The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-11-30
THE AGE OF STEEL
is NOW UPON US

From the New York Commercial Adver-
tiser.
Has scupper soul, a cylinder nerves, a
boiler vernacular of its own, and does
portfolio open consciously to the horizon.
1t is asked, that Mr.. Kipling should fasten
upon these rather than the ''higher inter-
ests" of life for his imaginative flights?
There is perhaps a poetic aspect of this
materialistic age but one who for mo-
ment contemplates the ingenious mechan-
ical devices whereby we are enslaving our
selves to an eggregiously complicated ex-
istence, adding bondage to routine daily.
will perceive that Kipling is not bad ex-
ponent of the time-spirit, and that the
seven seas do not hold half the triumphs of
this enlightened hyperciviized day at the
end of the century ''The 'eathen in is
blindness bows down to wood and stone
no more blindy and worshipfully than we
do to brass and iron and steel; and the mis-
chief of 1t is that the latter are entering
more and more into the simpicties of
dress and toilette, of household furnishings
and thousand other every day convent
ences, until 1t is so great an exercise of
wit for man or woman to disrobe, or to
equip a Harlem fat that they can give
little time or thought to each other and are
likely to forget that there are any "higher
interests than clockwork and electricity.
The main objection to these modern con-
trivances is, in many cases, their weight
Iron bedsteads formerly used in prisons)
combine so many excellencies, are so clean
ly and portable and breezy withal, that one
does not like to complain on wintry morn
ing even of their chilliness. But who has
mastered the contortions of an iron steamer
chair, with its slanting, misplaced legs, pro-
truding foot-rest and countless levers and
flying buttresses? And is it very pleasant
to hear these monumental mockeries roll
about on the floor above? More managea-
BILE, but proportonatey heavier, is the
steel-ribbed and topheavy opera hat now
in vogue, which has the open virtue of
causing it's wearer to stand erect lest her
chapeau fall tumbleways; and as for opera
glasses, only in Paris does it occur to any
one to have the most expensive lenses set
in aluminium; here the frames are loaded
with pearl-but women whose shoulders
support as ornaments chain armor of
metallic braids and fringes are quite willing
TO tire their WrlStS neeQleSSly. IL is more
surprising that we are content to travel
with valises that are heavier than their
contents, while those of our menials are
made of paper.
Finally, the bewildering intricacy of 1t
all! There are trunks that open into chif-
fonniers, and bedsteads that look like book
cases, and Others alas! that double up like
jack-knives. The ear-trumpet that does
service as cane or riding whip, and Is as
liable to be misconstrued as was an old
ladys by the milkman, is matched by a
theater hat, this time for women, :" the
trimmings of which can be removed while
on the head and transformed into q FAM"
There is a bicycle pump, propelled by foot
about the room, that has the appearance
and manifests the symptoms of battle
ship. And who has not heard of the book
which Mr. Dooley ranked next to the Bible
and Shakespeare-"thek kind that has TIL
Life Nv tn Pope on tn outside an a set iv
dominoes in TIL inside?"
Truly life Is complicated, onerous and de-
ceptive, and one signs for a stroll through
the Musee de Cluny, where the girdles and
headdresses and laces, the two fighting
women carved in wood, and the seven
tenth century writing tables, inaid with
tin, have at least the merit of elemental
simplicity.