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N the heart of the "dry goods district" of New York stands a business house that is pre-eminently above its neighboring business houses. It is more than a mercantile establishment. It is an institution. If there were a truly competent system of guides to New York, as there is in all the greater cities of Europe, the tourist would be taken to this corner and shown the house of The H. B. Claflin Company, at Church and Worth streets, as one of the things not to be missed in even a hurried inspection of the sights to be seen in the greatest American city...

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For this is a clearing-house of the whole dry goods business, East, West, North, and South. for the whole United States. That is not to say that every merchant who comes to town buys all his goods in this one place. It does mean that scarcely a merchant comes to New York without visiting this house, and that every such merchant's visit means the sale of a bill of goods. That would mean a highly desirable state of trade to any other house, and one upon which most mercantile establishments would be content to limit their business. Not so here.

There are hundreds of great manufacturing concerns that require one special thing which is "out of their line." Many shoe manufacturers buy annually a great quantity of a fabric suitable for the lining of shoes from this concern. In the South the great plantations which ship to New York vegetables grown out of the New York season protect their growing crops on chilly nights with a thick muslin cloth. These planters order thousands and thousands of yards from this establishment of that particular cloth. Harness-makers call upor: this same market for no end of things. which either go into their finished products or which are demanded by their trade. These illustrations merely serve to make the fact known that hardly a large manufacturer in the United States markets his product without having bought an immense quantity of some special line of goods out of this universal mart. These are a few instances of which people in general would not think, and it is not necessary to mention the thousands of manufacturers whose products are more particularly in the line of goods that this house carries, such as waist manufacturers, skirt manufacturers, garment manufacturers of all sorts, and, in fact, any into whose finished product cotton or woollen fabrics enter.

The United States, through various bureaus which bear upon commerce. even including the State Department. has taken immense pains to develop an export trade for the benefit of the merchants and manufacturers of the whole country. It has been seen that no small part of the circumstances which culminated in the greatest war of our time-that between Russia and Japan-was the negotiations undertaken by the American Secretary of State. Mr. Hay, for securing a market open to all traders of the whole world in Manchuria. The H. B. Claflin Company was interested above all American traders, perhaps above all European traders, in Mr. Hay's success-, ful efforts to establish the principle that not Russia, nor Germany, nor France, nor

England, nor even the United States might be able to fence off so large a portion of the world from the open trading privileges of all merchants and all parts of the world. This great house has intimate and steadfast relations with the great distributing centres of the Chinese Empire, having opened, within the last few years, channels of trade with the largest operating firms, with which the Claflin house does a direct business, instead of, as formerly done, the Chinese business through its Manchester house. This trade has grown to an enormous extent. The firm also ships immense quantities of goods to all European ports. The firm sells to dealers all over the United States, to the largest houses as well as the smallest. The struggling young merchant in a country town who is ambitious comes to Claflin's for aid and advice.

Horace B. Claflin, as a young man, established a retail dry goods business in 1831, and set up in the year after a branch at Worcester, Mass. Mr. Claflin and his brother-in-law, who was his partrer, developed a business that outgrew the partnership. In 1833 Mr. Claflin took the Worcester house and devoted the next ten years of his career to that business. Advertising was a new science in those days, but Claflin made the most of it. He devised new methods of extending his business. Не "did things" that other merchants had never thought of doing. Boston at that time monopolized the whole business in New England. New York, then a city of less than 100,000 population, was coming to be Boston's rival. His business grew. Rival merchants, who had predicted failure, saw he was right and followed his example. The Boston dealers, seeing their trade carried away, began to try to outbid the favorable terms of New York. The germ of the Claflin house of this day was in the policy that these conditions forced upon the mind of the young merchant of Worcester.

In 1843 he found Worcester a place that he had outgrown and came to New York and with William F. Bulkley started the wholesale dry goods business of Bulkley & Claflin at No. 46 Cedar street. The partners had a cash capital of $30,000, and each owned property outside of his individual share in the business. Those were times when a business man worth $30,000 was a considerable personage in the community. Cedar street was at that time the centre of the dry goods business. New York grew and the house grew with it, so that in seven years the young merchants had to look for a place in the new centre. They settled at No. 57 Broadway in 1850. A year later Mr. Bulkley had retired with a comfortable fortune. Claflin formed a new partnership with William H. Mellen and several juniors of the old house, under the firm name of Claflin, Mellen & Co. They moved uptown. They built the Trinity Building at No. 111 Broadway, which only recently has been removed to make way for a "skyscraper." In 1850 this firm's business footed up the enormous total, for those days, of $13,500,000. That meant that the Claflin idea already shown had become a doniinant factor in mercantile business. The firm was at the head. It has stayed there ever since. That development made necessary another move uptown. The firm settled on the block where its present quarters are-Church and Worth streets and West Broadway. Mr. Mellen retired in 1864, and the name of the house became H. B. Claflin & Company. In 1866 the business had grown to a total of $64,000,000 sales, a phenomenal figure. After the war it was plain to some far-sighted merchants that business conditions were about to change with the changes wrought by the new conditions. Mr. Claflin saw that a revolution in his own business was necessary if he would keep the commanding position in the mercantile world. Before this the jobber, the importer, the manufacturer, each had occupied his own field. Mr. Claflin's judgment was that his business to succeed must combine the functions of all three. The house of Claflin now combines those three functions. as it has since the day when its founder first put his ideas into practice. it would be a long and difficult story to tell how, wear by year, this business acquired control, one by one, of mills and factories, marketing their entire product: of how it embarked into manufacturing enterprises that have since, in its hands, become great among manufacturing interests.

This growing business means an expanding organization. In a smaler Cocern of the ante-bellum days one man could do all the buying, fix the prices, command all the agencies in selling. In the concern of to-day. with all its ramifications, a great system with many branches, each with a responsible and trusted head. has necessarily developed. The concern must maintain central buying bureaus in the great markets of the world. Its men must have 'specialized knowledge of markets in strange and unfamiliar parts of the world. Its chief must study possible and probable demands which are swayed by the caprices of fashion.

It should be said here that at the death of Mr. Claflin, in 1885, the business was in the full tide of its still advancing career. The business for five years was carried on by his son and the surviving partners. In 1890 the present corporation was formed. Its president is John Claflin, son of the founder.

One of the long-pursued ideas of the house is to supply the demands of any trade, no matter how such demands may differ from those of the general run of its trade. The buyer coming from Mexico to New York is not suited with the goods which find ready sale, for instance, in Sixth avenue. He wants merchandise that meets the taste of his own customers. In the Claflin stock he finds not only the things he knows are salable at home, but an organization which supplies him a seller who is familiar with his home requirements, who speaks his language, and who understands whatever differences there may be in the trade conditions of his own country as compared with those in New York. The buyer from Mexico is cited merely as an illustration of the broadness of the system. South America, Central America, the West Indies, South Africa. Australia, India, China, Japan, indeed the most remote countries of the world, send traders to New York, assured that in this immense institution the will find an accurate understanding of their customs and their customers.

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FORDHAM, NEW YORK CITY

ORDHAM, though the newest of the big universities, has had a successful career of sixty-four years in the field of education. Founded as a college by Bishop Hughes, later first Archbishop of New York, many notable men have since been members of its faculty and among its graduates. The Rev. John McCloskey, later Archbishop of New York and first American Cardinal, was its first President. The Rev. James Roosevelt Bayley, later Archbishop of Baltimore, was its third President, and among the members of the faculty were the Rev. David Bacon, later Bishop of Portland; the Rev. John J. Conroy, later Bishop of Albany; the Rev. F. P. McFarland, later Bishop of Hartford, and the Rev. Bernard McQuaid, present Bishop of Rochester.

Fordham University is twenty minutes from the Grand Central Depot by the Harlem Railroad, and may be reached from New York's City Hall by the Second and Third Avenue

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Elevated lines.

ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY.

No more pleasing site could have been selected for a university. Despite the proximity to the metropolis, the surroundings are picturesque. Adjoining the seventytwo acres surrounding the university buildings are the Zoological Gardens in the Bronx Park, perhaps the most complete exhibition of animal life in the world. Or the east are the grounds of the New York Botanical Gardens; a mile to the west is the Harlem River, and further away the Hudson. Fronting the university buildings rises Fordham Heights,

Covered with beautiful residences.

In 1846 the college, then already successful, was purchased by the fathers of the

Society of Jesus for $85,500.

More land was acquired, but later thirty acres lying along the River Bronx were taken by the city for park purposes. The work so auspiciously begun by Dr. McCloskey was taken up enthusiastically by the new management. Fathers Thebaud, Larkin, Doucet, Moylan, Shea, Gockeln, Dealy, Campbell, Scully and Petit were successive Presidents. The Rev. John J. Collins had the distinction of being the first President of Fordham University. In March, 1906, he was succeeded by the present President, Rev. Daniel J. Quinn.

THE JESUIT SYSTEM OF TEACHING.

Now to consider the Jesuit system of teaching. Learned Jesuit professors assert that the reading of the text well done is the best possible introduction to the matter to be studied. A repetition of this reading is exacted from the students. This being done, the professor explains the meaning of the passage and points out any connection it may have with those preceding it. Then the sentence itself is dissected, the professor showing the grammatical or rhetorical connection of any of its members and phrases and, in general,

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clearing up any difficulties the words contain. The professor then translates the passage, nearly word for word, into English, returning afterward to give the translation all the elegancies of diction. Notes and remarks are now given by the professor. In the grammar grades the notes are dictated to the students, but those in the higher classes write down what they think most useful in the professor's explanation.

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Few things are considered by the Jesults of more vital importance than repetition, particularly in the lower classes. Without constant, steady, persistent drilling on the same matter in the beginning of the student's career, no solid foundation can be hoped for. rule of teaching is that there be two repetitions at each lecture, one of yesterday's lesson: the other of the lesson just explained. This repetition shows the professor whether his meaning has been grasped by the students.

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In the reading of English authors, for example, a drama of Shakespeare, the whole piece is read through quickly to gain a knowledge of its contents; then all archaic words and difficult constructions are explained. as well as historical and literary illusions. plot, the tragic idea, the chief characters are explained, and the work is criticised as a whole, its excellences and shortcomings shown. Choice passages are learned by heart and students are required to give the contents of a scene, criticise a passage, or explain a sentence.

Regular recitation of memory lessons is prescribed. Bovhood is the best season for The important this work, and the time when that faculty should be thoroughly drilled.

rules of grammar must be committed to memory, then choice passages from the best English and Latin authors. In general, such passages are chosen as are worth remembering from an ethical, aesthetical, poetical, or historic point of view.

Imitation exercises are well thought of by the Jesuits. They must not be a servile imitation of the author. One professor gives this rule for these exercises: "Write down a sketch of an argument or the train of thought found in the original author, then work it out and clothe, as it were, this skeleton with flesh and nerves. Then compare the new production with the original. Many improvements will be suggested." This excellent method applies equally to English and Latin. The correction by the professor of the students' written exercises is considered to be of the greatest importance. Neatness is insisted on in the writing of themes.

The Jesuit system of education contemplates not only the development of intellect, but of the whole man. Moral progress is considered as important as the intellectual. The means employed are the example of a virtuous life, reasonable supervision of students, and ethical instructions. Daily contact with those who lead a religious life seems to develop in the student a spirit of self-control and self-denial and a readiness to go beyond the limits of mere duty for the good of his fellow man.

It is the contention of Jesuits that the knowledge of religious truths is necessary in education because it is the only sure foundation of morality. It is not so much what is taught in the secular schools that renders them objectionable to Catholics, but what is not taught, and what cannot be taught.

SCHOOLS OF LAW AND MEDICINE.

On ground purchased from the university the city is now building its $3,000,000 Fordham hospital. The new hospital is only a stone's throw from the university's School of Medicine, and when completed will afford the students practical illustration of the subject

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matter of lectures. Dr. James J. Walsh, M. D., Ph. D., LL. D., is Acting Dean and Professor of the History of Medicine; T. Joseph Dunn, A. M., M. D., Professor of Materia Medica and Clinical Professor of Medicine; Thomas F. Reilly, M. S., M. D., Professor of Applied Therapeutics; J. Edward Stubbert, M. D., Professor of Pulmonary Diseases; Thomas D. Merrigan, M. D., Professor of Anatomy; V. E. Sorapure, M. D., Professor of Pathology and Histology; T. C. Schumacher, Pharm. D., M. D., Professor of Pharmacy; E. E. Smith, M. D., Professor of Physiology and Organic Chemistry; John Aspell, M. D., Professor of Gynaecology and Obstetrics; Charles J. Bolduan, M. D., Professor of Bacteriology.

In addition, lectures are delivered from time to time by specialists in surgery, obstetrics, materia medica, and pathology.

The first year in the school of medicine is devoted to physics, the principles of mechanics, hydrostatics, optics, electricity, light, heat, and acoustics as applied to medigine and surgery; to chemistry taught practically in the laboratories; to anatomy in practical lectures on the bones and joints, section demonstration, and dissection; to systematic lectures and recitations in physiology; to histology, including the use of the microscope; the prep

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