The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-12-27
WAR STORIES
Ky E. l.. HEIrI<AHP

czar and his people and most of Eng land would have hailed ii with delight and appreciation. Today, openly to eN- press . doubt that the Russian govern ment is anything but the most aGvanced. enlightened and just Of institutions Is to rashly risk a court-inartial
 We shall see many results from this change of the English heart after the var. The immediate result has been tremendous boom in all things Russian, Russian dancers of the classical type have long been popular and last summer Rus sian singers held the attention of the fashionable lovers of music Now society has taken up the more homeiy but more characteristic glpsy singers who make speciality of Russian folk songs Petrograd has lost much of it's accustomed gaiety since the war began and many of the famous cafes where these singers held forth before the war are now closed. A band of the more enterprising Of the society women of England are perfeoting a scheme to bring the better known Of these Russian singers to London and to provide them with private house engage ments enough to keep them busy for many months 10 come.
 At the same time there has been a boom in the teaching of Russian. An Anglo Russian friend of mine. a man in a good way of business who, before the war, had very real hatred of the Rus sian government and a very real distaste of conditions In the land of the little white father almost bowled me over a couple of days ago by telling me that he was sending his son to Russia after the war.
 But I thought you hated everything Russlan?" I exclaimed in astonishment.
 "Ah," he said. All that will be changed by the war" Russia Is the land of the im- medlae future. My son is learning the lan- guage now.' v
 Not Too Old at 64
 One often wonders what would have been the effects upon the European war if the various powers had been In the habit of retiring their high army officers at the age limit set in the United States-6i, I believe. Would the younger men have been able to better adapt themselves to the new conditions of warfare? Would they have had. ready to hand, some strate- gic and tactical moves for either pre- venting the present wasteful condition of affairs or solving the stalemato that now threatens to keep the armies of France, England, Belgium and Ger many in their present positions until the milk man comes along?
 Field Marshal Won Hindenburg, the one man who has made really big reputation out of the war to date, is 67 years of age. and was called from retirement by the Kaiser to oppose the Russians when they made their first dash into East Prussia. Won Kluck-' "Old One O'Clock k'-as he is called by the English Tommies. whose retreat from the Marne is declared by French and English 10 have been one of the finest feats in the history of war. Is approaching 60, while General Julius Won Moltlxe, chief of the great staff of the German army. is 66.
 General Joffre is almost TO and Gen eral Pau, the one-armed commander. from whom much is expected was born l about the same time. Kitchener is i 66 and SoulS omlinoff. who reorganized | the shattered legions of the Czar after i the Russo-Japanese war, recently cele- | brated his sixty eighth birthday