The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-17
COMMENTS ON MEN AND
 MATTERS OF THE WORLD
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To hear such a person talk makes the listener long for the seclusion of sani- tarium or else the privacy of state prison. Who will dare stem the tide? Possibly there are men who rely on ''cute" to express their feelings. If so, they should be an abomination unto themselves. At present there seems no hope of abolishing the word from the English language. If Dame Fashion could be persuaded to set upon it the mark of her disapproval its fate would be sealed. But alas. there is no hope.
 When one comes to think of 1t there Is a remarkable lack of interest manifested in submarine discoveries and the scien- tific wonders of the deep. Although the public press is copiously supplied with cuttings regarding arctic explorations, aerial navigation, electrical inventions and hundred other subjects with which man Is busy, there Is a decided absence of descriptive articles concerning the sea. Perhaps this apathy Is due to the fact that marine flora and animal life is rather difficult to study. or perhaps our scien- lists think they know everything about the sea they want to know. At any rate there are few authorities on sea flora and fauna.
 The Prince of Monaco Is, perhaps. the most noted student of marine wonders. and, thanks to the handsome revenues of Monte Carlo, he has acquired an ex- tensive knowledge of the life and flora that thrives beneath the ocean. After reading Jules Vernes fascinating account of the trip of the Nautilus twenty thou sand leagues under the sea and the scien- tific discourses of Captain Memo, 1t Is hard to curb an interest in such matters. Although the scientific nomenclature Is too tedious for the average person, there are wonderful romances stored away in the sea, all the more interesting that they are true, and it Is to be regretted that the public is so scantily supplied with the knowledge.
 After spending s. 900 in an effort to shorten the Central, or Union Pacific. railway by bridging an arm of Great Salt Lake, the project seems now miserable believed that success had crowned their labors, and 8 party of jubilant officials, among them MT. Hartman, attended the exercises, which were to mark the cut offs completion. But the fond hope that firm foundation had at last been secured was soon proved deuson. The great piles gave way, the track began to sink, and now the problem is as far from solu- ton as ever It is now believed that the 1.a1 off 1 1aIya io art nf folx- sand, thinly covered by a crust of diluvial mud. It is stated that this quicksand ex- tends under the ground as far as Ogden, a distance of about forty miles, where it was discovered in sinking we'll Some en- gineers are convinced that the railway piles have just now entered the quicksand after piercing the upper crust. As the sand is of unknown depth and piles may be driven down many fathoms without touching bottom, it may readily be seen that the prospect Is not very hopeful.
 Now is the reign of patent medicine pamphlets and spacious circulars setting forth the virtues of a thousand blood purifiers guaranteed to cure all the ills flesh Is heir to or your money back. The beginning of the new year seems to be a signal and from January 1 until spring is far advanced the country Is literally flooded with such advertising matter. Each doorstep has its daily quota of pam phlets, and if they were saved until the rush subsided they would make a con- siderable pile. Some of these little books are purposely humorous, others are amusing without intending to be so; stilI others contain valuable" information, while many are conspicuous for wierd ex- amples of photographic art. But all do good, and no doubt amply repay the com panies that have them scattered broad cast over the country. Truly the secret of sudden wealth lies in manufacturing patent medicines, and if quack can dis cover a new method of destroying the taste of cheap whisky, thus compromising a blood purifier. his fortune is made.
 PC