The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-30
COMMENTS ON MEN AND
 MATTERS OF THE WORLD

distant future and at present the best thing for the ambitious explorer to do Is to wait until adequate facilities are at hand
 Frederick L. Hoffman. an eminent inc surance statstician, makes the startling announcement that altruistic suicide is prevalent in this country. By his tables he shows that there is a progressive in- crease in the suicide of males. aged S5 and over, representative of the period of life which includes the larger proportion of male risks insured with life insurance companies" It is a sign of the progress made by the American people toward that atheistic indifference to death and after life which marked the decadent Ro- mans, when so many are willing to end their lives that other persons may get the benefit of their insurance. Are we becoming less afraid of the dread angel. or is it because the influence of religion in this country. has ceased to sway mems minds so powerfully as in the old days when the stern Puritans looked on self destruction as the most awful of crimes? When the prevalence of suicide became marked in this country it was customary to attribute the deed to mental abbera- ton in order to preserve the dead per- son in the estimation of his friends. Now even that is becoming obsolete and we say man destroys himself to escape bus mess troubles, to separate himself from an unpleasant wife, or simply because he is tired of life. It seems that we are rap idly nearing that stage where suicide is regarded as a convenient method of get ting out of the world and is simply a matter of expedieney. We may yet reach the point where the poetic end of Petro- nius will be duplicated every day.
 After rumors probable and improbable, the news has at last leaked out that Mrs. Carrie Nation will tread the boards and reach the sublime heights of melodrama as the heroine of Ten Nights in a Bar room." An industrious press agent has already begun work and neatly type-writ- ten bulletins have been sent broadcast over the land stating that the Kansas Cyclone will do stellar stunts" in the well known play during the approaching season and will make her first appearance
 
 atre. Ten Nights in a Barroom was one of the ten best selling books turned out in the year 1854 and has retained it's popularity among a certain class of read CTS until this day. It is predicted that the part of the heroine will necessarily have to be strengthened in order to give scope to Mrs. Nations particular talent and she will no doubt make de- cided hit among the lovers of the drama that is lurid. R. E. Johnston ofNew York will have the uncertain felicity of acting as Mrs. Nations manager-in theatrical sense. The Baltimore Herald remarks that time for her at one of the local warwhoop melodrama houses is being sought
 Flaw Pc Sung, a San Francisco China man, has embraced Catholicism. He is said to be the first member of his race in California to adopt that faith and his conversion to any religion Is the excep- tion rather than the rule. Missionaries are constantly making efforts to improve the condition of the Celestials. but they have an extremely hard task, and their labors meet with less success than in any other branch of religious work. In the first place, when a Chinaman comes over here he comes with the fixed determina- tion to make some money and return to the land of his fathers. He has no idea of giving up his cherished gods and will cling to his native customs as long as pos- sible. The isolation which the Chinese preserve while in this country is largely responsible for their success in resisting the encouragement of modern civilization. Segregated in their quarters. usually call ed chinatown" they are enabled to live almost exactly as they did in the Flowery Kingdom. In addition. when they have a district allotted for their occupancy. they stay there and hold aloof from the people about them. It is a proud day in the life of a Chinaman when he has amassed enough property to return to his native land P C.