Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-03-19
IN THE CORRIDOR.

1.-THE Tennessee centennial is going to
be a show out of sight, said Mr.. L, I.
TTousdale at the Florence last night.
I'VE think we have one of the best towns
and one eff the richest towns in the eoun-
try, The people in Nashville have eor9e
TO the front literally in the way of SUB.
scriptions, and nearly all of the proposed
buildings are we'll under way. In TACT
some of them are nearly finished. There
appears to be an idea down here that be-
cause the opening was postponed the
whole thing is off. Well, the people who
think so are off. 1t was postponed be-
cause there was not time to finish the
buildings and put the grounds in order
And there was another matter that
weighed heavily. This is the year for
the general election and the people who
would like TO come are likely to be kept
away because of political matters. Then
another thing: If held this year 1t would
follow Atlanta too closely. You can bet
It's going to be great show, and wen
have the people there.
Charley Townley. G. e.. according to
his autograph on the Morris hotel regis
ter, but then everybody knows him as
Charley, and he's good boy at that
Charles has been selling starch for
Kingsford & Co. of OSWego, N. Y, 10
these many years. and Birmingham is
one of his old stamping grounds. In
fact. he thinks so much of starch that he
cheerfully swears this is the best place
In the world to get dish of spaghetti
Did you ever see man get drunk on
the stage?" said a theatrical man at the
Florence last night. mo? Wen. it's
funny. You know Evans, don't you?
He's a cuckooused to be Evans and Hoey
played the 'Par3or Match Well, one
night l was at the show in Pttsburg.
Hoey and Evans were at the Duquesne
theater and | went to see the thing.
Everybody has seen the play, and you
know in the second act Evans is supposed
to imbibe from a small flask he takes out
of cabinet and flashes on Old
Hoss,' whose mouth waters-and that is
no joke, either, because old Hoss' loves
his tea. Well as | found out afterwards,
Evans, who has many friends in Pitts
burg, had eaten a philopeEa with a Pitts
burg lady year previous and she had
lost, so when he came again to the
Smoky City she sent a silver flask full
of whisky to the theater, with instruc-
tons to be used in the second act. When
Evans opened the cabinet and saw this
silver article instead of the glass bottle
he expected to see it pleased him for a
minute, but he's an old bird, and he took
his drink just the same as usual. | was
sitting out in front, and when l saw the
beatific grin that spread over his blonde
countenance l realized that something
was up. Well, to make a long story
short, Evans consumed a good half pint
in the course of about twenty minutes
and of all the funny capers that were
ever cut on stage, he took the first
prize. Evans is funny anyway but his
business that night was out of sight. You
see It wasn't on the programme"
1.-The south is cutting quite a figure
in the international chess contest" said
Mr.. Hyronemus of the Florence hotel
cigar stand last night. There are
probably some p Ne who don't know it,
but the two most rominent players are
from our neck of the woods-Showalter
of Kentucky and Albert Hodges of Ten
neSsee. Hodges beat Showalter in a con-
test a year ago, and although he is only
35 years of age, has already an interna-
tional reputation 1 remember him ten
years ago, when he was prescriptionist
in Nashville. His father was a doctor,
and his only brother, Charles Hodges,
is now managing editor of the Gin
cinnati Enquirer. Albert was so far
ahead of any chess player in Nashville
that he was encouraged to go east. He
did, and friends found him an easy berth
in Brooklyn. For several years he has
given his time to the study of the great
est game ever invented and If he lives
he will undoubtedly stand among the
worlds greatest players. I don't mean
to say that he is a Paul Morphy, but
he is undoubtedly a great player, and
southern people should be proud of him.
And what Billy Hyronemus says goes.
for he knows everybody south of Mason
and Dixon's line and some chess just
little bit.
Don't you know it's a hard thing to
get away with a travelling man." said
one of the brotherhood at the Morris no.
tel to the corridor man last night.
There used to be a baggage man at
Evansville who gave the travelling men
lots of trouble on excess baggage. Made
us pay for it? Yes, but that isn't the
point If a man is in hurry he'll al
ways tell how many pounds excess he
has to save time. Well, this duck
wouldn't take anybody's word; he'd al
ways weigh it. A friend of mine, cloth
ing man, who carried thirteen trunks
had been through there three or four
times, and he got tired of having this
fellow doubt his word. He laid for him
one hot summer day. The platform and
all that was on it seemed to be fairly
broiling when my friend arrived with
his trunks. He presented himself just
within the limit of time allowed by the
law. How much excess growled the
baggage man. Weigh it and find out
said my friend. He looked like he had
taken a hot bath when he got through
hustling those trunks, and you can bet
your life he always takes drummer's
word on excess nowadays"