The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-25
COMMENTS ON MEN AND
 MATTERS OF THE WORLD

rejected an offer to sing for $500 a night I
 Now Patti is coming again for another
 of her numerous farewells and the public
 is just as anxious to hear as in earlier
 years when she was a fresh young girl
 with an artists face. Patti is an elderly
 woman now but her magic voice yet re-
 tains it's marvellous sweetness and purity There is something pathetically numerous
 in her inability to tear herself away from
 the public. Time and again she has posi-
 lively announced that she would sing m
 more but the farewell tours proved to be
 nothing more than au revoir. as she has
 always come again. It now seems that
 Patti will sing for us as long as her voice
 lasts and the spark of life is not extin-
 guished.- But sine is nearing the time
 when an earthly farewell will have to be said, and it IS probable that this season is the last time her friends will have an op- portunity of hearing her voice. As an ev-
 idence of her sincerity this time the prima donna has chosen a beautiful American ballad. "The Last Farewell" in which to convey her goodbyes
  terson is making an effort to take back { some of his sharp remarks about the New York "4OO' that gave him much noto- riety over the land In his new lecture. Society" he takes pains to show that 1t is not the so-called smart set that is guilty of monkey dinners and other sense- less capers but the nouveaux rich. His audience was small but enthusiastic and when MT. Watterson had finished they went away satisfied that he knew where of he spoke True society does the heart of the distinguished Kentucxian good but it is very difficult to find the sharp demarkation separating the two divisions of real aristocracy and the newly rich. After all this kind of talk sounds strange in democratic America. When our fore fathers started out there was to be no aristocracy save that of manhood but now it seems that we have developed gradations even worse than those of old world nobility, for they are sometimes based on wealth alone
 After all his talk and bluster John Alex ander Dowie has made miserable failure Of his crusade on New York and when he returns to his city of Aion it will be with the realization that he is not such a big man in this country after all. New York is wise old town and her people have had so many sensations and new ideas laid at their doors that they are not easily upset. Like everybody else they like to see any new show, but wnen they have passed judgment upon it they are ready for something else. Dowie made the great mistake of allowing his temper to get the better of him. This is gloriously free country, or else his reeking tongue would have been silenced, but the people do not intend to accept his doctrine and his abuse at the same time. It is significant that Mrs. Dowie and her son have gone to Europe and their departure portends that the fight will soon be relinquished and the de- feated hosts take their leave. But Dowie has been widely advertised, and perhaps that was what he was looking for In the first place. If the papers had treated him with silent contempt his crusade would have been flat failure 1l would not have created a ripple irs metro- polls. The Mormons show much more wisdom in their methods. They are con- and believe in working quietly. In fact they have been laboring under the very nose of Prophet Dowie and it is rumored that they have carried off a large number of young girls from New York during the past few weeks
 Now that the fleecy staple has been gathered in and much of it sold. southern people as well as others will have to find a new subject for speculation. The crop is always a vital question at any time of the year. but is not of such general interest just now When planting and growing season begins an opportunity will be offered for fresh rumors and scares of all kinds. It is then that the prophets get in their work and speculators roll up their sleeve preparatory to taking a turn in the market. So far there were not many southerners this year who made handsome returns by cotton speculation. MT. Brown of New Orleans seems to have appropriated all that was made and the small spectators were compelled to do without any pelf. P. C.