Show charles R crane educated without aid of college has visited nearly every country on the gjobye and Is master of sev eral languages well ac with orient chicago charles R crane newly appointed minister from the united states to china la a rare type of ciu zen in that he was born to wealth and yet may be classed in the roll of self e waa the idea t that a college education Is not essential to the life success of a ban who has a brain of his own and it ills schooling ended when he had done with the public school what he has gathered of learning since then has been from blohs and from the world and its people as they have ao feared to him in extensive travel richard T crane sr father of charles R crane Is vigorously opposed modern methods of education as carried on in the great universities and many of the public schools he does not believe these institutions alt a man properly for the battle of life and says they are too theoretical and not sufficiently practical he went so tar as to declare it would be a good thing for one of the states it its state university buildings were blown up whether charles R crane shared the educational views ot his father it Is a fact that instead of spending tour years in college and winning a degree he jumped at once from his boyhood schooling into the workshop and started the business career which has made him a man of practical mind and alert powers of observation when the opportunity came he in augu rated a program of travel sent him to many of the out of th way places of the world and gave him an intimate knowledge know ledga of affairs possessed by few men even in these days of globe trotting mr crane has set foot in nearly every country on the globe has penetrated to out of the way nooks and cor ners pas occasionally fitted out caravana of his own to explore unfrequented lands and Is as much at home in russia or china as he Is oa bis home street in chicago he is a linguist of considerable attainments Is a connoisseur in paintings a callec tor of old and rare books and what la more a reader of the same he i prominent as a civic enthusiast and for years has been a powerful factor in movements for the advancement of chicago commercially physically and morally his travels mr crane spent much time in china his business interests taking him into every province he came into close contact with all classes of mongolians Mongo lians in his home Is a largo collection of curios of bis many visits to china in all his knocking about the globe mr crane was absorbing languages in his library in his michigan avelli home are books written in a dozen different languages they are not sorted according to cataloguer catalogues catal as a less scholarly owner would sort them but instead are grouped under subject heads friends of mr crane eay that when he wants to look up a reference on a topic he goes to hla shelves and takes down books in several different languages and reads them without the aid of a lexicon ha la said to read 12 languages and to speak with ease and fluency six or eight five years ago mr crane added of his personal fortune to the young empress fund for russian soldiers and sailors this gift wa made through count chan bellor of the empire and for it the donor was the recipient of grateful thanks from the empress long and close contact with official and civilian life of russia has given him a friendly feeling toward that nation but at uw same time he has a warm spot in h heart for china and the chinese the feeling Is eald to be reciprocated the chinese have been drawn to members of the family professor williams uncle of mr crane was professor of chinese at yale and he w the author of a book on ahlm mrs crane was miss cornelia W smith whose girlhood home was pat erson N J abera she became the bride of mr crane 28 years ago lot tier hubband hue band her interests are in the more substantial things of life hw name does not appear in the membership lists of any chicago lub tl family has a beautiful eummer bom at lake geneva ale and another abc woods hole masa |