The age-herald., 1897-09-10
GOSSIP OF THESTREET
 AND HOTEL L0BBIES

He was only a mendicant-a street. corner musician. An eyesore, as pro- gressive Americans are wont to term them. Yet he was pitiable He was helpless. clad in rags, without a penny, without a friend, and the sorrow of it., he once had wealth-gHttering gold, yet which never satiates the appetite for pleasure.
 His name was Henry Alley. He came all the way from Fl Paso, Tex, seated in an invalid chair in a dirty, uncom- fortabEe baggage coach. Home, yes he was going home to Grafton, w. Va. Do loved ones await him? Yes, mother, an old wrinkled face, with lips that pressed his in boyhood will press them once again. wife, yes, he has a wife-a vampire" In younger days better days-when fortune smiled he had wife. When fortune failed she left for the gay round of pleasure. He was left a wretch-miserable, without health, a wanderer upon the face of the earth.
 Ten years ago Henry Alley was com- paratively a wealthy man. Money went in unfortunate business ventures. Yet he saw a happy side in life until one evil day an accident befell him and he was shorn of all desirable to live for. T was hit by a street car three years ago last August said he. q have been suffering from paralysis and lung trou- hla qiUna n ipon T bod bue spent it in quest of relief I am now going home to die"
 The station porter came up and rude ly showed the invalid chair down the platform and it was put in the baggage car. The chair was not heavy, for the frail form could not have weighed more than 60 pounds. Once he must have been handsome, and the lines showing refinement and education had not yet been eradicated by hardship. An old fiddle and bow lay beside him in the chair. With this alone and his weak voice he has earned his scant supply of bread for many months.
 "You talk about pensions and pension frauds said J. K. Simpson, of Vir- ginia town. 'sBut I heard a trial that capped the climax. The trial was held before a bailiff, and as a rule these in-- dividuals feel very keenly the impor- tance of their positions. A woman was being cried for forgery and comphcity in a pension fraud. To be sure, the court room was crowded with a lot of loafers. Several witnesses were exam- fred, and the last one was big black negro woman, with a loud voice. She was being questioned about the death of her husband, and of course this kind of a thing ought ito produce tears.
 "'You say your husband died in Nor~ folk" snarled the district attorney.
 "Yessah."
 You were with him?"
 "Yessah. Right dere with him when he died.''
 '"Tell us about it."
 q member, sah, he got up through the night. tEIe said he was too wa'm living derc wid me an de little chill. T's too wa'm' he said, I'll go to de winduh ans lie down dere.' He gene'ally got up nights, anyhow, when he wus too wa'm.
 T don't know how long he had been lyin' by de winder fore heard a rusle. I gene'aIly keeps lamp burnin O. nights. I hears him say, Op oman, get up.' Am jumped up an says, 'Or man! He says, What?
 'I jumped up an went ito him at de winduh an he was like he was strug- glin'. I says, Honey, what's de mat ter?' an de las wo'd he said, I don know I said, Lord have mercy, what's de matter wid your An after I say dat he didn't say no mo. Gentlemen, he died right off. I said, Lord Jesus, my hus- band gone. What am I gwine do?' No one was with me but dat chip. I went out an hollered. Some said at 1 o'clock alt night dey heard me holler. I went out an alolrered fur some one to come. fo my husband was dead" Birmingham is being torn down and being built over again. said Mayor Evans while surveying one of the new buildings going up. "Business house after business house is being remod- eled. or literally torn down and another being made to take its place. Now, if this isn't a sign of prosepIity, I dcm'u know what it is."