The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-02-20

l If would give the farmer all of the pleas ures of city life, combined with his ag- ricultural pursuits
 'Tis strange that the farmer should op- l pose good roads bond issues when good roads mean so much to him. Nothing seems to express it better than the old saying. "He cut off his nose to spite his | face"
 The automoblists of Jefferson county l have the task of fighting the farmers on the question of bond issues, and the deal CTS in automobiles are the ones who should start an agitation of the matter.
 
 yoked to great carts, they drag the bales of cotton, bricks of tin and bundles of rattan over the roads.
 A Medley of Humanity.
 Going on into the city, we see strange characters at every turn. Each street is spectacular extravaganza, composed of every tribe and strange costume. We Yass Malays in velvet caps, short jackets and gay-fgured sarongs, the latter strip of bright colored cotton which falls from the waist to the feet, and is fastened at the top in knot. The Malays walk with swagger and they invariably smoke cigarettes. They are too lazy to work. and the most of them live from
 
 We see Indian Mohammedans in tur- bans of white, red and yellow. They wear gowns which reach to their feet. There are tall Sikh policemen in uniforms with turbans of red, Persians in white | caps, and Indians, who have caps em- broidered with gold. There are short haired Siamese, as brown as tobacco; shaved-headed Hindus, as black as your boots, and willy Cingalese peddlers, with their long black hair done up In knot l just back of the crown, and a half-moon l child's comb to keep it in order There are Brahmins in jinrildshas, hauled by yellow coolies clad in short | tight trunks of blue paper muslin and 1 iittle palm hats which end in a cone. Their backs are bent double as their yellow legs l trot along inside the shafts. There are also Parsees with tall hats which look for all the world like inverted coal scut- l ties, and with long coats buttoned up l tight to the throat, and there are Jav- anese with gay colored handkerchiefs tied around their heads who wear skirts of lightning-strealsed cottons.
 There are also whites from all parts of l Europe. They wear great helmets, which extend far out behind and suits of white linen or cotton. They are English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, | with now and then an American tourist | CT trader Altogether the crowd is as cosmopolitan as any you will find in the world. Singapore has about 200, coo in | habitants and of these only coco are Europeans. The rest are Asiatics and the bulk are Chinese. Malays and East | Indians. There are hundreds of Japanese, | q few Arabs and numerous Jews. The colony Is governed by the English, with sraall garrison and a police force of about 2OO0 men. It is well governed, too, and life and property are quite as safe here as in New York or London. The Chinese are monopolizing tbe | Straits Settlements. AS soon as the Eng fish established stable government they began to come in. and they now move back and forth to and from the Straits at | the rate of several hundred thousand a year. They are thrifty, and the best cf everything is rapidly going into their hands. They own stock in every corpora | ton, and the British tell me that they can beat a European in any business deal.
 Since Englard has taken possession of l the federated Malay states, the Chinese | have been going there in great numbers. l They are crovding out the Malays, and l this is so witE natives of all the islands l in this part of the east On the Malay peninsular and in the Straits Settlements l there are now more than 100000 | ( Chinese There are 100000 in Formosa l and 4,C00,000 in Siam. There are large l numbers in Burmah. ard something like | 0000O0 in the Dutch EastxIndies. They are rapidly going into Sumatra. and | nearly every settlement in Borneo has | it's Chinese. colony. Kongkong is prac- vii be the case with Manila if we allow them to come.
 Chinese Who Wear Diamonds.
 The Chinese of these far-away islands are different from our laundrymen of the l tad They have rich among l them, who spend money like water. Many | have magnificent homes, and their wives | are resplendent in diamonds and pearls l and in bracelets and anklets of gold. | 1 saw a party of Celestials at the steam | CT as I landed. It comprised four wom- en whose ears sparkled with diamonds | md whose I'''s silk gowns %ere but toned at the front with brooches of dia- monds and pearls while on their bare | lrlllcs above their loo slippers. were | great bands of pure gold.
 see Chinese riding in automobiles. Some have carriages with coachmen and footinen in livery They wear silk gowns and felt hats and lie back on their cush- ion, smoking their cigars, as their brown Malay coachmen drive them about. I see them in the billiard rooms and on the cricket grounds, and now and then | pass one flying over the roads on an l American bicycle, his silk gown floating in the breeze. The biggest stores of Sing apore are owned by them, and they are the cashiers and accountants of the prin- cipal banks.
 Our former Chinese minister, Wu Ting 1 fang, came from this part of the world His father was a Cantonese merchant and his mother a Hakka. Both were Christians, and they were living at Singa- pore when Wu Tng-fang began his ca reer as interpreter in the Hongkong police courts, and later on went to England where he studied law and was admitted
 rr- 'Tpon his return he was taken up by Ii Hung Chang, and since then he has been one of the leading men of the --a ~@aln1.
 NfliIonnires in Tin.
 The tail of the Asastic continent is tin plated. It has the richest tin mines Pf