The age-herald., 1900-10-23
SKETCHES FROM
 EVERYDAY LIFE

that the world evoluted from a dew drop Solomon recommended the study of the ant to sluggards, and he might, hadrh known anything about it. have suggested the study of dew drop to the scientist. A drop of water consists of OH2, it pos seses reflective and refractiye properties, adhesion, gravity as well as beauty As a rule, however. people do not think much of it. Many a dew drop is born to blush unseen, and if seen would blush still more with shame at the lack of regard in which it is held.
 But when you get enough drops of water together to make an ocean, then the beau ty of it. the grandeur. and the vastness appeal to the dnllest heart and the densest doIt.
 "The sea, the seal the open sea!
 The blue the fresh, the ever freei
 1 never. was the dull, tame shore,
 But l loved the great sea more and more."
 On land a blade of grass like drop of water, meets with little regard. Yet there is a whole poem in it's life. It struggles for existence as hard and fierce as any man in business life It's chemical affinities and structure are more marvellous than those of a drop of water. It contains and pos sesses that wonderful mystery-ife, and Is subject to the laws of heredity. Yet with al, taking it alone it falls, and is an in- significant object. But take them by mil lions, make land sea of them, and the result is the most beautiful thing in nature "a lawn A we'll kept lawn is joy for ever to the eye. It revels and delights in it's Velvety smothness, and rests from the glare of the sun in its deep green shades. This to an American, especially a South erner, is more or less imaginary picture. Lawns do not flourish in the South for two reasons-first 1t takes money to make and keep lawn, and Southerners, as a rule, have no money; and second, they won't spend it on lawns if they have it.
 
 All this is mentioned as a kind of cur tain raiser to the statement that some lawns in Birmingham are not kept up as they ought to be. They seem rather to be kept down. They are really not lawns, though they look forlorn- This is inexcus- able in city where the front lots are small and water and grass cutters are abundant. Civic pride should induce the citizen. if the hired man won't do it, to cut and water his own grass. little plot of grass six feet square, if perfectly kept, is an optical delight and nothing sets off a house to better advantage. The front lawn too is an index to the habts of the pro- prietor. man who waters and tends his lawn is apt to be man who is personally neat and ceanly, while an unkempt lawn is like an unkempt shock of hair-you don't want to have anything to do with it, ex- cept to send its owner cake of soap. A barren lawn means but one thing-dirt every where and moral disease. All lawns look alike to some people, and more's the pitty most of them look alike in Birming- ham, and not a very good likeness is it.
 However, Birmingham Is posted up-to- date on some things. Those rare old curios known as bicycles, that our ancestors of a few years ago used to ride, are seldom seen the streets. Any historian interested in the bicycle craze and the costumes that were worn with them can look up the fash ion plates of a few years back. People who are that old say that the craze was so uni- versal that even ladies rode the wheel and wore very abbreviated skirts; some in order to abreviate them divided them. They kept both halves however. Women are frugal minded, and don't like to give things away. There is no doubt but what the bicycle did a great deal of harm, and that people rode to excess. They rode to other places, and some of them are still tired. Bicycle riding, physicians discovered, was bad for the heart. This was true. Goodhearted people would never have been cruel enough to pedal themselves to death as many people did. For years to come people will be drop pind dead from heart disease contracted in bicycling. It also affected peoples minds.
 Some of them were known to ride a thon- sand miles on their wheels. This was riding into the jaws of death and the mouth of hell surely as any of the Six Hundred. Possibly some of the factories still exist which manufactured these machines, but most of them have gone into the business Of making ruins for the country and adding to it's picturesqueness The most fortunate people were those who never learned to ride for they have one thing the less to be ashamed of Some of them, however, are guilty of the attempt, like the Irish wom- an, who when asked if she had learned how to ride, replied Faith no, Oi cannot bal anee ther blamed thing standing sthill. much less roiding."
 The spirit of Napoleonc France has en- tered Japan. Like the warriors of the great general who, fired with his genius overran Europe sweeping before them the oppos- ing armies, and joyfully marching on to death, the little Japs burning with an en- thusiasm whose origin is obscure, are per forming prodigles of valor in China. All the accounts speak well of their discipline, hu- manity and courage. In attacking Chinese town recently, it became necessary to blow up wall. The Japanese commander called for volunteers and five men responded. T only need two men," said the officer, and these two men will be blown up with the wall" Two of the five men promptly stepped forward and went to their death without a duiver.
 Illustrating the enthusiasm of the French for their Emperor, stories have been told ot the soldier whose arm was shot off seiz- Ing it with his other hand and throwing 1t in the air, crying, "Vive fEmpereur!' Ger tainly this is enthusiasm, but then an arm shot off is of value and might as well be thrown away as not. Then there is the French sea captain who had first one leg and then the other shot off by cannon balls at the battle of the Nile, and who had him. self stuck in a barrel of bran, where he contiued to direct the fignr until he was knocked over by a third cannon ball and killed. This also was enthusiasm Most men would have been satisfied to die when both legs were shot off without wanting, ti11ti q dn in