Fraternity-Testvériség, 1965 (43. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1965-12-01 / 12. szám

FRATERNITY

5

TWO NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS

On November 12, 1915 — 50 years ago — Thomas Alva Edison and Nikola Tesla, two famous American pioneers in developing the uses of electricity, were awarded the Nobel Prize for science. After Nikola Tesla arrived in the United States in 1884 from what is now Yugoslavia, he became a naturalized citizen and for several years was associated with George Westinghouse and Thomas A. Edison. His receipt of the Nobel Prize is an example of the outstanding contributions which have been made by foreign born scientists of every race and national

origin in America. — (A. C. N. S.)

SAMUEL FRANCIS SMITH — AUTHOR OF "AMERICA"

On November 16, 1895 — 70 years ago — Samuel Francis Smith, who wrote the words of “America”, one of our most popular patriotic hymns, died at the age of 87 years. A native of Boston, he was ordained a Baptist minister in 1834 and served as pastor for the next 20 years. During that time, he was also professor of modern languages at Waterville (now Colby) College in Maine, and editor of a Boston periodical, the “Christian Review”. In 1832, as a young man of 24, he wrote the words, “My Country, ’Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty, of Thee I Sing”, and set them to a tune he found in a German school textbook. The melody has been traced back to medieval church music and has been used as a theme by many composers. The English sing their national anthem to this tune, and it is also the tune to which the national anthems of Switzerland and Iceland are sung. The Reverend Smith wrote many hymns, including “The Morning Light Is Breaking”, and a collection of his verses was published under the title, “Poems

of Home and Country”, in 1895. — (A. C. N. S.)

SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS — MARK TWAIN

On November 30, 1835 — 130 years ago — Samuel Langhorne Clemens, American writer, better known as Mark Twain, was born in Missouri. When his father died in 1847, young Sam Clemens helped support his mother by learning the printer’s trade in a village newspaper shop. Later, he was apprenticed to a Mississippi river boat pilot and spent four years on the river, part of it as a licensed pilot. It

was from this experience that he adopted the name “Mark Twain”, a

term used in sounding the river. After brief service in the Civil War, he became a newspaper reporter and wrote his first successful story, “The Jumping Frog”. This was followed by “Innocents Abroad”, a story of a trip to Europe and the Near East, and two of his most famous works — “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. He established his own publishing business, but after a brief prosperity, it failed and he was forced to make lecture tours to pay his debts. Mark Twain died in 1910 at the age of 75, a major figure in American literature. — (A. C. N. S.)