The Birmingham age-herald. [volume], December 06, 1914, EDITORIAL SECTION, Page 28, Image 28

About The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950

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THE AGE-HERALD
K. W. BARRETT.Editor
Entered at the Birmingham, Ala.,
postufflce as second class matter under
act of Congress March 3, 1879.
Dally and Sunday Age-Herald.$8.00
Dally and Sunday, per month. .70
Dally and Sunday, three months...... 2.00
Weekly Age-Herald, per annum.60
Sunday Age-Herald .. 2.00
A. J. Eaton, Jr., and O. E. Young are
the only authorized traveling represeit
tatlveu of The Age-Herald In Us cir
culation department.
No communication will be published
without its author's name. Rejected
manuscript will not be returned unless
stamps are enclosed for that purpose.
Remittances can be made at current
rate of exchange. The Age-Herald will
not be responsible for money sent through
the mails. Address,
THE AGE-HBRAED,
Birmingham, Ala.
Washington bureau, 207 Hibbs build
ing.
European bureau, 6 Henrietta street.
Covcnt Garden, I.ondon.
Eastern business office. Rooms 48 to
60, Inclusive, Tribune building, New
York city; western business office.
Tribune building. Chicago. The a. C.
Beckwith Special Agency, agents for
eign advertising.
telephone
Bell (private exchange connecting all
departmental Alain 41100.
Onr rash fnnlta make trlTlnl price
•f serious things wc have, not knowing
them until we know their itrsve.
— All's Well That Ends Well.
- I
BEGINNING the DAY—O I.ord.
make inT religion today a part of
me. May It be a leaven that ahnll go i
through and through. Mny It he nn
taral like breathing, anil easy nml
aweet like the moving of olr and the i
shining of the snn. Alay It l>e the life
of God In me. In Christ's nnme.
Amen.—H. M. E.
Important Convention This eek
The Electrical Supply Jobbers’ con
tention which meets in Birmingham
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday,
will assemble several hundred visit
ors. The great demand for electrical
appliances has caused rapid develop
ment in a business which has at
tracted large capital and talent.
Next to the American Iron and Steel
institute, which held its annual meet
ing here in the last week of October,
the Electrical Supply jobbers will be
the most important body convening
here this year. The business sessions
will be of exceptional interest to all
men engaged in electrical work and
in the electrical supply trade. Instruc
tive papers will be read and helpful
discussions will take place. But the
social features will also he very prom
inent. There will be much sight-seeing
every day, ,and the members of the
convention and the ladies accompany
ing them will be entertained at the
various clubs.
As Oscar C. Turner, president of
one of the large electrical concerns
here, says, “This convention is going
to be worth a considerable amount to
Birmingham, and I know that every
good citizen will extend the visitors
a royal welcome.” The opening meet
ing of the convention will be held in
the ballroom at the Tutwiler Tuesday
at 11 o’clock, and business men of the
city generally are invited to be pres
ent.
The iron and steel men expressed
great delight at being in Birmingham,
and after returning home had many
fine things to say in interviews and
letters in the trade journals about
Birmingham’s hospitality and the rich
resources of the Birmingham district.
Let us endeavor to make as good an
impression on the electrical men as
we did on the members of the Icon and
Steel institute.
The British Waiter
Whatever doubtB there may be as to
the positive success of the allies, the
British Waiters’ union is militant and
triumphant. The sign, “No Alien Ene
mies Employed in This Establish
ment,” confronts the patrons of a ma
jority of the London restaurants of
the middle class and cheaper sort. A
few proprietors even go so far as to
announce, “No Alien Enemies Em
ployed or Served,” which is, to be
sure, the very last word in patriotic
catering.
Before the war the big hotels and
the better class restaurants had em
ployed large numbers of Germans,
Italians and Swiss, who were found
more efficient than the English help.
Save in a few old fashioned resorts
patronized by “solid business men,”
who cling to the traditions of Dick
ans’ and Thackeray’s time, foreigners
monopolized the dignified and profita
ble waiters’ calling. The British Wait
ers’ union pleaded in vain for sub
atantial recognition. They were
ignored in favor of their more adept
rivals, even in establishments owned
by Englishmen who could not risk los
ing dividends for the mere sake of be
ing loyal to British servants.
But now. a great change has como
•bout. The newspapers took up the
eause of the British waiters and the
foreigners have been ousted. In the
big hotels there are no placards, of
course, but flags and loyal mottoes
•re conspicuous. German restaurants,
professing to serve none but German
food, are hard pressed. One well
known place of this sort, with a num
ber of branches, has signs in its win
dows stating that all its sausages are
made from British pork in an English
factory and announces its contribu
tions to the Prince of Wales’ relief
fund. Another claims that the origi
nal German owners were bought out
by Englishmen years ago and the Ger
man name has been retained for busi
ness reasons.
England has so far surpassed all
the other European belligerents in
showing the humorous side of war.
Industrial Situation Improving
After a period of business depres
sion the signs of improvement start
in a small way, but a start once in
evidence a wide range of activity
usually follows soon. Business in the
industrial world has been extremely
dull, but depression reached bottom
several weeks ago.
In November there was a small in
crease in orders for steel products,
and a large increase in pig iron sales.
There was a slight improvement in
the coal business last week, and con
tinued improvement is expected
throughout this month. The active de
mand for iron is significant, and the
buying movement will mean an im
mediate revival in many lines of in
dustrial operation.
The railroads in the west have had
heavy traffic in grain, and some of the
eastern lines have had a substantial
increase in freight business. Owing to
the cotton situation, the coal situation
and the iron and steel situation the
southern roads have suffered more
than those of any other section, but
freight is beginning to move in
somewhat larger volume in this part
of the country and indications point to
an increase between now and Christ
mas.
Signs are now many that an era of
old time prosperity will set in with
the new year. These little signs that
have been mentioned certainly justify
an expectation of great things to come
in the near future.
Also Mail Early
Santa Claus has long made a prac
tice of shopping early, and those of
the public generally who spend money
for Christmas gifts have been edu
cated to make their principal purch
ases before the middle of December;
and now Postmaster General Burleson
has inaugurated an “early” campaign.
He has issued suggestions for Christ
mas mailing, and his first injunction
is “Mail your parcels early.”
It is obvious that starting gifts by
mail now to far-away relatives and
friends will prevent congestion in the
postoffice service during Christmas
week. The postoffice department has
made liberal rules for Christmas
packages. It used to be against the
law to write anything inside of mail
matter not of the letter class. But
Postmaster General Burleson, enter
ing into the spirit of the season, al
lows written sentences, such as “Mer
ry Christmas,” “Happy New Year” or
“Best Wishes,” to go inside of the
parcel mailed.
In this year’s rule is also this re
mark. “On fly pages of books you may
write simple dedicatory inscriptions
not of a personal nature.” It is not
clear just what “dedicatory” means in
this connection, $ind it may require
ruling by the law division of the de
partment. “Sentiment” or “motto”
would have been the word, perhaps, to
convey the idea intended. How
ever, no one will higgle over ex
actness in definitions at this joyous
time. The main thing to keep in view
is, “Mail Early.”
■
Dual Personality
“With the mind I serve the law of
God; but with the flesh the law of
sin.” Romans 7, 25.
One of the most suggestive of
American books is Stevenson’s “Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Dr. Jekyll, ac
cording to the story, was a reputable
physician, kindly, handsome, sanguine.
Mr. Hyde was the baser self—the op
posite type entirely, cruel, lowering,
morbid. A powerful drug was the
instrument of transformation. When
the spell was on Dr. Jekyll would dis
appear and Mr. Hyde would have
his dark way. When the spell wore
off the fine, florid face of the physi
cian would reappear among his
friends. So the battle raged—the
higher against the lower. And the
lower slowly overcame. The spells
grew more frequent, longer, fiercer.
Dr. Jekyll was seen less and less. Mr.
Hyde more and more. Finally suicide.
That is not the history of every
suicide, and its ending is far from the
issue of every struggle; but every life
shows its battle between dual selves.
The old Zoroastrian antagonism be
tween good and evil, as represented in
Ormazd and Ahriman; our own con
ception of God and the Devil; Christ’s
cleansing of indwelling demons;
numerous well attested instances of
dual personality; Paul’s teaching as
expressed in the passage above; some
of the tenets of “New Thought;” and
our universal experience of warring
inclinations may all be grouped to
gether round about this subject. Not
all truth, but all related to truth.
There has been teaching that man
i* altogether and irretrievably bad,
which is false. There has been teach
ing that man is altogether good, which
is false also.
There has been teaching, again, that
man is altogether bad until God
touches him. The opposing school
here has taught that there is an ele
ment of good always in man upon
which God works. Wars have been
fought for this distinction. For my
part, it seems unnecessary of decision.
Of course, whatever good is in us
God put there. Whether before or
after birth is immaterial.
The point of importance to us is
that two men are in everybody—a
Dr. Jekyll and a Mr. Hyde—and that
it is our responsibility which rules.
Two natures lie to our hands—one the
knave, one the king; one the animal,
one the man. God is pledged by the
very law of our freedom to stand by
while we fight it out. But the upward
way is ours if we will to have it. God
is on the side of the man and the king.
HENRY M. EDMONDS.
5
\\ hen you He snug and warm under
a pair of blankets and an eiderdown quilt
on a cold night, you ought to feel for
the poor fellow who has no place to lie
and seeks a shelter under a tree or some
housecorner, covered with rags and un
able to move for the numbness," says the
editor of the Columbia Weekly News.
'Indeed we do feel for him, brother, and
we hope that a policeman will come along
soon and carry him to a snug modern
jail, where he can enjoy all the comforts
of home.
___
The report that golf Is driving out the
tango In New York restaurants will
doubtless be hoard With lively interest
by the Russian dancers who came over
here for thif classic purpose of putting
the kibosh on the tango.
Dr. Blake left the operating table In
the American hospital In Paris, washed
his handR, Jumped Into & limousine, went
and got married and then returned to
the operating table. That’s our Idea of
a busy man.
A Washington playwright claims that
Raymond Hitchcock’s show. "The Beauty
Shop,” was stolen from him. The Fed
eral league seems to have landed Walter
Johnson. Washingtonians are having
hard luck.
The young woman who tried to em
brace Secretary Bryan is suspected of
being crazy. If she had tried to kiss
him on his shining dome of thought she
might have been suspected of being a
Joker.
The Chicago News speaks of the cook
who captures the household by her 42
centimeter buckwheat cakes. And pro
motes acute indigestion by the same
means.
King George will never know what it
really means to be at the front until
he spends a rainy night in the trenches.
The Kaiser’s villa on the Island of
Corfu is for sale. A straw that shows
which way the wind blows.
Champ Clark says politics cannot stop
prosperity. Unfortunately, the same thing
cannot be said of war.
Santa Claus may yet visit Belgium, but
if he does he'll have to show his pass
port to the Germans.
There are 70,000 drug users in the United
States and several million consumers of
baseball "dope.”
There are about 7,000,000 Belgians who
would be glad right about now to eat
a possum dinner.
Amos Plnchot seems to consider him
self the official mourner for the pro
gressive party.
Conditions in Haiti are again reported
normal. That Is, Haiti is showing signs
of unrest.
The allies seem determined to fight it
out along those lines if it takes all win
ter.
The early shopper said: "I'll wait."
Now conscience crfes: "It is too late!"
AN IMPRESSION OF GORKY
From the Craftsman.
"Once w’hen I was singing In Nijn!
early in the morning.” said Chaliapine,
Russia’s greatest singer, "I looked oul
and saw Gorky standing at a window
in the same hotel, and gazing sllentl)
over the city. The sun was shining or
the towers of the churches, over the sil
ver river and turning the roofs red. 'You
are up early,' I spid. ‘Yes,’ lie answered
’Come in my room for a moment.’ Wher
I reached his window I saw that he had
tears in his eyes, and I did not under
stand. ’Look,’ he said to me, ‘how beau
tiful it is. Just the world and not a
human being anywhere. The humaniti
which has made its gods and its laws
built Its houses and Its churches, al
asleep and helpless as children, powerless
to change or adjust all this that it has
made.’ ■
“He spoke very softly and very sweet
ly, and for the moment he seemed to m<
the most perfect human being in the
world. Truly one of Russia’s flowers ol
genius.”
LUKE M’LUKE MAYS
From the Cincinnati Enquirer.
When mother complains about havinf
too much work to do around the house
daughter is always considerate enough tc
ask mother why she doesn’t hire some
one to help her with the work.
When a woman babies a poodle and
claims that it Is as human as she is, may
be she is correct.
Father will cheerfully wipe on a greasj
roller towel in a public place ajid thin!
nothing of it. But if one of the children
wants to share his towel when he li
wiping his hands at home, father get*
highly indignant.
When daughter is little she believes al
that father says. But mother knows that
daughter will grow up and get some sense
later on.
Once tn a while a couple get along sc
nicely together that any tlihe she agrees
with him, he knows he is wrong.
The less hair a woman has when she
Is working in the kitchen the more she
has piled in a dresser drawer upstairs.
Any fat woman can tell you that the
handicapper had a grudge against hei
when he allotted her wfeight for age.
When a man spends a lot of time look
ing dignified he forgetp that he looks
and aJts like a butler in a cheap play.
When a man is always announcing tha
he is' as good as anybody, you can be
that/he Isn’t
I »
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
lluftfneMM In Chicago and New York
"Business conditions have been very
good in Chicago for sometime—two
months I would say; and I am glad to
learn that New York has taken on new
life,” said Joseph W. Wiltshire of the
lake metropolis.
*‘I was in New York, about two weeks
ago, and business was improving there
then. But I am told that the improve
ment is still more marked now’. I think
it safe to say that in January or by the
first of February at least the whole
country will be abounding In pros
perity.”
A Fine Concert
“The music lovers and all concert
goers of Birmingham should show their
apreciation of the work the Arion club
Is doing by attending the concert at the
Jefferson theatre next Tuesday night," j
said a man who has been long identified
with the musical world.
"in several southern cities one may
find choruses of creditable achievement,
but the Arion chorus—about 60\ male
voices—easily surpasses any similar or
ganization with which I am familiar.”
Regarding the Weather
"We will not have very much freez
ing weather until about the middle of
January,” said an old weather obser
ver, "but the mercury will drop almost
to zero before the winter Is gone.
“This cool spell we are having just
now will give way to a little Indian
summer within the next three or four
days.”
Return* to Birmingham
H. F. Wilson, Jr., the well-known civil
engineer, has returned to Birmingham
after an absence of more than two and
a half years. He went from here to
Cuba in the spring of 1912, and remained
there until last summer, w’hen he came
to Mobile, where he had remained until
now.
"Ir. Cuba I was engaged on railroad con
struction,” said Mr. Wilson. "English cap
ital had come in large sums to Cuba. By
the way, there is very little capital there
except English, or at any rate England
has the most. The railroad work was
progressing satisfactorily until the Eu
ropean war started. In Cuba we had an
intimation of the w’ar several wreeks be
fore Germany’s declaration. The com
pany building the railroad did not w'ait
for actual hostilities in Europe, but
stopped work suddenly as soon as it got
the tip. Cuba had been prospering, but
now financial conditions there are bad,
or rather that was the way conditions
were when I left.
"Mobile was prospering and going right
ahead when the war came, but the ship
ping business in our Alabama port dropped
off suddenly. There is now a general
improvement in this country, and I be
lieve that early in the new year there
will be plenty of work for engineers and |
contractors both here and in Cuba."
Memorizing and Study of the Bible
"Systematic study of the Bible Is now
becoming a firmly established branch of
Sunday school work, and those who fol
lowed The Age-Herald’s reports of the
Baptist Bible Training school which closed
Friday after a five-days' session, could
but be impressed with the high degree
of efficiency In Bible class and church
activities," said an old layman.
"Bible training should have a decided
appeal for intelligent young men and
young women religiously inclined, but
along with the training the old habit of
memorizing scripture should be revived.
Every boy and girl should be required
by parents to memorize certain portions of
the good book. Ruskln, the great art
critic and man of letters, was In hlB
day distinguished above all others for
Ills pure and eloquent English. He was
Intensely religious by nature, and while
he may not have been much of a church
goer In his later life, he never forgot his
Bible. Recently in looking over the last
book which Ruskln published—‘Prae
terita’—a charming autobiography, l
found this, which may be of interest at
this time: 'Walter Scott and Pope's
homer were reading of my own election,
but my mother forced mo. by steady toll,
to learn long chapters of the Bible by
heart, as well as to read It every syl
lable through, aloud, hard names and all,
from Genesis to the Apocalypse, about
once a year; and to that discipline—pa
tient, accurate and resolute—I owe not
only a knowledge of the book, which *
find occasionally serviceable, but much
of my general power of taking pains, and
the b?8t part of my taste In literature.
From Walter Scott’s novels I might eas
ily, as I grew older, have fallen to other
people's novels; and Pope might, perhaps,
have led me to take Johnson’s English, or
Gibbon’s, as types of language; but, once
knowing the S2d of Deuteronomy, the 119th
Psalm, the 16th of First Corinthians, the
Sermon on the Mount and most of the Apo
calypse, every syllable by health and hav
ing a way of thinking with myself what
words meant. It was not possible for me,
even in the foolishest times of youth, to
write entirely superficial or formal Eng
lish; and the affectation of trying to
write like Hooker and George Herbert
was the most Innocent 1 could have fallen
Into.’ ”
The Blrmlngham-Vandlver Highway
"The Blrmlngham-Vandlver and East
ern highway will connect this city with
a very important nearby territory,” said
a prominent business man.
"The road rung through Shelby coun
ty, and le one of the most Important
connections In a highway to Atlanta via
Talladega and Anniston. The section of
Shelby county that It opens up has never
been available to us before.
"Vandiver Is on the Central of Georgia
railroad. 20 miles from Birmingham by
rail. It is Just beyond the second tunnel
of the Central of Georgia. It Is aboul
21 mlleB from here by a dirt road, and
, on account of the mountain through
which the tunnel runs, It is Impossible
to reach Birmingham by private con
veyance, .without going about 45 miles,
or more than double the distance. Some
Birmingham men became Interested In
having a good road built through thal
section from a public-spirited viewpoint,
for they have no property there.
"Dunlvant. which Is a station this side
of Vandiver, and Just beyond the first
tunnel from Birmingham, and of course
between the two tunnels ,1s tied up equal
ly as bad, If not worse, than Vandiver
While they are only a few miles from
Leeds, they have to go all around the
world to get out. Over a year ago the
parties referred to and the people of Van
diver got together and haef a barbecue
, and launched a campaign for a road tc
Birmingham. This would open up to Bir
mingham and Deeds a section of the
1 country that has never had access tc
these towns, excepting by railroad, ant
It would give the people of that sec
tion an opportunity to trade In Birming
ham that have never enjoyed such ben
| eflt. before.
* "On account of the financial conditio*
| ■ ADRIFT WITH THE TRIES
A PHILANTHROPIST
Upon his monuments so grand,
Are fulsome praises carved.
Who never lent a helping hand.
Though hapless thousands starved.
He knew not what it was to feel
A fellow mortal’s rue
And ground beneath bis brutal heel
God’s little children, too.
Through weary years he toiled to gain
The wealth o^ which he dreamed;
Indifferent to others’ pain.
He fought and lied and schemed.
Grown old at last, his coffers full,
He gave that all might see,
Foul whispers of his past to lull.
And died in sanctity.
A STRENUOUS UPLIFT
/■
“Any civic improvements going on about
here?” asked the stranger in Hawkins
Gulch.
“Yep, I think there is," answered the
landlord of the Hawkins hotel, as a fusil
lade of shots rang out.
“Sounds more like a riot.”
“Nope. The sheriff an’ a couple of
deppytles started out a little while ago
to round up Colorado Hank and Mexican
Pete, an’ I guess they’ve found ’em.”
A HOUSEHOLD HELP
"My wife’s an Ingenious woman.”
“Can do almost anything, I suppose,
with a hairpin?”
“Oh. she has the average woman's pro
ficiency with a hairpin, but what I had
In mind was the great variety of uses to
which she can put a discarded safety ra
zor blade.”
QUITE SMALL
“Young Dubson seems quite proud of
the fact that his employer has not re
duced his salary because of the financial
stringency.”
“I daresay that’s because he's already
gettfhg a salary which might be called an
‘irreducible minimum.' "
GRUESOME
'Mong sights I do
Not care to see
Is Arizona's
“Hanging bee.”
TWO POINTS OP VIEW
“A fellow told me yesterday that he
didn’t know one golf stick from an
other!” snorted the golf enthusiast. “Can
you beat it?”
“Sure I can,” replied the baseball fa
natic. “I met an individual recently who
didn’t know what I meant when I said
a pinch hitter planted a blngle in the
right garden.”
WAR IN WINTER
I do not want to shoot and fight
And shed my brother’s blood.
Nor am I one who would delight
In trenches filled with mud.
A rain of shrapnel seems to me
The worst kind of a storm.
And ’less one battles constantly.
He simply can’t keep warm.
A FEARFUL FANCY
“Tipperary, I presume, Is still the same
distance from London that it alw'ays
was?”
“To be sure.”
“But these Britishers who are obsessed
by Zeppelins, Beem to think that Berlin Is
closer.”
A GOOD CLEANSER
j "I have always read the ‘household
hints’ department In the newspapers."
‘"Why, you're a bachelor.-’
•'That’s true. Still, I like to be well In
formed. For Instance, that’s how I
learned that ammonia la used for some
thing else besides making lee.”
DANGEROUS PROCEEDINGS
It takes a dame
Who's up to tricks
To play the game
Of politics.
No party boss
We’ve ever met 1
Dared doublecross
A suffragette.
OF COURSE
'A Chicago woman obtained a divorce I
from her husband because he branded her
on the leg with a red-hot poker, just
as If aha were "a pony on a western
range." Cruel and Inhuman, was It not?
The last way In the world to keep a wife
attached to one.
DOING HIS PART
Lamorlette, head cook of the Restaurant
Vatel In Paris, wh6 has had charge of
General French’s culinary establishment j
since the beginning of the war, prides !
himself on producing a new dish every
day. He has already passed hts one
hundred and twenty-second. Assuredly, \
the kitchen hath Its heroes no less than
the firing line. PAUL COOK. j
PROBLEHS OF GREAT CITIES
From the Baltimore Evening Sun.
THE most recent murder sensation in
New York recalls some aspects of
the Rosenthal assassination of a
few years ago, but it is much less com
plex and far-reaching in its character. It
does not appear to have any connection
with a wide system of official graft, as
did the Rosenthal case, nor to show, as
that did, the regular interrelation of the
activities of the underworld and of the
agencies of the upper world established
for the repression of crime. No such gen
eral alliance is indicated by the murder
of the wholesale poultry dealer Barnet
Baff, but there are some singular simi
larities between the crimes that seem to I
prove the power of criminal suggestion!
and imitation; and like its predecessor'
it raises some broad questions, very vital
to civilization and to all human associa
tion.
Baff owned an extensive string of stores
in Greater New York, and as an inde
pendent dealer is said to have excited the
animosity of the poultry combine by
cutting prices and by the fight that he
conducted against it in 1911, which re
sulted in the conviction of a number of
its members. He is also said to have
made an enemy of some of the poultry
Inspectors for the Live Dealers’ Protective
association. Baff objected to paying a
tax of $1 a car imposed by the inspectors,
| on’the grouiid that the inspectors w ere
paid by the protective assocination, and
that the tax assessed by the inspectors
was simply graft or blackmail. One of
these inspectors, named Harry Cohen, be
tween whom and the murdered man in
tense bitterness had grown out of this
question, has been arrested in connection
with the murder. Baff was shot down
In the street near one of his stores in1
the early evening on Tuesday of last
week by several men who escaped In an
automobile.
Except for the use of a motor vehicle
as a modern criminal convenience, and
except In the fact that it was the culmi
nation of a feud, probably growing out
of refusal to submit to blackmail, the
Baff case is far less spectacular and
ominous than the conspiracy between po
lice officials and criminals which ended
in the gunmen’s open shooting down of
Rosenthal. Yet as an illustration of the
dangers involved in such huge aggrega
tions of humanity as are brought together
in municipal areas like New York, it is
calculated to make us all pause, even in
the midst of the crimes of war, to con
sider the familiar crimes of peace, and
to wonder how these problems of the
great city are to be met and solved. One
thing which contains some element of
comfort for our national pride in connec
tion with the subject, although it may be
somewhat discouraging to the social phi
losopher in search of a remedy, is the
fact that this problem is not merely an
American one. We cannot be twitted with
such crimes as the result entirely of poli
tics in our municipal administration and
of consequent police Inefficiency. Paris,
London, Berlin and all large cities pre-v
sent the same criminal symptoms from
time to time, many of these symptoms
Indicating far greater malignity in the
moral and social diseases which they
represent, and far more deeply seated
causes for those diseases, than the out
breaks in our own country. The best
governed cities reach a certain point,
but beyong municipal efficiency and the t
machinery of clean and honest govern
ment there Is still a goal, either in mor
als or in sociology, or perhaps In both,
which nobody has yet reached. The mod
ern city Is the natural jungle and refuge I
of social outlaws, as the forest and the
mountain were at an earlier period. Their
natural haunts have been destroyed, and '
they are safer in the crowds than in the ■
solitudes. In a community numbering 5,
000,000 people It is obviously Impossible
for the most efficient police system that
could be organized to keep track of the
innumerable professional criminals whom
the city’s opportunities Invite. When to
these are added the recruits of poverty,
ignorance, temptation and of congenital
Inheritance, it is easy to see what an
Immense task confronts the future in
connection with the government of large
cities.
Possibly It mny he regarded as an idle
dream to think it practicable ever to abol
ish the city Jungles and the wild beasts
that Infest them. But sooner or later, j
if cities continue to grow at their present 1
rate of increase, that Is a problem which a
tlie world will have to face, because In
every large city, as at present consti
tuted, anarchy lurks beneath civiliza
tion, and the handlt forces of society are
ready to spring at Its throat at the
first opportunity. The social conscience
and socialism must play a dominant part ;
in this future reform—not the socialism
of revolution, not the solalism which
seeks to destroy individualism, but the
Intelligent and scientific through which
will seek to restore and conserve the ge
nial health by removing the causes which
multiply community criminals.
of Shelby It was Impossible to get the
county to assume the building of this
road, so a campaign was started to raise
the money to lend the county, in order
that the county could get the benefit of
the state aid. This arrangement has
been made, and the advertisements are
ready and the contract will be let on De
cember 21 at Columbiana. Anyone desir
ing Information concerning this road or
to bid on it can address W. S. Keller,
state highway engineer, Montgomery.
"When this road is completed the dis
tance from Birmingham to Vandiver will
be 20 miles, and to Vincent about 30
miles; It will be the most direct way
to Talladega and In reality to Atlanta.
It will also give a direct road to Chlld
ersburg, Sylacauga, Goodwater, Alexan
der City, Dadeville and Opelika. People
from Dadeville and Opelika visiting Bir
mingham now have to come around by
Talladega, Anniston and Ashville. The
mountains at Vandiver and Dunivant have
been the great obstacles, as they were im
passable.
"The survey was originally made by
A. C. Onlcy, who laid out the Atlanta,
Birmingham and Atlantic railroad, and
he claims that the road can be had across
the mountain on about B per cent grade.
A recent report of one of the state high
way engineers, B. H. Cobbs, (mnflrms
this."
GERMAN WAR SONGS
From the English Review.
This Intellectual sentimentalism, which
the Kaiser found It so easy to play upon.
Is revealed In the grandeur of their mar
tial songs and the reverence with which
they sing them. "Die Wacht am Rhein,”
"Zwel Grcnadlere,” "Deutschland uber
AUes,” "Hell Dir Im Slegeskranz"—these
are no ordinary songs of patriotism. They
are pregnant with old German thought
and tradition. Like the melody of the
Lorelei, they reflect the deep roots of
German romance, of German thwarted
loves and ambitions; they are the living
voice of the old Gothic cathedrale. No
country In the world has ouch cherished
traditions as the Germans. There la a
quality In their music which seems to
spring out of memories of the soil, of
the castles, of the Father Rhine. The
students at the universities meet and
drink precisely as their ancestors did
In Luther's time. Lore, sentiment, tra
dition, antiquity—these are a national
cult, risible in the national respect for
learning and research. It Is no exaggera
tion to say that the Germans are still
steeped In medieval thought and habit—
the proud and conscious "barbarians” of
Europe. So In the young Emperor they
saw nothing untoward or artificial. He
seemed to Germane to stand at their head
as the very "gelst" of their genius, the
Iilcorporate figure of the true German
valor, armed cap-a-ple like some heaven
sent emissary of Wotan to bring deliver
ance to hie people.
A MUNIFICENT . REWARD
From the Philadelphia Evening Ledger.
The Guggenhelma smelt tin and the
fish trust tin smelts. Anyont finding the
conundrum to thl sanawer may keep it
ALABAMA SANCTUMS
Fort Payne Journal: If prosperity Is
just around the corner we wish, like
one of Dickens’ chairmen, that some
body would get jjehind it with a brad
awl.
Jasper Mountain Eagle: Those Euro
pean countries are awfully slow with
their wars. Why, Mexico has had three
wars since spring and has started another
one.
Shelby County Sun: Hon. Oscar W.
Underwood, United States senator-elect,
says In an Interview, "this country is
Just upon the verge of an immense pros
perity wave.’’ Let her wave.
Centerville Press: Seven hundred and
fifty-six unemployed men registered with
the employment bureau in Birmingham
on Thanksgiving day, and the papers say
that the men were thankful that they
were living. We have a little Belgium
right here in Alabama, and the condi
tions are going to grow worse unless
something Is done to give employment to
these people.
Montgomery Times: The Birmingham
Age-Herald says that "Booker Washing
ton fears that European immigrants may
crowd southern negroes out of their Jobs.
Pullman portering is in no danger from
that source." The Age-Herald Is rather
facetious in suggesting, or rather, inti
mating that Pullman porters are about
the only ones who have their Jobs safe.
We don’t know so much about that, but
we do know that at the Tuskegee In
dustrial institute they are teaching the
negro and qualifying him for almost any
Job, and when they send them out, they
are imbued with the idea that it is hon
orable to work, and that the white peo
ple of the south are their friends.
THE HELPFUL FAD
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
"It’s really remarkable, don’t you know,
how strong the new knitting fad is," de
clares Clarence. "All the girls and all
their mothers are dropping stitches and1
picking them up again and counting so-1
many-tlmes-’round, and clicking away to1
beat the typewriter. I went up to call on I
a stunning girl the other night, and there |
she was knitting in the midst of mother j
and aunties and younger sister—regular i
peach—all of them knitting. I sat down—
j on somebody’s knitting that was left In
the chair and the talk went something
| like this: "How do you do, Mr. Mush
lelgh—click-click all busy; you see
dick, click, click—five, six, seven, eight—'
is that turned too soon, ma?—yes, in
deed, it’s dreadful—click, click—I suppose
you are all knitting at your house, too?—
click, click—there, I've finished another
sock-dear me, ^Kitty’s got my ball of
yarn!—will you get It, please, Mr. Mush
leigh?—take care, she’ll scratch you!—did
i she?—dear, dear—but lt’e all for the good
cause—must you go?—auntie, do I cast eft
here?—click, click—goodby.’ '*
GUARDING AGAINST POT HUNTERS
From tlto Youngstown Telegram.
Farmers down Salem way have organ
ized to protest themselves from the depre
dations of city hunters who have a non- !
chalant way of tearing down fences and,
In their enthusiasm in the pursuit of rab
bits, shooting under granaries in an en
deavor to bring their quarry Into the open.
Of course, they occasionally hit a pig or
a pedigreed cow for which they are willing
to apologize profusely.
The trouble with the city huntsman ia
that as soon as he Is away from police
surveillance he loses sight of the fact that !
there is any such a thing as ownership.
He would not think of blazing away to
ward a store front, but he is absolutely
reckless when It comes to aiming toward
a farmer's bam. Things are owned quite ■
as much In the country as they are In
the city, although It looks like one grand
out-of-doors to some nlmrods.
There Is a time in the growth of a com
munity that hunting passes out of exist
ence. There is nothing worthy of the
name In Mahoning county where all of
the so-called game Is more or less tame
and a great temptation to pot hunters who
like to rest their guns in forked sticks j
and whistle to make the bunnies sit up j
before firing.
The hunter who hunts in Mahoning
county, coming back with game which
met death because it had been led to be
lieve mankind was friendly, would be j
hopelessly outclassed If he were to go to
some place where the game had a chance.
TOO MANY “NULLIES”
From the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink
doesn't qualify as a reporter. As they
would say up In Berks county, she is too
free In the use of her "nullies."
She writes from here that In New lotk
alone "100,000 Irish are ready to embraeo
the first opportunity to go to Germany and ;
help." Unless all the reporters In Gotham
have been Boldierlng on their assignments,
this popular contralto has at least five
"nullies." Too many In that estimate, a 1
nully, as you know, being a cipher. i
Fancy a Broadway policeman or a Tam
many truckman taking orders from a i
Prussian drlllmaater! It wouldn't surprise
me more to see a Milwaukee brewer en- !
listed under tile banner of the Coldstream
guards.
No, we all talk a whole lot about the !
war, but are not quite willing to allow
those on the ground to fight It out Any*
how, why should a foreigner who has a
home in America swap It for a grave in
Europe
• — I
THE SONG OF DAVID
By Robert Browning.
Oh, our manhood's prime vigor! No spirit
feels Ti'uptc
Not a muscle lit stopped in Its playing
now sinew unbraced.
Oh. the wild Joys of living! Ths leaping ,
from rock up to rock.
The strong rending of boughs from ths
fir tree, the cool silver shock
Of the plunge In a pool's living watsr,
the hunt of the bear, j
And the sultriness showing a lion is
couched In his lair.
And the meal, the rich dates yellowed
over with gold dust divine.
And the locust flesh steeped in the pitch
er, the full draught of wins, i
And the sleep in the dried river channel
where bulrushes tell
That the water was wont to go warbling
so softly and well.
| How good is man's life, tbs mere living!
1 How fit to employ
All the heart and the soul and the T~itf
darever In Joy l ‘