The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-05
KAISER WILLIAM BEG|NN|NG ID FAIL Friends Say He Thinks He
 Won't Live Long THE SINGER FUNERAL Was a Great Spectacle-Signs of Ancient Civilization Claimed 2
 to Have Been Found
 In Africa

from being in good condition. Those who have had chance to see him have no- ticed that he has been aging during the past year. He lacks the fire, vim and dash that formerly characterized him. Ii has been noticeable, too, that he has become more and more interested in reu ligious affairs. His friends say he be- lieves he will not live very long, He failed to attend the recent state ball owing to a cold, and for the same reason the military ceremony which was to have taken place at Potsdam on the occasion of Prince Joachim's entry into the regi- ment of guards has been abandoned. Will liam has become a settled serious man. He has reached that stage when he wor- ries much about even trifling matters. things that a few years ago would not attract even his passing notice.
 It is calculated that 750,0oo people took part in Paul Singers funeral obsequies, showing the great esteem in which the ia nous socialist leader was held. Twenty five years ago Singer was expelled from the country--a political refugee.
 The processional route was five miles long. Along the least frequented portion crowds were standing five to seven deep on both sides of the road. Where the masses were densest the spectators were eight to ten deep, and the back rows standing on chairs, benches and boxes. In addition to the people actually in the street, there were five miles of three. four and five-storyed houses, with their win- dows packed with tiers of heads, one ris- ing above the other
 The procession which preceded the hearse flowed on for over an hour. thousands and thousands of all different kinds of people were there. Then came the hearse, with dozen candles in lamps burning around it, a body of socialist dep- utes and members of various commit tees, and once more a black stream of anonymous mourners.
 It was middle class crowd The men, for the most part, wore black coats, with white silk scarfs and black ties and hats. Silk hats were to those of felt in the proportion of one to three. The floral tributes numbered 20OO As the hearse passed the house of a well known family gray haired woman threw from the window bunch of immortelles. It is said the woman was in her school days a sweetheart of the famous socialist.
 The people left the management. of the procession to the socialist party. Where they appeared. however, they wore pistols strapped on the outside of their overcoats. The demeanor of the crowds was exemplary.
 A deep impression was created by the unprecedented spectacle
 Herr Bedel, the socialist leader, writ ing of his memories of Singer, says that the latter cured himself of tuberculosis 40 years ago by eating 12 raw eggs daily.
 A socialist organizer named Hanke has been sentenced at Dusburg to four weeks imprisonment for les majeste. The offense was that Hanke, in public lec- ture, described as a conscious lie" the statement attributed to Emperior William in an interview.
 The reichstag committee to which he Alsace-Lorraine Constitution bill has been referred has adopted by 16 votes to an amendment raising Alsace-Lorraine to the rank of an independent federal state.
 pr. Leo Frobenius, the German explor- CT, has written from Southern Nigeria describing some remarkable discoveries of an ancient civilization in the Benin district He asserts that these discov- cries bear out his theory regarding the former existence of the continent of At lantis. The explorer, who has been ex- cavating in Southern Nigeria, is known as an eager advocate of the theory that Atlantis really existed, and is to be looked for some where in Africa
 The German learned world reserves Judgment as to the value of his discover les. Letters from the explorer to friends have been made public. giving details of his finds, and incidentally make attacks upon the British officials in the colony for depriving him of the fruits of his la bors. Writing from Illai Dr. Frobenius says:
 II have made an incredible discovery In West Africa. I have found traces of a high and extremely ancient urban civili- zation. I am having excavations made have unearthed wonderfully worked quartz pillars, remains of granite fig ures 70 inches high, burnt clay portraits of classic beauty, and vessels and frag- ments of pottery splendidly overlaid with glass of various colors. The most i'm portant thing Is that I have discovered the place where all the treasures are buried, about 12 feet below the surface. Most of the things are in pieces, but so beautiful that they can properly be compared with relics of classical antiq- uity."
 In third letter, dated Ibadan, Dr. Frobenius writes: "The news of my dis covery of city of ancient Atlantis reached the English. My letter of De- cember Il was seized and sent back to me. On December 16 high official ap- peared. The English tried to take all my friends from me. on the pretext that the natives had stolen them from each other and sold them illegally to me. Excava- tions were forbidden. and everything ancient must remain in the country and more to the same effect. The same brutal barbarism with which Sven Hedin, Carl Peters, and the German steamer Bundles rath were treated. Most of what I had won they took, including the bronze head, fragments and potsherds. However. thank the, Lord, am smarter than a good many people, and promptly buried the good clay heads. They are saved"
 Tn this empire, as elsewhere, there are superpatriots, who live in state of per- petual anxiety for their countrys safety They are constantly trembling. Their latest cause for alarm is the menace to the German script. The true peril does not yet lie very close. The committee that examines the innumerable petitions sbou,orod f, IYn0p the ratchstaU Q bas rac