The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-10-19
ETCHINGS FROM
CURRENT TOPICS,

facet a clear lake, comes the story
of the hopeless wreclzing of two mems
lives, John Armstrong Chandler and Ed
ward Langtry. One of these men is in
the very fullness of mature life; the
other YEARLY closed his tired eyes in
eternal sleep last Saturday in an Eng
Msh madhouse.
Both could have looked out a very
few years ago with fearless eyes upon a.
future bright and suspicious, with this
richness of hope and love- Both had
homes sweet and joyous with the pres-
ence of wives whom they loved, and
who loved them in return. Around the
horizon of their existence there were
no clouds, only the glow of a happiness
quiet and serene, until there appeared
grey mists, which came stealthily up
from the valleys, and which finally COW
cred the face of the earth for the two
men, one of whom still languishes in
an asylum for the insane.
To Langtry and Chanler life became
a fearful, impenetrable darkness, with
out single rift in the clouds to tell
that there was light beyond. While
these men fretted their tired brains into
the feverish imaginings of maniaes, be-
hind the sanitarium's bars and bolts.
how Jared it with the two women. whosa
love Of admiration and of gold brought
all this woe and anguish to two faith
full hearts?
Miss Amslie Rives, the former wife
OF Chanler, is already married to
Russian prince, and is about to insult
a respectable reading public with an
other miserable, cratic story. in which
she substitutes reckless daring for 1it-
erary genius.
The other woman, who stands also
charged before the bar of public opin-
ion with the mental and physical MUIR
der of her husband, is now preparing to
wed a foreign prince, and to reap the
benefit of his vast estates.
These women, one mailing from the
green, beautiful island of Jersey, the
other from the mountains of old Vir-
ginia, like the lorelies of poetic fable.
have sung their fatal melodies, and eter.
nal darkness has settled DOWN upon the
two men who heard the siren Songs, and
hearing. went to their arapls SIS, hopeless
fate.
The great sea of obscruity and DEATH
like silence has engulfed Langtry and
Chamber, while the women who wrecked
their lives still sing their songs and
tell their tales to other, but newer, VIC
tins. All womankind may blush and
hide its head when THE pitiful stories of
CHAMBER and Langtry's lives are told, for
they have gone to their mental and
physical deaths at the hands of women
and those women their wives but only
in name.
The present regulations, with all tha
red tape entanglements necessarily in
cidental to proper enforcement of the
quarantine laws for the protection OF
Alabama cities and towns against the
widespread yellow fever epidemic has
and iIliteracy of great numbers of sturdy
AlaIbamaians. Gray-headed men and
women are cons family found by the q ar
antine officers who cannot write their
names, and who are compelled to make
their mark instead with no more knowl-
edge of letters or books than the veriest
barbarians. Alabama can never go for
ward in the march of civilization until
the rudiments of an education are placed
within the reach of the humblest child
That grown white men and women, in
capable of writing their names, can be
found in numbers-not singly or sporadic
throughout this good state is a
disgrace to educated, intelligent citizens.
1t is condition which calls loudly fer
a change of existing laws and for am
alteration of the present constitution.
Perhaps the saddest feature of the whoIe
matter is the apparent satisfaction of the
illiterate with their appalling ignor-
ance.
Not until there is an educational test
of political suffrage will there be de-
sire for knowledge from many of the
voters of Alabama, who cannot ait pres
emit sign their names or read their tick
cts on election day. This condition
of illiteracy demands the immediate and
constant attention Of Alabama law
makers and politicians. That man who
asks Office at the hands of his fellow
citizens, and yet fears to take his stand
for the universal education of the mass
es, and an ultimate educational test of
suffrage, is not worthy of the confidence
of the voters of Alabama. He should
be left quietly at home, in the bosom of
his family, until his moral courage
equals his greed for Office.
BALL.
Gay Deceivers Ever.