The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-01

hospital at Rio de Janeiro, bearing the Portugese inscription: "In this alone IS there hope."- wondered if the inmates of that hospital noted the coincidental formation and opined that possibly to them "Esperanca" (hope) was emblaz- oned upon the transverse nebuious arm of the cross as Iegibly as the 'In hoe slgno vinces'' of the crucial phantasmagora greeted the distorted vision and diseased imagination of deluded Constantine. As I looked at the glowing apparition I al- most shuddered in superstitious nervous ness.
 In the very centre of the Brazilian capital may be seen another needle of stone, known as Corcovado, which means the hunehback. It is approached by a funicular, which at places is positively frightful, the road bed resting upon ion bars which have been driven into the rock for it's accommodation. At the top is a pavilion and when the apex is free from its usually companioning clouds the view is most superb. The pico hangs as a liberty cap" over the clustered spires and tholes of the city, and one gazes down upon wilderness of houses on land and forest of masts upon the shipping ly- ing in the mountain locked bay, the whole a wonderful grouping of all that is grandest and most beautiful in nature with that which is most comedy and sig nal in human endeavor.
 I once had young woman to tell. me that when she obtained her first view of the Himlayas she fell upon her knees and wept have never seen those moun- tains. but when had my initial view of wonderful Kasbec, though did not weep. felt like doing so.
 No human can gaze upon it's proud, su- perb, towering crest and doubt the exist ence of deity It is the chief peak of the Caucasus of the Dariel Pass is fashioned in divine mold. If man is devoid of any religion one glance ar KazbelS will i'm plant religion in his soul and in it's contemplation one does not wonder that the ancients made it's 1I,000 feet of altl- tude the site of the punishment of Prometheus. Its crest is fit only so- the abode of god be that abiding one of eternal bliss or everlasting agony It shimmers and shivers, sparlxles and rein tillates in the glorious oriental sunlight for many miles away and impoverished is the soul that is not impulsed to worship in it's contemplation.
 Kazbek is symbolcal. Typical in it's eternal mantle of snow of the cold, proud naughty isolation of the Russo of which it is the guardian, typical in the warm robing of perpetual sun-play of the lux urious. vonluptuous, adorable daughters of Georgia, whom to look upon is 10 love and to whom existence is comming- ling of animal ferocity and everlasting dolce far nente. characteristics of peo- pie over whom it maintains a perennial watch. Kazbek is symbolical of power and love: the power of the troilsa bird of Russia who brooks no interference. the love of the children of Tifiis to whom the grand passion is life itself. To them it is an element that lights the world though varied in tint may be the play of its flame, vivifying or destroying it's effect. It elevates the soul as the sun lifts up the mists of the morn or sears the heart as the converging rays of the focal glass. In the eyes of the French man it is comedy, in those of the