The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-11-23


When President Wilson sent to the
Senate the nomination of II. Otto
Whittpen, of Jersey City, to be Naval
Officer of Customs in the District of
New York, he issued a statement ex-
planning his action.
"The appointment of a resident of
New Jersey to this position is made in
recognition of that part of New Jersey
which was included in the customs col
lection district of New York under the
reorganization of the customs service,
which took effect on July 1, 1913, en-
bracing the counties of Sussex, Passaic,
Hudson, Bergen, Essex, Union, Middle
sex and Monmouth, and it is entirely
appropriate that New Jersey should be
represented in one of the important ad-
mnistrative offices of the consolidated
port"
This position is considered a federal
plum, as it pays $4,000 year and fees.
even took the chair at one of their meet
ings recently so he is likely to be any
thing but pleased with Wells's abuse of
them. The 1rishman has the shortness of
temper that is characteristic of his race
and sooner or later he will sail into Wells
and dust the floor with him. After which
there is likely to be no grand reconcilia-
ton scene.
Munro Not a Sleuth
,YAla ,R..fa, l,a
Sherlock Holmes stories, when first they
were published, will also remember their
authors stark Munro Letters" The lat
ter Immediately followed Sherlock
Holmes and though they are mighty in
teresting in their way, probably disap-
pointed a lot of Sir Arthurs admirers,
who had hoped that Stark Munro would
be another sleuth. He proved, however
to be just a struggling younug medico,
by means of whom his creator expressed
his own beliefs on many subjects, not
ably that of religion, revealing, among
other interesting things, that Sir Arthur
is one of those who believes the universe
to be ruled by an intelligent force, rather
than by a personal God.
Now it appears that Sir Arthur, who
appears to be willing to write about any
thing except Sherlock Holmes, is medi-
tating a sequel to the work mentioned
above which he will call 'rhe Posthum-
ons Papers of Stark Munro" He men.
tions this in the course of a most inter-
esting correspondence which he has been
having on the big subject of design in ma
ture with Captain Hubert Stansbury of
the royal navy. The latter recently pub
lished a book called "The Quest of
TRUTH which Sir Arthur characterized
in writing to its author as "a very fine
one, which l have annotated almost from
cover to cover" though he does not agree
with all the captains conclusions.
ITO my eyes, writes Sir Arthur. 'the
mechanism of nature is every bit as we'll
adjusted, or as ill-adjusted, as a watch,
and proclaims just as clearly a thinking
power behind it, without which the uni
verse would be a chaos of collding
worlds
'As to the nature of that power, or its
likeness to humanity. we can say moth
ing. 1t is infinitely remote in its nature,
and yet, as I feel it, infinitely imminent
in its operation
Sir Arthur proceeds to say that the
growing evidence for teepathy seems to
show that he soul may have an existence
of its own. and goes on:
Il too, have studied spiritualism for
many years, and cannot easily dismiss it,
in spite of the presence of frauds. 1t is
hard to put aside the experiences of
trained observers like Crookes Russell
Wallace, etc, and say that it was all
delusion. | believe there was objectiva
truth in their observations"