The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-02-16
HAT must life be to the man
who has not the happy faculty
of dreaming? Pity the idle

AZNA Hal must lie pe " inc man
WV who has not the happy faculty
w of dreaming? Pity the idle
dreamer who drifts along with the cur
rent. so engrossed in his fancies that he
neglects to toll, forgets ambition and ends
his life a failure, but envy the man who
can both work and dream-the man who
can so adjust the varying elements of his
temperament that he can permit him
self a trip into the realms of imagination
without lessening his mental and physical
vigor and without dulling the zest of COM
bat for fame and fortune with his fell
lows. Success, as the world views it, has
been achieved without imagination, but
the most admirable genius that has light
ed up the ages and Is shedding its rays
abroad today is the genius of imagina-
ton. He who idealzes life is often able
by the wealth of his mental pictures to
overlook the bald spots the cold realities
and the sorddness that underlie this
existence as a foul floor which glares
through rents here and there in the car.
pet. The dreamer can rise above c1ndi-
tions that would crush a too practical
mind he can be an optmist in the midst
of despair and can see in the past that
which consoles him for present sorrow.
in the future that which gives him
hope.
What a glorious thing is imagination
What an admirable contrivanee is that
instrument We call the brain and what
boon to man Is the power thus con-
ferred upon him of transporting himself
wherever his fancy dietatesl If it is cold
one can revel in the Elysian fields of a
southern cline; if there is no bread one
can sit in fancy at the tables of kings
and join there in royal revelry; if one S
/ coat is torn he can view himself in
garments of expensive cut, living a life
Of gilded ease: if the clouds hang low
one can hearken back to the sunshine
of the past or bask in that of the future
whatever may be your plight In a trice
the wings of fancy will carry you away.
Too true 1t is that the awakening is
dreary, the return to earth again is harsh
! and the misery of ones surroundings
is intensified by contrast, but what if you
could not dream at all? What If you
could never for moment forget present
grief, present want and present sorrow
What if all your life you were forced
/ to face the cold realities; if you could
never wander away in revery; If you
could never smile in "reminiscences: IL
there were no window through which
your soul could look out? What then
, would you pay for the privilege of dream
ing?
Let the nation rise up and put "Carni-
val of crime where "alahaster brow
ruby lips" and similar monstrosites now
repose. Carnival of crime. is getting to
be about the limit and the time is ripe
for some reformer to rise up and so
wither it with the biting fires of his ridi-
cule that it will never again be permitted
to consort with respectable English. Heap
fy slander-do any thing that will put
carnival of crime" out of business, and
a nation will rise up to call you blessed
negro promoter is planning to estab-
fish a circuit of theatres in the south to
be used exclusively by negro companies
and to be opened solely for negro pat
ronage. The first theatre is proposed for
Greenville, Miss. Other houses are to be
| at Vicksburg, Meridian and jackson
Miss, and points in Louisiana. Such a
scheme might pay. A theatre exclusive
ly for negroes would certainly prove prof
table in Birmingham, but would negroes
support circuit of theatres? That is
a question. At any rate the idea is inter-
esting and there are number of people
who believe that a negro theatrical
circuit in the south, provided all the
houses are located at the proper ''strate-
gical" points, would prove little short OF
a gold mine.