The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-27
COMMENTS ON MEN AND
 MATTERS OF THE WORLD

if HAVE heard travellers describe the
 loneliness Of western plains and
 the depression that steals over ones senses at night when camping on a mountain trail or drifting down some majestic stream, while the world sleeps and the nocturnal stiffness is intensified by the sounds nature makes in her slum- bers,' said a Louisiana man recently q have experienced the effects of com plete isolation myself. but never more powerfully than in Texas lumber camp several years ago. l was cut off from the world there week, and I assure you that felt like Robinson Crusoe returned to civilization when I finally got back to Houston. The camp was rather small and was located in the pine woods re- gions of the Texas coast The country was fiat and uninviting to a degree. It rained nearly every day. In the absence of natural drainage the water formed ponds where frogs had their habitat and green scum accumulated. At night the men who worked in the camp gathered at their rough boarding house and tried to while the time away by smoking and telling stories. About 5 o'clock every night we would saunter down to the rail- road track In inky darkness and watch passenger train go by. It never stop ped. There was no sound save the croak- ing of frogs and the roar of the train. which quickly subsided. There was not laugh to be heard. No light shone through the darkness save the rays of one or two kerosene lamps in the mems barracks and the glow of pipes that H. luminated the faces of lumbermen at in- tervals. Those telling stories seemed to be oppressed by their surroundings, for they talked in a desultory fashion and soon s1ouched off to bed We could not have been more lonely had we been a thousand miles from town. It is need less to say that crowded city streets had a peculiar charm for me after my sojourn in Texas camp"
 Nearly all newspaper men cherish at some time in their lives the secret ambi- ton to write novel Many of them de- wise plot and choose a name for the book they hope Is destined to make them famous. Others even go so far as to write a few chapters and a few really finish the task. but that Is the end of their dreams. The books are never pub lished. Too often the work is dropped before 1t is we'll begun. Ideals fade away beneath the hard. prosaic grind" of a newspaper office; imagination Is blunted by contact with a sordid world; cynicism often takes the place of optimism and faith in humanity is shattered by too many examples of It's weakness. The death of his hopes is merely a little tragedy of the newspaper mans life, but Is not without its good effects. It sweetens his early toll and the ambition which he cherishes helps him along life's way Though he carries to his grave the novel that died a-borning, he Is a better man for the dream that was never realized.
 HE'S FOR THE GRIDIRoN.
 All hail the stout collegian.
 Who's destined for great famei
 He won't do much In books, you know,
 But he'll get in the game.
 After reading the attempts of certain northern WrlteTS tO TtpTOuuCe lHc uiditCt of southern darkies one Is undecided whether to laugh or sympathize with these literary lights who have no local color" Negro dialect as frequently per- petrated in the east is a wonderful trav- esty on orthography and elision.
 Kansas farmers are ready to harvest 27ooOo, 900 bushels of corn, for which they will receive more than s75,000.000. In an- swer to William Allen Whites famous question, it can be said that there Is nothing the matter with Kansas.
 When told of the recent report concern ing the precarious state of his health Senator Platt replied: Tt Is a d-d lie the d--dest ever told.' It will be noted that the senator was emphatic. Mae Wood is gradually spelling his tenn per.
 Aguinaldo is now quietly farming. Un- cle Sam would much rather see him raise a crop than raise an insurrection.
 Dr. Lyman Abbott relates In the Oc-