The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-11
"Alla Axiom is Not an Arabic Aphorism as You Might Suppose But Real Honest-to- Goodness
 Man, And Very Clever One Too" Says Dolly
ar DOLLY pALRYMPLE

YNRoM, somewhere east of Suez"
 l1 comes Ala Axiom who is not an GS Arabic aphorism as you might sup pose but real honest-to-goodness man and very clever one. too; a seer. an Interpreter, mind reader-what you will suspended with the Hindu atmosphere, dressed in the Hindu garb, and withal a mystical,
 Dreamer devout by vision led
 Beyond our guess or reachl''
 You've seen fortune tellers and clair vcyants and mind reading prodigies, but Ala Axiom (which being interpreted means man of science') to my mind rather goes all of them "one better" for he is as natural as the wind that blows, and quite as unconcerned as the birds in the treetops as to how he can do the things he does.
 Ala Axiom q asked him if I should call him MT. Axiom. and he kindly said: : NO; just call me Ala Axiom, please" May F" I asked delighted, and I did) doesn't claim anything supernatural about his work; nothing superhuman; just bit of concentration; just touch of spiritualistfc; just an atom of mind over matter, and then--well-with his big, brown eyes sparkling, and his ruddy East Indian skin bit ruddier, and his marvellous smile revealing a mouth crowded with the very wittiest and most wonderful teeth you've ever beheld, he says blandly:
 T don't know how I do it; explain it if you can; I can't"
 And neither can I; only know he just stands up on the stage, this man who calls himself Ala Axiom, and gazes into a huge crystal ball and reads out your name in the audience of hundreds tall that can possible pack into the Trianon), and he tells you whether your 'best-est" beaut-lover really cares for you or if perfectly good blonde has come in and cut you ':out-y,' and he tells you whether you've paid your gas bill, and if you haven't you should, because it's not nice to cheat the gas man; and he tells you that you ought to be ashamed of yourself, young man, for telling the girl who loaned you her diamond ring that you'd lost it, when it is sitting up right this minute in the pawn shop!
 And watch out, young gentleman, don't try to be funny like the fellow who at- tempted to catch" the mystic once, and asked about his father; the mystic an swered, Your father is in Montreal. 'tAh, ha-you fake" cried the young man from way back seat in the audience. T shall expose you; my father has been dead two years" You are mistaken" said the mystic with ''zee grande com pozure, ".~"Your mothers husband is dead, but your father is in Montreal!''
 Anyway, as I was about to say, yes- terday afternoon just after a very suc- cessful performance which Ala Axiom had given, stayed back as the throngs moved on to meet this remarkable young man which I did after he'd gotten out of his Hindu togs and donned a very neat, stylish suit of every day citizens clothes; he takes as long, by the way, to change as flossy Broadway chorus lady, but I'm sure the average matinee girl" wouldn't mind that, because you are amply repaid when this od-looking young man appears.
 was curious to know something about this clever young Hindu seer, who can turn as neat performance as I've ever seen; was curious to know where he came from, and something about who his forbears were-and-in fact, all about him.
 Maybe it's trick-the way he does his workout did you ever see cleyerer trick? Maybe it isn't; anyway, I didn't know any more about Ala Axiom's baf- fling" stunt" when I left, than I did when I went but I did know something more about the man himself.
 I'm an East Indian,' he answered in reply to my question as to his national ity, although I suppose I might have known it, for his skin is,swarthy, his hair