The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-28
COMMENTS ON MEN AND
 MATTERS OF THE WORLD

lions that have already been sent to the south sea have brought back enough strange tales to give foundation to the widest theories and conjectures. but 1t is unfortunately all talk and what we know about the south polar regions is so little as to be almost nothing So far it is believed that this region Is denied to us and always will be until airships are so perfected that a flying trip can be made. In the meanwhile Commander Peary and others will continue to make frantic dashes at the north pole until they eventually find what they are looking for.
 Had 1t not been for that unfortunate postoffice investigation MT. Machen might have posed as model to aspiring youth. The man who can save s2OOOo year out of s3,50O Is certainly financial genius. A number of such budding fnanciers were nipped unexpectedly by the active Bristow
 Veterans of the green cloth may ridi- cule Senator Hanna's poker parlance. but President Roosevelt is satisfied that the ohioan plays the game of politics entirely too we'll
 According to the report of the treasurer Harvard university came out just $40.000 short in funds during the last academic year. The deficit occurred in the accounts of the university, college and library It is not generally known just how this state of affairs came about, but in view of the fact that an institution with a to- tai investment of $l5.S6S,5H at 4.6S per cent and a total of gifts during the year of $1,- 756, 41s can lose 4OO0O in one year there would seem to be something wrong. Yet 1t must be remembered that universities are expensive luxuries, if you will, and find no difficulty in spending all the money that phianthropists donate and then coming out in arrears. In fact a nice deficit is much to be desired because 1t is then easier to work on the sympathies of men with more money than leisure to spend 1t.
 Secretary Shaw of the treasury is being widely complimented his utterances regarding boys. At a recent meeting of Washington women the secretary spoke
 
 once been a boy himself and his ideas in regard to allowing youngsters to ere ate healthy disturbance continuously will meet with the hearty approval of the boys. MT. Shaw thinks the restric- tions placed on boys in cities will even- tually result in untold harm and will seri- ously lower the standard of citizenship. Ja says thev cho1ld he given the free- dom of their homes instead of the free doom of the streets and less money with more play. Since his entrance to public life in Washington MT Shaw has demon strated that he is a man of strong indi- vidualty and he has never appeared to better advantage than during his little talk to an assemblage of Washington wo- men.
 By host of hungry Thespians the sea- son of 1903-04 will be long remembered. The entire theatrical profession seems to be sadly at outs with Dame Fortune for not only have hundreds of theatrical com panies stranded on the road but a number of leading managers have been hard hit. Of course this state of affairs is more mo- ticeable in Chicago than anywhere else but this has by no means been banner year for even the best actors. No doubt one reason of this Is the fact that there were few new plays of even moderate ex- cellence and as consequence the profes- sion has been compelled to fall back on old favorites and revive plays that were popular a hundred years ago. F. c.