The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-01-14
COMMENTS ON MEN AND
 MATTERS OF THE WORLD

, and from present indications there Is no immediate prospect of the missing rib ever being restored. People who thus persist in delving inte the "dead past" must find time hanging very heavily on their hands
 The man who attempts to define the exact shades of meaning expressed by the words 'intoxleated" and '1eaded1 must indeed be good at splitting hairs While 8 man can be intoxicated without being loaded, 1t Is Impossible for him to be loaded without being intoxieated--un- less he has very superior capacity Furthermore the dividing line between intoxication and a Toad" is so wayer- ingly uncertain that philosopher would have difficulty in reaching H decision. At best the use of such terms as tight" ''tanked up' and happy" when deserib- ing the condition of man who Is full of the joy of life, Is but poor attempt at being facetious. When q person goes on @ 'toot" and imbibes enough to in- capacitate him for business, why not say that he Is drunk9 The word is short expressive, and far more vigorous than the cavalier "intoxicated' or the ple- plebeian loaded"
 Col Henry Watterson's letter to the Courier-Journa written from London. is conceived in the great editors hap plest vein and has been read with pleas- ure in all parts of the country where MT. Watterson's name is a byword for the sturdy Journalism of decade when 1t was the man and not the paper who was the real power. In his reminiscent moods Colonel Watterson has a fascinat- ing style. Few men have had better op- portunities to study human nature and few have had more varied experiences His fund of anecdotes and the recollec- tions of busy life lend a .uliar charm to his writing.
 One of the very sore spots in the anat- omy of GHdsden-if the expression may be permitted-is the fact that some one is continually including Etowahs thriving metropolis in the Birmingham district without crediting Gadsden with district of its own. Anniston is a trif1e sensitive on the same subject. Therefore 1t Is not surprising that when the "esteemed' Times-News reproduces an editorial from The Age-Herald in which mention is made of the advantages which will result to "this district" as a result oL the Coosa Pipe and Foundry company having de- cided to erect a plant at Grdsden. the careful editor of the Times-News has in- serted parenthetic "Ga sdon' before every district" so that 1t appears that there is only one iron district Il state and that Is Gadsden. The es.to4 al of course referred to the whole Ala bama coal and iron district While Bir- mingham feels inflated |. he prosress being made by Gadsden, we would mind Etowah's capital, in her lust for greatness, not to forget that Birmingham in her modest fashion Is still smoking away up here In Jefferson county. There is a great hue and cry raised because forsooth, Gen. \ sison A. Miles may be called upon to wear little gold lace as adjutant general of the Massachu- setts militia. Why such carping from the paragraphers when a love or fine adorn- ment is bred in the bone of every man and all women7 A few people with excep-
 
 raise themselves above such vanity or to ignore it--principal1y because they had not the wherewith to keep a tailor-but 1 it Is natural for a man to yield to the 1 fascination of wearing a uniform when the opportunity affords. The chances are that many of the pert individuals. who are poking fun at the gold lace staff of Governor Douglas would be ticlxled to death to lead labor parade and wear Q sash.
 | If you would really and truly be au | fait you should use 'yesteryear" when referring to the year that has just gone. Don't say Hast year" That means the same thing as "yesteryear," but the lat | ter word Is "cultchured," slips lightly from the tongue and shows a fine appre- citation of the amenities of life. Of course the poets have long had an option on this | word but it has come into better fortune now, and In your prose If you would be at all "approximate' you should not he's itate to use 'yesteryear' copiously and freely r. C.
 
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