NOTES AND NEWS Professor E. C. Hills, formerly of Colorado College, and recently Librarian of the Hispanic Society, has resigned this post to accept the post of head of the department of Romance Languages at the University of Indiana. Dr. Ralph E. House, Curator of printed books at the library of the Hispanic Society, has been appointed Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of Minnesota. Professor S. M. Waxman of Boston University, Miss Anita Thomas, teacher of Spanish at the High School of Commerce, New York, Mr. Percy B. Burnet, head of the department of Modern Languages, Manual Training High School, Kansas City, Mo., Mr. Joel Hatheway, teacher of Spanish, High School of Commerce, Boston, Mass., and Miss May Vertrees, teacher of Spanish at Fullerton High School, California, are among the many teachers who have temporarily abandoned their school work to go into government service. The annual meeting of the California High School Teachers' Association was held in Berkeley, July 12, 13, 15, 16. The Modern Language section met on the afternoon of July 16, under the chairmanship of Professor Espinosa, of Stanford University. The most interesting and inspiring paper on the program was given by Professor Ramón Jaén, of the University of California, Nuevas Necesidades en la Enseñanza del Español. The third annual meeting of the Association of Modern Language Teachers of the Central West and South was held in Chicago, May 3 and 4. 1918. The Spanish section met on the afternoon of Saturday, May 4, under the chairmanship of Professor John D. Fitz-Gerald, of the University of Illinois. The papers presented were: Reading Material Used in College Spanish, by Dr. John Van Horne, University of Illinois. The New York Minima in High School Spanish, by Mrs. Homero Seris. University of Illinois. Report of Committee on High School Syllabus for Spanish, by Alfred Nonnez, Walnut Hill High School, Cincinnati, Ohio, Spanish has been recently introduced in the intermediate schools of New York, Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other large cities of our country. The renowned Perez Galdós (now 73 years of age) has recently produced another drama of great merit: Santa Juana de Castilla (1918). One of the most important books dealing with modern language methodology published within recent years is without doubt the volume just published by Mr. Lawrence A. Wilkins, Spanish in the High Schools: a Handbook of Methods (Sanborn & Co., 1918). It is a book which should be in the hands of every Spanish teacher in our country. Don Ramón Menéndez Pidal is about to publish a new edition (in Spanish) of his popular work, L'Epopée Castillane à travers la littérature Espagnole. An entirely new chapter, Los caracteres permanentes de la literatura española, will be added. The Casa Editorial Minerva, Barcelona, has just published a new and revised edition of Rafael Altamira's important work, La Psicología del Pueblo Español. This work (little known in our country) is a serious attempt on the part of one of the world's great leaders in historical criticism to interpret scientifically the meaning of the word civilization in its broadest aspect, and a clear and lucid analysis of Spanish character and the role of Spain in the development of human civilization. The Hispanic American Historical Review is the name of a new quarterly historical journal published by a group of American scholars interested in the history of Hispanic America. The first two numbers which have appeared (February and May, 1918) give evidence of a scholarly historical review that will at once be welcomed by students of history in every part of the scientific world and augur well for Hispanic historical studies in our country. Aside from the usual information concerning the founding of the review, the reviews, notes and bibliographical sections, the February number contains three very welcome contributions: The Institutional Background of Spanish-American History, by Charles H. Cunningham: The Delimitation of Political Jurisdictions in Spanish North America to 1535, by Charles W. Hacket; and The Recognition of the Spanish Colonies by the Motherland, by William Spence Robertson. In the May number we note the following contributions of special importance: An Early Diplomatic Controversy Betweeen the United States and Brazil, by William R. Manning; The Influence of the United States on the Opening of the Amazon to the World's Commerce, by Percy Alvin Martin; Documents (Reports of James Wilkinson to Emperor Iturbide of Mexico, 1822), by Herbert E. Bolton. The editorial board of the Review consists of Charles E. Chapman, Isaac J. Cox, Julius J. Klein, William R. Manning, William Spence Robertson, and the managing editor, James A. Robertson. Under the direction of Mr. F. L. Phillips, the Circulo Calderón of Westport High School, Kan- OBITUARIES PROFESSOR A. P. RAGGIO Dr. Andrew Paul Raggio, professor of Spanish and Italian at the University of Maine, died December 21, 1917. He had been in the service of the University of Maine as instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, and professor since 1907. Andrew Paul Raggio, professor of Spanish and Italian, was born fortyfour years ago in the city of Austin, Texas. His parents had come from northern Italy, from the hill country back of Genoa, and like many of their fellow countrymen, had settled in the south, first in New Orleans, whence in course of time they removed to the new state of Texas. They were devout Roman Catholics, and Professor Raggio owed his early education to the institutions of the church. Thus from his boyhood associations while reared in newest America, he was linked with the traditions of the old world. Professor Raggio possessed a rare equipment for his work. Following his graduation from the University of Texas in 1896, he spent five years of travel and study in Europe-three years in Italy, one year at the University of Grenoble in France, and one year in Spain. Returning to America he was for three years enrolled as a graduate student at Harvard University, where he received his doctorate in Romance Languages in 1904. It would be difficult to find or to imagine a more ideal preparation for a professorship of Romance Languages. He had acquired an intimate and sympathetic appreciation of Spanish, Italian, and French literatures and first-hand knowledge of the peoples and countries of southwest Europe. He had become well versed in European history. He had received sound university discipline in the several phases of technical philological study. Professor Raggio came to the University of Maine in 1907, having served an instructor's apprenticeship at Simmons College, Bryn Mawr College, and the St. Louis Central High School. From instructor in Romance Languages, he became assistant professor in 1907, and associate professor in 1911. In 1916 the new department of Spanish and Italian was created for him in recognition of his zeal and ability. Perhaps no quality was more characteristic of Professor Raggio than his intense earnestness. It was with earnestness that he assumed his new position. The growth of the new department was marvelous. He had planned to conduct all the classes unaided, but before the first year was out he needed the services of two instructors, and even then was obliged to curtail the work offered in Italian. Without doubt the teacher's real triumphs are in the class-room; but they are often secret triumphs, they are not heralded abroad, they are often little known or appreciated by the teacher's colleagues. I have heard the opinion expressed by university men of experience that one should husband his energies in his teaching, because he derives no recognition or preferment from that source. The labor of a teacher is largely a matter of conscience. To his classes Professor Raggio was most conscientious. Painstaking in the extreme, methodical in every detail, he had carefully reasoned out his system of imparting instruction. His endless patience and regard for the minutiae of scholarship might have descended to pendantry in a less inspired teacher, but with him a boundless enthusiasm for his profession and for the subject matter which he taught raised his work high above the trivial and the commonplace. It is in vain that we regret the loss of a human life seemingly cut off before its time. We miss the later years of riper achievement. But we possess a work well begun; we possess an example of faithfulness, of conscientiousness, of energy in the performance of duty, of intellectual breadth and integrity, of honesty of purpose, and frankness of position; we possess an example of charity toward others, of spiritual depth, and earnestness that can never be lost. UNIVERSITY OF MAINE GEORGE D. CHASE RAFAEL MARÍA DE LABRA Don Rafael Maria de Labra, distinguished Spanish statesman, jurist and writer died in Madrid on the 16th of April, 1918. Don Rafael María de Labra was born in Habana, Cuba, in 1841. He left Cuba at the age of ten and the rest of his life he passed in Spain, with the exception of a few years when he held various political posts in Cuba. Señor de Labra was one of Spain's great men of the last fifty years. Since the year 1873, when the short-lived Spanish republic was organized, he became a liberal republican, and throughout his whole life he worked incessantly for the betterment of Spanish political and social canditions. At the time of his death Señor de Labra was senator and president of the Ateneo de Madrid, having occupied various prominent public offices before. As a writer on subjects relating to Spanish and Spanish American political and social problems Señor de Labra is world famous, and the bibliography alone of his studies would cover a small volume. The following are a few of the best known of his works: La Pérdida de las Américas, La Colonización en la Historia, De la representación é influencia de los E. U. de América en el Derecho Internacional, Estudios de Economía Social, Historia de la Cultura Española Contemporánea, El Derecho Internacional de España, La Política hispano-americana en el siglo xx, El Problema político-pedagógico en España. The death of Señor de Labra is a great loss to Spain and to Spanish scholarship. A. M. E. |