The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-10
COMMENTS ON MEN AND
 MATTERS OF THE WORLD

Now that grafterS have "bobbed up'' in the militia their next field for conquest is perhaps the navy or the treasury. It is hardly probable that there is much oppor- tunity for boodling in the attorney gen. erals office, for most of his work is on paper and prospects in our agricultural department are equally discouraging, al- though a seed scandal would be a possi- bilitv. Some how it is hard to associate grating with the agricultural department. We generally consider it as removed from temptation and devoted to eleyating inter- ests appertaining to the soil. Possessing little executive power and being school of instruction for Uncle Sans farmers, the agricultural department has very lit- tie opportunity to offer for grafting. Now it Is really remarkable that something of this kind has not been unearthed in the treasury department. To unsophisticated minds this would seem to be the first objective point of all grafters. While official kleptomania is so prevalent in this great republic of ours one might think the treasury would not be neglected. There the cash is in sight and such round- about methods for stealing it are not re- quired However, peculation among men who handle national funds in the vaults is not unknown. Unless they get away with large sums they are summarily dis missed and nothing more is said about the matter. Some of these men have in- vented ingenius schemes for taking away a few dollars every day without being caught Some of them have been suc- cessful but nearly always come to grief in the end.
 The report that a man laughed himself to death over a joke perpetrated on the stage of a New York theatre, gives us hope that modern comedians are not yet beyond redemption. Usually their great trouble is in getting person to laugh at all, but where their success is so phe- nomenal as to cause death they may justly feel very proud. l. is not reported what the comedian in this particular case did, but he was no doubt greatly fiattered. In fact it was the greatest tribute the unfortunate spectator could pay to his humor Not all of us are will ing to be tickled to death but such a fate is preferable to sitting through some chestnuts too often inflicted on a long, suffering public. It has been maliciously hinted that the man who laughed himself to death in New York had never been in- side theatre before, and hence his un- controllable meriment If such is the case the proud comedian had better de- scend from his pedestral
 Thursday was moving day in Man churia and yet we heard not the rumble of vans nor the sound of distant tack hammers. In fact it begins to appear that no moving was done and the long promised evacuation by Russia is about as far away now as ever As a result rumors of war have been revived and correspondents again allow themselves 10 see clouds lowering on the international horizon. Meanwhile the bear growls over his little patch of ground in defiance to the doughty Jap and the heather Chinee. When the evac- uation will take place we dare not con- template. It may come In the course of time, but at what particular date it is hard to say. It is amusing to read dark rumors concerning what Japan will do
 
 are two subjects of international discus sion that have become decidedly hack neyed These are the Balkan troubles and the Manchurian situation. solu- tion of either seems hardly probable. If Turkey is restrained in the far east this time the same disturbances are liable to recur again. Indeed the question of what to do with Abdul Hamid and his government is something of a chestnut in the fire and none of the powers cares to pull it out. We have not yet reached that stage where the actions of another government in such an affair can be look ed upon without suspicion.
 Some statistican has found out that London is badly crowded. Charles Dick ems could have told us that long ago. While reformers are so busy in the land it is remarkable that some of them do not make more vigorous efforts toward alleviatng conditions in our crowded cities. If philanthropists would make a crusade on the wretched novels where human beings live like beasts and trans port the unfTtunates out into sunshine and open air they would do vast work for humanity. The task would be stu pendous, certainly but some of the money annually donated to libraries and col leges would found hourishing towns and farming enterprises where many people from the tenement districts of New York, for instance, could be given employment.
 P. c.