The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-16
GRAY & DUDLEY HARDWARE COMPANY FIRST 's9,sa AVENUE

window, for example, a lion; on another | an elephan.; on another a windmill; and
 so on. The passenger, leaving his com | pertinent, looks at this picture which Is | obviously much more easily remembered
 than q number. And when the train is 1 about to start he comes rushing along | the platform, repeating to himself, T am
 the elephant" or '1 am the windmill,"
 until he finds the compartment that be- | longs to him.
 When the North Pole is finally discov-
 cred, and there is nothing more to be | done in that direction the worlds curi-
 osity will probably turn more generally
 toward our Antarctic neighbors. At pres | ent very little is known about them be- l yond the fact that this population to the l south is not numerous and consists of 1 primitive and uncommonly self-con- | tented people whose food is largely pro- | vided by nature and whose labor is con- 1 ducted by whole communities working 1 together mucE as was sometimes the case | with our own pioneer ancestors.
 | Life at the South Pole has been de- scribed by at least one author, M. Henri Torneau, whose book Into the Ant arctic" gives a vivid picture of the re- zion as far as the writer had penetrated The Antarctlcans, he says, have no money, and no need of it. All the land is held in common and the harvests yield ordinarily more than enough for any inn mediate need, the surplus being stored away in large storehouses from which any number of the community may draw There are no soldiers nor lawyers, for wars and law cases are equally unknown {; and crime itself is practically non-exist- ent. Nor are there any schools. In many ways the Antarcticans resemble the an- cient Peruv.ans-so much so that only their difference in color immediately con- tradicts the notion of a common origin. And although without education, as we should consider 1t, they have a peculiar faculty of mental communication, or 'si- lent speech which seems to serve a dis tinct purpose of mental development.
 In London there is a society of boot blacks, officially known as the Central Shoeblack society, and more familiarity called "The Reds" on account of the scarlet tunics worn by the members as business uniform, that holds a yearly championship competition and awards a gold metal to the fastest operator. These competitors are conducted in the most serious and sportsmanlike fashion; cer- tain we'll known member of the aristoc- racy, for some years a special patron of the London shoeblack fraternity, is in- variably present and the prize is award ed only after a careful discussion by three Judges, one of them the manager of we'll known company of backing manufacturers
 The result of the latest competition Is something of a revelation in the time ac- tually necessary for a thorough-gong ex- pert to polish pair of shoes. The win ner broke all previous records and fin ished his task in exactly one minute-a performance all the more remarkable when one realizes that rapid workman ship is only one factor in awarding the medal and that the quality of the shine is equally important.
 About a fortnight before the competi- tion each boy in the society, which num- bers about 50 members, prepares a bal lot containing the names of the six boot blacks whom he considers the quickest and therefore the best qualified to com pete for the championship. From these ballots six competitors are finally select ed, each of course, having his own fol- lowing whose enthusiasm naturally adds jest and excitement to the competition as the great sporting event in the world of London shoeblacks. In the latest com- petition two shoeblacks finished in 60 seconds, and the title of champion went naturally to the more highly polished ex- hbit.
 
 According to Signor Bimboni, director of the school of opera recently estab- lished at the New England Conserva- tory of Music in Boston, the American soprano. the English contralto, the Slav- onic bass and the Italian tenor repre- sent the best typical vocal expression of these different nationalties-a statement at least so far as concerns England and America, strilSingly confirmed by the fact that the majority of women on this side of the pond speak Tn noticeably soprano tone while the greater number of Eng fish women quite as obviously talk con- tralto. In our own country, according to the same authority, some of the best voices for cperatic purposes come from the mountainous regions of the west. while some of the most artistic tempera- ments are found among southerners; as is also, despite popular impression to the contrary, a marked ability to master the hard work necessary to success in oper- atic study. Intermarriage between the sections, one might say, promises there fore to produce the truly great Ameri- can operatic genius.
 Familiar as we all are with tales of the stern discipline under which the young CT members of an effete European royal ty are brought up it is interesting to know that in the good old days" of the past, some at least of these royal young sters would have had regularly appoint ed proxies to take their whippings. Ed ward Vi of England had proxy named Barnaby Fitzpatrick, who doubtless faced the disciplinary music with grim sense of duty to this sovereign and was well rewarded afterward when the prince be- came king and made his former whipping boy one of his prime favorites. Charles l had also e whipping boy-although the possibility of cutting off the kings head by proxy doesn't seem to have occurred to Cromw sl-and Henvy w. of France, whom one might judge therefore to have been a frequent candidate for the rod had two of them; possibly. however, this was to divide punishment rather than because more of it came due than one whipping boy could fairly be expected to