Birmingham state herald., 1896-06-28

coast and the unique enterprise which
 he had set on foot there, but when all
 else had slipped from his grasp, and as
 he sat himself down to review the ups
 and downs of his past, memory recalled
 the Florida island and the goat ranch.
 The hopeful man was not entirely un-
 done. Out of the wreck of his former op-
 ulence here was left one more chance to
 woo and win the favor of the tickle god
 dess fortune. The boomer lost no time
 in getting to Florida, apd the story of his
 experience Is best tolA by himself: "I
 first found that the man with whom l
 made a contract to salt my goats had
 been dead for two or three years, and no
 human being that could find had been
 on the island within that time secured
 boatman and with him paid the island
 visit. Any goats? We'll, I should say
 so The island was fairly alive with
 them. You could stir them with stick.
 but there was not another blessed thing
 on it. It was as bare as the palm of mH
 hand, and on the entire island there was
 not enough green to decorate an Irish
 mans hat on St. Patrick's day. l looked
 at my stock of goats, of all ages, sizes,
 sexes and colors, with a feeling of emo
 tion. was not entirely undone. There
 had been no particular boom in the goat
 market followed by reaction and depres-
 sion, and figured out on the sand that
 at the lowest possible price per head my goat investment ought to net me several thousand dollars and leave me the island With a lighter heart I returned to the mainland and started out to con- vert my billies, nannies and kids into cash This task I soon found was a hopeless one, and though tried all over Georgia, Florida and Alabama, l could not get enough for my goats to pay the expense of transporting them to the mainland. I was laughed at in one town, pronounced crazy in another for claiming to have so many goats and in all the trils I never found a man or woman who
 wanted to buy goat"
 New Orleans is, about mardi gras times especially, the Mecca to which many sight-seers and pleasure seekers journey. The carnival is the attraction and the jam is the incident. Annually hundreds of Alabamians pay tribute to Rex and dollars to the hotel men and hackmen and merchants of the Crescent City. Some years ago, possibly twenty, prob ably not so far back. there was merry party of Alaba mians at the St. Charles. The particular party was from theNaigh- borhood of one city and every member was congenial, so out of compliment 10 the reigning royalty they were all haV- ing a royal good time. One member Of the party bright and beautiful girl, but recently graduated, was the daugh- ter of an Alabama congressman. An other was one of the most brilliant young newspaper men oI tIis stale. ihS couple were together a great deal and they had to undergo running fire from
 the other members of the party, in which very useful article of tableware was
 often prominently mentioned. They bore up under 1t nobly, however, and finally. by seeming to join in the good natured chaffing stilled it. The party reached New Orleans on Sunday and divided its time between seeing the sights and struggling with the throng to get into the dining room at meal time. On Tues day, after seeing the day parade and many other sights, the young newspaper
 man and his fair companion returned to the hotel both thoroughly tired out. lobbies were thronged with guests await ing their turn, so the couple decided that they would avoid the crush by going | out to some restaurant where they could l get dinner without being unduly crowd-