Birmingham age-herald., 1894-08-14

many of which are bordered with wide bands of grass. There are exquisite homes, with the loveiest grass and flowers all about them. The residences give evidence of constant care and attention; they have throughout certain portions of the town the best kept air possible. Flowers bios som everywhere aud as you walk along the roses nod at you from every yard and the sweet old ".Four O'clocks' greet you with a fragrance that brings back childhood and recolections of other days in another Ala
 bama town which, like Selma, crowns the bluffs of the Alabama river. Then there were palms, oleanders and other tropical blooms that perfumed the soft summer air.
 The magnificent oaks make the whole city beautiful everywhere you turn; they rustic a welcome everywhere you look; they make quaint shadows upon the beau
 tiful streets. The business houses are re- markedly good in Selma, and one block now in course of erection on Broad street would do credit to any city. It is called the Gill; man block and is of red brick, elaborately trimmed with stone. The churches oi Selma are striking, especially the Presby- terian church on Broad street, which is very handsome indeed. As we sat dream ing in the gloaming on the veranda of Hotel Albert, we were aroused by the sweet chming of bells, whose notes rang out over the quiet town, and sang of 'Home, Sweet Home.' Another hymn the bells sent out upon the dusky evening air, and good men hearing the sound wended their way to the quaint Episcopal church to meet as the Brotherhood Of St. Andrew for the good of their fellow men.
 The Selma people have solved two ques- tions still unsettled by us, namely: the grass and the cattle. They use Bermuda grass on their lawns and sidewalks, and no Kentucky farm can surpass them in this particular. It is the grass natural to our soil, and adapted to our climate as no other is. Then they permit no cattle to roam at large in the streets, and l sighed for some of those specimens famous on the Highlands that they might be disci plined by wholesome restraint. Some of the COWS on the Highlands, as we all know to our sorrow, possess the agility of Loie Fuller and the strength of Sandow, and nothing less than constant attention and strict enforcement of military rules cover their case. l have sometimes wondered If any thing less formidable than the Ferris wheel would prevent their reaching our front yards. An ordinary flight of steps is an inspiration to them and only nerves them to higher and loftier effort. Oh, for the Selma regulations!
 The Hotel Albert, kept by MT. William this, his former home, is beautiful, arr tistic building, handsomely furnished and appointed and delightfully."- kept. The table IS unusually good, the service re- markedly fine, and one rarely finds so agreeable an abiding place as MT. Mills paugh's beautiful hotel.
 And, oh! the splendid crops that greet you on every sidel The earth fairly teens with fields of cotton and corn. Every where there is smiling plenty. And every where there was talk of the election, of course, and on the way from Selma to Mo-
 bile there was young man of the blonde type who never wearied of the theme, and at every station 1 would hear him say, "Well, Dallas will certainly give from 5000 to 5000 majority. How much have Mont gomery, Barbour or Henry done? What has Oates gained?'' Sometimes I would sink into dreamless slumber only to be awakened by this same young politician, who would be insisting to some new conner.
 "Weli, Dallas will give from 5000 to 5000, - etc.. until, in desperation, absolutely welcomed the roar of the air-brakes on the mogul engine, as it was the only sound | that drowned the never ceasing calcula- 1 tions Of one of Dallas' coming office hold CTS. Perhaps you may have observed that many persons of the blonde type incline towards loquacity and sometimes even grow disputatiye.
 MRS. GEO. c. BALL.