The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-27

pie the RedmOnd wing Of the home rule -~-------~~--~--->---~------ the London Mail, bore the odd title of Bread and Butterflies"
 A lew years ago, when we were near neighbors in West Kensington the pres ent writer saw much of Calthrop, who then numbered among his other close friends, William J. Locke the novelist and Byam Shaw, the painter. He then was thin as the proverbial lath, but of late has become positively aldermanic a state of things, however, which military training Is likely to alter considerably. T huirrr1iper, py tHe Wa,,-,rfrv s,-rl,rfrrs him home fully resolved to pack his bag forthwith and set out for the Py-enees country by telling him that there was . village there the sole occupation of the majority of whose inhabitants is to teach bears to dance. I have now forgotten the name of this town, but most of the dancing bears that one sees the world over are said to come from there, and there is a church in the village built en- tirely from the proceeds of series of tours with dancing bear.
 DOstOevsky Letters Interesting German professors are having a lot to say in connection with the present war and saying it with considerable vehem- ehce. Apropos there Is a curiously in- teresting comment in the latest addition to the Dostoeysky literature "The T,et- ters of F. Dostoevsky," a translation of which has just been published here. In le'o Dostoevsky, hard pressed by credit ors, was living at Dresden. His obser- vatlons on the Franco-German war are lew and far between. In December, 1s7O however, in one of his letters to Mailov the Russian author, he writes that he is following the German happenings with ieVerish interest and ends with the fol- lowing remark:
 At first one often heard the people m the streets singing the 'Wacht am Rhein;' now one never hears it at all By far the greatest excitement and pride exists among the professors doctors and students they are extraordinariIv V Frrogant l encounter them every even
 iA the public library A very influen-
 lar With silver white hair loudly the day before yesterday
 1t aust be bombardedr So that is
 come of all their learnings. If
 their learning then of their stu
 They may be very scholarly. but re frightfully limited.''
 t- Which 1t would appear that after all, the professional leopards bavc not changed their spots during the last half century, and are not now for the hrst time roaring with the best of the war party.
 AuAiuCuCluK Ou1leU StdteS
 sidney Low, author of "The Govern anee of England" Egypt in Transi- ton and other distinguished books. is the writer. so l discover, of an editoria, Tn the Standard this week that contains about the soundest and most sensible word yet written here concerning vari ous efforts to capture American sym pathy.
 "The government" says MT. Low. "are anXl0uS to lnf1lIanca mi the neutral countries, meaning therebv and in particular the United States of America Here we can only repeat that they are embarking on a futile and. fo be plain, a stupid enterprise In Ameri- ca they have done enough mischief all ready, and their best friends in that country have already advised them to abandon this branch of their activity instead of increasing it. Public opin- ion in the United States does not want to be infiuenced;' 1t deeply resents the process, whether undertaken by leu tonic intriguers like Count Bernstorfr and Herr von Dernburg, or by wander ing literary gentlemen from these is- lands. The American journalists have read, and published, the White books and the other official and nonofficial oocuments, and can draw their own con- ciuslons without assistance from British amateurs who know less about the mat ter than they do themselves. if our novelists and professors can get to write in the American newspapers and magazines. let them do so; but their woros VIII not gain weight from the belief that they are inspired by British officialdom or by British semi official patriotic committees. The Americans do not require our admonitions and ex hortations. What they would like ia fuIl and authentic information. with proper facilities for fearing the truth ana transmitting it. These things they do not get. American correspondents ara not allowed to go to the front, and are debarred, by the silly and Irritating &C., tion of our censorship. from cabling to their newspapers all the intelligence they can gather here. They are dis posed to approve of the British case ] but they cannot stand the British