The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-05

, The movies have performed great service by enabling the citizens of 9
 o'clock towns to get en rapport with the
 night life of New York and Paris, # # <
 Several thousand actors arc out of
 employment in New York. probably be- cause of the fact that they have not been absorbed by the movies. # # # The late pr. von Bethmann- Hollweg
 was friend of the Kaiser, and that
 naturally kept him from being pal of von Ludendorff.
 If the health of President Obregon
 doesn't improve, he may have the
 unique distinction of dying in bed. Anybody who wants to climb Mount
 Everet is evidently not looking for salubrious climate.
 The immigration problem is not so- ing to be solved by hurting the feel ings of immigrants
 # # # The six doctors of Caruso are show
 ing commendable fortitude during the
 tenoSs illness.
 * # # The New Year will gather momentum after prosperity returns and steps on the accelerator.
 There is no accounting for tastes. De
 Valera is believed to have gone back l to Ireland.
 Congress is showing a commendable desire to do something-if it is only to 1 talk.
 A shortage of funds in Mexico is echoed by the rattle of empty coffers in Greece.
 The claim that savannah is wet" is
 doubtless susceptible of proof. # T # Incidentally, who is going to write
 the inauguration ode? + # # THE DEATH OF STEVENSON 1 W. F., Clarke in the January Ysle Re- view.
 1 The picture of that scene rises before i me as I write, the stately hall with it's old carved furniture, the wasted figure breathing faintly and laboriously on the | little couch, the mother clasping the 1 hand of her beloved son, the native boy l servant prostrate at the foot, the wife | in a stupefaction of grief and revolt standing apart at the stairway, statu- esque and tragic in her despair. A large Union Jack flew over the | Yailima house; they hauled it down and laid it over the body. The news soon flew around that "Tusitala" had passed away, and then began the long process sion of Samoans, bringing their last
 tributes of flowers and fine mats, to make their vigil by the dead. This was
 a relic of the old heather days, when it was customary to spread fine mats over and around the body of their dead, singing funeral dirges, to ward off the approach of evil spirits. The heather significance of this has long departed, but the custom of bringing a fine mat from each chief family and of the night-long vigil still survived. So throughout that night the native friends of R. L. s. kept their vigil. Meanwhile a large gang was employed in hacking the pathway through the forest up the
 mountain slope to the little eyrie chosen
 for the last resting place; the task of
 digging the grave itself being appor
 tioned to the native family" At last
 the preparations were complete, the Flu
 ropeans and natives invited were as
 sembled--her only friends were invited
 and the Samoans, especially selected
 fin, covered with the red ensign that
 had floated from the vessel in which
 stevenson had voyaged on the South
 seas. They had severe task. for 1t
 was no easy matter to carry the coffin
 shoulder high along the difficult path
 way up that steep ascent.
 A little later the cortege followed.
 It was an arduous climb to that noun
 tain eyrie; 19 Europeans reached the
 summit and a much larger company of Samoans. It is a picturesque and TO-
 mantle spot. On either side the land
 descends abruptly; far away in front
 stretches the vast Pacific, broken only
 by the line of breakers that mark the
 reef; below one gets glimpse of the
 red roofs Of vailima- and all around
 are the everlasting hills. The grave
 stands on a small plateau. quite flat
 and no wider than room. We rested a
 little while. and then in the impressive
 silence of the mountain solitude recited
 the solemn service for the dead. LUKE M'LUKE SAYS man never eAts worn ont from