The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-30


 IV president of the Connecticut Cat club and wife of former Mayor Cummings of Stradford, Conn, has blossomed out into print as a vigor- ous defender of the virtues and excellent qualities of cats. Mrs. Cummings felt called upon to speak because a certain man named ". w Gillespie criticized recent cat show and made some unfeeling remarks about a lady who kissed her tabby in the wealth of her affection. It must be understood that Mrs. Cummings does not uphold the nondescript, wander ing feline that wages battle with CUTS in back alleys and raises it's voice to the midnight moon. Far from 1t. Mrs. Cum mings deals only with the aesthetic cat; the cat of quality and good breeding, with price commensurate with such an high estate. Of plebian felines the distin- guished president of the Connecticut Cat club has no knowledge. During the course of her panygeric Mrs Cummings speaks of the many affectionate traits of cats, their subdued airs when not disturbed, and their cleanliness. One of her strong est points is the commercial value of chinchilla cats, which are used for mak- ing wearing apparel for the fair sex. When such an eminent authority as the president of the Connecticut Cat club makes strong endorsement of cats one cannot help but feel convinced, but 1t is to be feared that Mrs Cummings re- marks will do little toward a1ieviating 4t ord- nine lives are target for cold and un feeling world.
 Dr. Sarah M. Siewers says that women will be the doctors of the future There is no denying the fact that "woman's soft ministrations" go very well but when the female physicians become hard of feature and fond of fees the situation will not be greatly improved. It Is a sad fact that science and good looks do not always go together.
 At last the Indianola postoffice is about to resume business with a white post master and Minnie Cox will see her name in public print no more. The inhabitants of that little Mississippi town are now in a position to appreciate the conveniences of Uncle Sam's postal service.
 James J. Jeffries has pu. himself in the hero class by stopping a real runaway in Central park. Unfortunately his press agent was not present but the genial bruiser was not permitted to hide his valorous deed and regular reporters got his story"
 William K. Vanderbilt, Jr., has smashed the worlds automobile record. It is a great pity that Reggie" cannot emulate his example and do something" The latter has made several desperate efforts to break the bank at Canfield's but the tables were turned
 It is a great consolation to observe that dialect stories continue on the wane. Their decline was noted several years ago and at present there seems no possibility of such compositions ever regaining their old time popularity A few exceptions are noted as for example, Mrs. Wiggs' few stories of strong local color, and modern slang, but there Is no "craze" for dialect and as a result there is much less written now than formerly. There are many bad qualities attached to dialect in lit erature In the first place it is hard to read and hard to understand, so that it easily becomes tedious unless written by a master. Again too much dialect tends to corrupt the language especially the speech of every day life, fact that has been harped upon many time and oft. Whenever a book like "Lovey Mary is in the hey day of its fame it always gives loud evidence of the fact. Gushing misses and other persons of similar calibre who