The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-04-01
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Lht Spilll uI DOtlfy IS ITuCllACQ III ~ic womb of April. April typihes the resur- rection, it Is the one month of all the years to which we apply the word eternal
 The spirit of poetry is akin to the spirit of April, and no wonder it's divine mood sanctifes the poets dream. That cry which Browning uttered is known all over the world-"Oh, to be In England, now that Aprirs there" The mere thought of 1t was enough to make him forget ItalianNskies.
 A writer with poetic gift says that the very name of April has quiet mys- tery when spoken; as if at the sound of those soft and liquid letters some haunting memory begins to glow with in- deinable ecrasies. The name leads one to sense curious kind of secrecy, wherein some stirring and changing miracles are happening. In a sense April typifes, not so much the resurrection as recurrence.
 No month is named more appropriate. The Latin April is from aperio, ito open," truly opens the vistas of an in finite and eternal conviction of life. It is a breath, a vision, a sensing of i'm mortality. Tt is spiritual flame, burn ing with prophecies and declarations" And it's one message is Life. This causes one to remark that there is a vigorous r+a (. ali name so frail, APRIL
 
 The Romans gave this month, which was formerly the second, but is now the fourth, it's name because it is the sea- son when the buds open. By the Anglo Saxons it was called Ooster, or Easter month, and by the Dutch, grass month. It takes Shakespeare to go to the heart of a thing, and so in one of his son. nets in speaking of April he beautifully describes it by saying, Tt hath put spirit of youth in everything In it's constant fleetingness of moods, 1t sym bols forth the changeableness of those on the threshold of life for the tears of the young be like the showers of April.
 Some one with an historic turn of mind has gone to the trouble to gather data to show that since the 18th of April, 1775, April has been a marked month in the way of being the beginning of momen1r ous events in the annals of America.
 Going back to the time even before the battle of Lexington, we find that on April 10, 1906, James I made the grants to the Plymouth and the London com panies which resulted in the colonization II granted the famous charter of the colony of Connecticut.
 On April 1s, 17S2. Holland recognized the independence of the United States; on April 19, 1850, the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, between the United States and Great Britain, relating to canal con- meeting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, was signed; and on April IA. 1865, Abra- ham Lincoln was assassinated.
 
 OH <hpklA lSb 1cVl, tiiC III SI DlOou Ol lno Civil war was shed, when mob in Bal timore fired on Massachusetts troop on it's way to Washington, and President Lincoln proclaimed blockade of all the ports of the seeding states. United States troops were also fired on at Har- per's Ferry.
 Tn the Spa OiSh- in pri1 1898, an ultimatum was sent to Spain, and on the 18th, again. the Spanish minister was given his passports, and the President called for 125,OO0 volunteers In the recent troubles on the Mexican bor- der, Huerta was required, on April 19, 1914, to salute the American flag before 6. o'clock in the evening. and the follow ing day Vera Cruz was seized
 
 On April IS, 1916, the United States sent to the German government note regard ing the sinking of the Sussex and sub marine warfare, which was regarded as an ultimatum, and on April 19 both branches of Congress assembled in joint session, and were addressed by President Wilson in regard to Germany's "relent- less and indiscriminate warfare against vessels of commerce by the use of sub- maries."
 ses On April G. 1917, the United States en- tered the great war upon the signing by President Wilson of joint resolution passed by Congress, declaring that state of war had been thrust upon the United States by the Imperial German government
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