatic situations, the characters are developed with a care rarely to be found in Calderón's works, and the strong note of democracy struck in this piece is well calculated to appeal to the most democratic of peoples. Add to this that no money has been spared in costuming and scenery.

The Chicago board of education has recently voted to introduce the teaching of Spanish and French into the seventh and eighth grades of the public schools. They have wisely refused to yield to the popular demand to suppress all teaching of German, but with equal wisdom have decided that the pupil should be given a chance. to choose between the three languages named.

Don Felipe Morales de Setién, a special pupil of Menéndez Pidal, Licenciado en Filosofía y Letras from the Universidad Central, Madrid, has been appointed instructor in Spanish at Leland Stanford Junior University. Aside from teaching elementary language courses he will give a course of lectures on the History of Spanish Civilization.

Mr. C. B. Drake is Instructor in Spanish in the University of Chicago.

Señor Carlos Castillo has accepted an assistant professorship of Spanish in the University of Indiana.

Mr. Winter, late of the University of Kansas, has been appointed civilan instructor in Spanish at the United States Naval Academy.

Mr. Leslie Brown, late instructor in Spanish at Harvard, has accepted an assistant professorship of Spanish at the University of North Carolina.

Miss Rosalina Espinosa, B. A., University of Colorado, 1917, has been appointed instructor in Spanish in the University of New Mexico.

Miss Benicia Bantione, teacher of Spanish in the Manual Training High School, Denver, Colorado, spoke in that city before the Modern Language Section of the Teachers' Convention held there on November 1, 2, and 3. She presented a very clever and forceful argument for the study of Spanish on a par with the study of French and German. Miss Bantione has faithfully fought for a wider recognition of Spanish in the Denver schools for a number of years.

OBITUARIES

W. H. FRASER

By reason of the recent death of Professor W. H. Fraser of the University of Toronto, Spanish studies have lost a staunch friend. Professor Fraser was born at Bond Head, Simcoe Co., Ont., in 1853. He prepared for the university at Bradford High School, and then, after several years of teaching in country schools, entered the University of Toronto. He was graduated in 1880 and soon after became master of French and German at Upper Canada College, Toronto. After a year of study passed abroad in 1886, Professor Fraser was appointed head of the department of Italian and Spanish in the University of Toronto. He had nearly completed 30 years of faithful and brilliant service in his alma mater when death called him, December 28, 1916.

Professor Fraser is best known in the United States as one of the authors of several. very successful French and German grammars. It will therefore surprise many to learn that he had taught neither of these languages for over 30 years previous to his death. While his name was familiar to all Romance scholars, few in this country knew him intimately. He seldom attended the meetings of the Modern Language Association, and never contributed to technical journals. His interests were broad rather than specialized.

Teachers of Spanish should never forget that Professor Fraser was the first departmental head on this continent to organize a four year course in Spanish. This is the more remarkable because to this day no other Canadian university includes Spanish in its curriculum; the same is true, I believe, of all Canadian high schools. As an administrator his career was one long struggle, characterized by many disappointments, but rewarded with many conspicuous successes. His first task was to engage in newspaper propaganda to gain for his university adequate financial support from unwilling legislatures. Next he embarked in a campaign to secure for the modern languages their rightful place of equality with the traditional classic subjects. To the end of his life he was forced to contend to ensure a dignified status for the two "minor" languages which he professed. Education in Canada is bureaucratic, state-controlled. Admirable as this system is in many respects, it makes very difficult the task of the educational reformer. Entrenched conservatism is buttressed with acts of parliament. Only a popular demand can readily effect a change. Happily there are many signs of such a demand in Canada at present. Canada is experiencing a reflex of the vast interest in things Spanish now felt south of the line. Newspapers and politicians are beginning to clamor for more instruction in Spanish. Teachers' meetings frequently discuss the question. Everything now indicates that Spanish has a bright future in

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Canada. It will soon be taught in many secondary schools and then universities can no longer ignore it. The growing importance of Spanish in the mother country, too, works to the same end. (Leeds and the University of London have recently founded chairs of Spanish.) And when this result is brought to pass, no small part of it will be due to the life work of Professor Fraser. Professor Fraser has many claims to gratitude on the part of modern language teachers. Teachers of Spanish will remember him as the pioneer of the Spanish movement in Canada.

University of Chicago

G. T. NORTHUP

ALBERT FREDERICK KUERSTEINER

Albert Frederick Kuersteiner, Professor of Romance Languages in Indiana University, died on June 9, 1917, after a long illness. Professor Kuersteiner was born in New Orleans, November 9, 1865, received his A. B. degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1888 and his Ph. D. from Johns Hopkins in 1904. As a teacher he served in Wabash College, the Hughes High School of Cincinnati, and Indiana University, and was best known in the field of French and Spanish. The salient characteristics of his teaching were thoroughness, accuracy and enthusiasm.

While his published work touches the broader field of pedagogy (School Review, 1911), and his death left completed a French grammar in manuscript, his chief contributions were in the domain of Spanish. Several articles on French and Spanish phonetics (Maître Phonétique, X and XI), and reviews of Traub's "Spanish Verb" and Colton's "Phonétique Castillane" (Mod. Lang. Notes, XVIII and XXVII) were but accessories to his real life work, which was a study of the "Rimado de Palacio" of Pero López de Ayala. The doctoral dissertation on the use of the "Relative Pronoun in the Rimado de Palacio" (Revue Hispanique, 1911) is a study of permanent value. The edition of Ayala's first "Cantica sobre el Fecho de la Yglesia" (Studies in Honor of A. Marshall Elliott, 1911) foreshadows the method to be employed in the edition of the "Rimado de Palacio." The edition, now in press, will appear as one of the volumes of the Bibliotheca Hispanica, and will inevitably prove the definitive version of this important old Spanish poem.

The death of Professor Kuersteiner is a severe loss not only to those who knew and loved him but also to the cause of scholarship and education. His critical work shows surety of method and accuracy of detail, while his labors in the field of teaching have left a lasting imprint, especially on the colleges and secondary schools of Indiana.

Princeton University

C. C. MARDEN

BIBLIOGRAPHY II. SCHOOL TEXTS

Books published in 1915-1916.

Elementary Spanish Grammar

by Professors Aurelio M. Espinosa and Clifford G. Allen of Leland Stanford Junior University.

367 pages.

Contains practical exercises for reading, conversation and composition. Despite the title, the book is complete enough for most high schools and many colleges. Illustrated.

1915-American Book Co. $1.25

A Spanish Grammar

by M. A. De Vitis of the Frank Louis Soldan High School, St. Louis.

352 pages. Elaborate exercises in conversation and composition, frequent reviews, treatment of Spanish letter-writing and commercial correspondence. Illustrated.

1916-Allyn and Bacon. $1.25

Spanish Commercial Correspondence

by Professor Arthur F. Whittem of Harvard University and Manuel J. Andrade.

322 pages (146 text). Reading material, composition exercises, questions on the first ten letters, table of abbreviations, vocabulary and index. 1916-D. C. Heath & Co. $1.25

A Trip to South America

Exercises in Spanish Composition

by Professor Samuel M. Waxman of Boston University.

104 pages (69 text and exercises). Appendix of irregular verbs, SpanishEnglish and English-Spanish vocabularies. The style is colloquial throughout.

1916-Heath & Co. 50c

Elementary Spanish Reader

by Professor Aurelio M. Espinosa of Leland Stanford Junior University.

208 pages (124 text). Contains easy, practical selections from both popular and learned sources in prose and poetry, with exercises for conversation. Illustrated.

1916-Benj. H. Sanborn & Co. 90c

First Spanish Reader

by Erwin W. Roessler and Alfred Remy,

both of New York High School of Commerce.

248 pages (155 text). The Spanish material consists of both prose and verse. A few songs are given with music. Thirty pages of questions follow the text. The first part of the book is very simple and easy.

1916-American Book Co. 68c