The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-06-16

NV Of Lost River, and about six hours
 from the rest of the world as time is used to measure railroad journeys, and youll find little speck on the horizon called French Lick. Hidden away in the hills so remote from the centers of civilization that only wealthy inebriates and chronic invalids and few others can afford to visit this out-of-the- way, yet expensive spot, French Lick has other attractions than the beauties of the scenery, and the health giving qualities of its waters. for. while the sick and ailing may be tempted to the springs in the hope of health from the bad smeli- ing waters they drink, and dozens of forid-faced old men invade the little town almost every day from the distant rich cities in order to get washed out as the saying is. after too much indul- gence in alcoholic stimulants, there are a few others who go for the simple ex- citement of a little whirl at the gaming tables. which rumor says abound there, but which the shrewd deputy sheriff in- variably reports to the local grand jury as nonexistent while struggling. tired newspaper person goes there for rest and quiet now and then.
 Pullman after Pullman car, loaded to the roof. bring in devotees from the outside world daily for recreation and rehabilitation and in the second week oi the merrie month of May I floated in with the big bunch to rest and sort Of take mental inventory of how things were going with my little self, and get together somehow, some way, after strenuous and busy winter.
 Seven hundred and thirty-f1ve people sat at the sumptuous dinner supplied by mine host" Thomas Taggart, of sena- torial. political and hostelry fame, the evening I arrived. A tremendous crowd for that time of the year, because ''the season" usually ends as well as I know, at French Lick about May 15. Even the walters refer to the season with so much elegance and dignity that you feel like just what you are when you get there after it is overcome of the crowd whose trunk is tied up with a rope you know the kind I mean, from Joplin Missouri, or Kokomo, Indiana. But this year it was different; the war had changed things at French Lick. just as it has changed things everywhere else and as people can't go abroad they flock to the little Indiana resort.
 There weren't many celebrities, to be sure, when I was there. Mrs Solon Jacobs of Birmingham and pretty Mrs. Angus Taylor were perhaps the most mo- table people in that big assemblage, and when I told MT. Taggart one bright morning, when I met him on 'the track, that one of these attractive women want ed to talk suffrage with him, he beamed like a full moon and said: "Tell her I'll be delighted; I'm for it good and strong
 There was an adorable little bridal couple from Birmingham-Mr. and Mrs. Joseph B. Pool CHazel Hawkins)-who attracted a lot of attention, and the or chestra struck up the wedding march one evening as they entered the big dance place and created quite an excite ment. You can't beat Birmingham peo- pie, it matters not where you put them My good friend MT Louis Pizitz, and his wife were at French Lick for a brief stay, and I want to say just here that Mrs. Pizitz is the cleverest woman about making the best of a trying situation, such as losing ones trunk, that I've ever seen, and while most women would have fussed and fumed when a trunk full of pretty clothes was bit tardy in ar irving, on the other hand Mrs. Pizitz was beaming and smiling and enjoying herself to the fullest extent. MT. PiZitZ was direct from New York, where he had been during the great Red Cross drive, and he regaled the little Birming' ham coterie with the most interesting stories of what he had seen and heard.
 I didn't bother much with people and things at French Lick, because I was the tiradest, most worn-out person you ever saw, and I don't think I spoke to a half dozen people outside of the little Birmingham bunch, because rest-just getting away from the maddening crowd-was what I wanted most of any thing else in the world. I guess this seems funny to people who know me and know that every day in the year I'm keyed up to concert pitch and acting like it was the Fourth of July; but those are just the sort of folk, who, when they do run down, run all the way down.
 When left French Lick for Cincinnati . en route to New York on the same train with me was Mrs. Jean St. Cyr. whom I'd always wanted so to see. She was : Mrs. Silent" Smith, you know, so rich, and town topicsy'' and all, who married the young Lochinvar of her dreams few years ago, and I want to say just here that if Mrs. St. Cyr is as old as the newspapers say she is, age has no terrors for me, and I wouldn't mind being her age righ. this minute, for she doesn't i look day over 25, and she is one of the most stunning women I've ever seen.
 Let's hurry over that little trip from French Lick to Cincinnati and ensconce ourselves comfortably for a few minutes at the Sinton-where I met my sweet friend, Mrs. W. H. Kettig, with whom have made so many delightful trips to New York Pretty as picture and de lightfully enthusiastic over our plans, Mrs. Kettig and over a charming little : dinner, the piece de resistance of which was filet of sole a la Margaray, and q delicous,y ralatable salad of Romaine, glanced about in the attractive dining room and again a coterie of Birmingham people greeted us-Mr. "Rick" Woodward MT. Frank Crockard (whom Birmingham i will always claim as her very own), and MT. Reginald Bannister, who were din- ing at a not far distant table, while MT. Robert Meyer, carefully perusing his evening paper looked so lonesome that note was at once dispatched to him which b1 ought a broad smile to his face and he bea. a quick retreat in our d. rection
 Arriving promptly in little old New York town the next afternoon on one of those Pennsylvania trains you pay S4. extra to ride in, and if the train is late your money is refunded, there was the same narve ,ous air of enthusiasm pro- gressiyeness and American thrift and hustle and hustle that one always finds in the big metropolis.
 Has the war changed New?' so many people have asked me. Yes and no' is my answer. As to lowering the standard of commercial activity and a general air of prosperity, no. emphati- cally; it has enhanced it. As to the friv- olous. care-free, nonchalant air of other days, yes" because the faces of the men and women in the cafes. the thea tres the cabarets and other places show , that war has left it's mark And then