The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-08

H HE Cuban senate is busy consd- Vt ering the lottery bill and has all
 ready passed the first article. President Palma has signifed his inten- tion of yetoing the measure. but there seems to be no doubt that it will pass both houses, although, it is not believed that the majority vote will be large enough to overcome veto. For a race of people like the Cubans lotteries are the breath of life. The senators probably recognize the demands of their consti- tuents since they have so promptly placed their approval on the first article in the bill. Although no one denies the evil ef- fleets of lotteries it Is exceedingly hard to keep them down, and if not permit ted by law they usually manage to reach their client through the mails from other governments. Mexico probably has the largest legalized lottery in the world, and draws from 1t a very handsome rev enue.
 A dinner was recently rendered to Homer Davenport at which some of the men he has caricatured were present. It
  ed any embarrassment when confronted by his victims, although the affair was expressly arranged to bring MT. Daven- port and these gentlemen together. Amer ican people are always glad to see MT. Davenport honored and do not hesitate to show him much attention, for his drawings have impressed many great truths on the public mind that might have been forgotten. He occupies an uni que field in American art and one in which he is considered to be a master l Although there are a legion of artists and | cartoonists in the metropolis, many of them men of great talent, none has achieved the popularity and fame that have fallen to MT. Davenport.
 l In reply to joint note from Austria and Russia regarding more reforms tie sultan begs to state that he has already reformed. that pleasant operation hav- | ing been finished last spring, and does not see why he should go through the same thing again. The trouble with the sultan is that he does not stay reform | ed Probably the Ottoman government | is quite sincere when those promises are made. but when the fear of a slap from | Europe fades away matters are as bad | as before. Within the past twenty years i it is interesting to conjecture just how l many times the sultan and his affairs I have appeared in print and how many | millions of times his name has been set mn by much enduring typos. And yet | he is just as live a topic today as ever, with the prospect that he will continue to occupy his interesting position until ] the portals of time are closed upon all Musselmen.
 l Now that President Roosevelt has been | called volcano of eccentricity' it is | time for him to retire from the public stage in confusion. This novel and orig ina! epithet was applied to the executive by a populist leader out in Kansas, and is eminently worthy of the great cyclone state Speaking of the populists reminds | one of what a back number this party has become in national politics. Never a power by itself populism has been ridiculed and cuffed about by sharp /, tongued orators until it has almost been laughed out of existence. The United States is a fertile field for politics and l perhaps no other country in the world permits the game to be played amid more | exciting environs. As a result of this quality of American life it is easy for a
 party to spring up and die out without