The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-25

|
 British company, although it Is close
 ly connected with the great German oil combine, tried to screw up prices and I is directors were contemptuously re- ferred to by Winston Churchill, first lord of the admiralty, as "patriots at a
 price" A high official of the Anglo.
 American tells me that his company's
 sales since the beginning of the wal
 have been just double those of the cor
 responding period last year.
 l Another American concern in London which is doing well is Selfridges bis store which is run by a former Chicago
 man and largely financed by Mrs. Maid win Drummond. who was Mrs Marshall Field Jr. Selfrdge kept up his adver- tising all through the early weeks of l the war, when most of his competitors | got cold feet, and the result Is that | his store is crowded. One novelty is the substitution of girls for the men who used to run the elevators. The men have all enlisted in Kitchener's new army. The lift girls wear neat b1ue uniform and do the work just as well as the men whose places they have taken tf Newspaper Men May Go as Soldiers Enlistment in the new army goes on at an astonishing rate and includes men of all ranks and every class. Over 800 British newspaper men alone have joined the colors and about half of them come from London. In one newspaper office I know eight out of the staff of 1o reporters have joined while the com posing room an1 circulation department staffs are seriously depleted one or the most popular units is the naval brigade which winston Churchill is or l gs njzjng for land service. Churchill was a newspaper man himself once and anyway there is always special glam- or about the "senior service" as the navy is called in this country. fuiiy l half the newspaper men who nave joined are in the naval brigade ara they tell me that they hope to be reany for active service by Christmas, whhs Kitcheners troops are not scneuutei for the front until the spring. DIV tten you see we're the navy, ny friends say in explanation or tnis fa pidity in training. It IS only iair to say. however, that some or the unlts oi Kitchener's army are making tremen- dous rrogress. In fact, so rapidly nave some of the men got on that they VIII run the navy very close ana aii ,oio that the training officers have receiVea Instructions to pick out the keen and afficient men and form them into com-
 nsnies of their own, leaving the slack CTS ard slow coaches behind. In th's way if is likely that a good many regi- ments will be ready long before the scheduled time.
 Here is a little story Of newspapei man who is redeeming lost repu'a- tion. He represented bri.'sn papSs in Paris, a post which any man E,lcet street would have given his ears to possess. but when the Germans, l three weeks ago. began to approach dangerously close, he lost his nerve ! and deserted It is only far 10 say l that he had been overworkins ana ms | health was bad. and when he arrived in london after his hurried flight he had | to go to bed for several days Wneh l he realized what he had done he diun even go near the office to explain or !apologize but he went straight to fne depot of a famous regiment that IS now fighting on the Aisne and enlisted ds private. He Is now working night and day to make himself fit, and ne axnects to go to the front in few weeks and wipe out the stain result ling from 8 moment of alteration.
 Blame the Germans for Lot I witnessed an interesting nttie scene yesterday when a man l know asAeT , soldier in uniform to have drink. The soldier refused Kitchener has told us to cut out wine and women,' he said, "and most of our fellows have taken the pledge until the war is over. But God help those ;Geranaps when we get at them. All our chaps blame them l for the fun we're missing M s] l Generations yeti utDViti Wiii ~NA " ei'''' war. and there are a lot of babies now | tejng born in England who. will surely curse if These war babies will curse 1t when they grow up and realize the ap- surd names which their over patriotic rarents have bestowed on ,theV. Among the names added to the register generaIs list within the last week or two are Al sace-Lorraine Jones, Kitchener Howard, John Jellicoe Johnson, Louvain Hugg1ns French Moreton and, worst of all, Joffre l Jenlxins. One wonders what Joffre Jen- kins pet name will be.
 The Russians Again
 I have just heard another explanation of the amazing legend of the phantom RussYan army which passed through England. which dots the Is and crosses , inc ts of Kitchener's. explanation that Gaelic speaking troops from the north cf Scotland were mistaken for the Czar's legions This story. too. says that the reserve battalion of the Seaforth High flanders was being moved south. These
 men are Gaelic speakers and they got cut at an English station to stretch their legs. An English railway man asked ons Eof them where they came from and he replied .Rosshire." Anyone who Is fa- nniliar with the Seaforth's dialect will easily understand how Ross-shire translated Itself into Russia" in English ears. No part of the empire Is doing better in the way of recruiting, both in quality
 and quantity than the Highlands. and
 this iss due largely to the way in which
 the clan chieftadns have thrown them
 selves into the work of rallying the
 cansmen. Cameron of Lochiel. chief of
 the famous Clan Cameron, and although
 without an English title. one of the
 greatest nobiemen5 in Scotland. has ac-
 cepted tlie command of the Cameron
 Highianders and declares that he will