The age-herald., 1898-11-25
IN HOTEL LOBBIES AND ELSEWHERE

about to acquire, the iron furnace at Flor enee MT. J. Warren Worthington was ask cd for his opinion as to the truth of the matter. MT. Worthington was strongly dis inclined to talk for publication, and rather eurtly suggested that the reporter of the Age-Herald apply to the gentlemen inter- | ested for such information as was desired. | Being pressed for answer to the ques- 1 tion his views being desirable, he admit | ted that he suspected the reports of the latest requirement of the Florence furnace l to be not true.
 "Why?"
 Because answered Mir Warrington l bluntly. q do not think man who is vice l president of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and 1 Dayton railroad, as MT. Zimmerman is, | would be found putting up his money on 1 calamities like the Florence furnaeei I 1 have nothing further to say, and have to wish you good evening"
 l Thereupon MT. Warrington departed by l the Louisville and Nashville train for New l Orleans.
 l "One of the most positive evidences of | Birmingham's returned prosperity is the | presence here of street fakrs," declared an | observant business man yesterday after | noon. As he spoke he pointed to two big | crowds, each around faK1r's wagon in l the street within a block of where he | stood. That means something. Those | chaps don't frequent town unless there is money to be picked up. When bad times | struck here the fakirs left us, and in our | days of anxiety we saw nothing of them; but they are back here, and really their presence is cheering. They know their bus | mess. and they do not pursue it unless money is reasonably plentiful with the | crowds in the streets"
 "It seems to me-" said Captain Trimble,
 that about all the infirm and unfortunate beggars in Alabama congregate in Birming- ham. They come from all sections of the | state-the blind, the cripple, and the other
 wise helpless class. It is probably because
 there is more money here for them than l elsewhere. One does not find them in | Huntsville, Montgomery, or Mobile or the
 other large towns in the state Birming- ham receives them all, and apparently gives them enough to keep body and soul to- l gether.
 l '.There are certainly a great many beg l gars here,' said another -"and many of
 them make nuisances of themselves. If
 there be no law for restraining them, there | ought to be. Each county should be
 made to take care of its helpless poor" l 'The crowds of visitors in New York just | now Is unexampled in the history of the | metropolis, said a Birmingham man who
 returned yesterday from protracted vlsit | to the great city. New Workers tell me l nothing like it was ever known before. 1 Broadway is at frequent intervals quite inn ] l passable on account of the throngs.
 started up that street from Twenty-fifth
 street to Fiftieth one afternoon, and at
 Inirtieth l was compelled to leave Broad-
 way for other routes in order to reach my | destination. The way was blocked with l humanity. At the great hotels it is impossi-
 Die to get bedroom, and business is having
 such boom as it has not had in many
 years.
 All business men in New York are re-
 joicing over the present conditions and the
 future outlook, and all those I talked to
 evinced a deep practical interest in Bir-
 mingham and the Birmingham district"
 "There died near Lakeview on Tuesday one of the best known and most popular commercial travellers in the south" said an old-time friend of him who has passed in his sales-book for the last time. q refer to R. E. Vigal-'Emmett,' as everybody knew him. He was buried at Woodlawn yesterday. At the time he was taken i'll he was travelling for a large shoe house. with headquarters in Birmingham, and had been selling shoes on the road for six teen or eighteen years. His death will cause widespread regret amongst his great number of personal friends, his many con- stant customers and all the travelling men in the southern territory. A better fellow than Emmett Vigal never packed his grip to go forth on his cherry way of trade He was genial and companionable, a faith ful friend and good salesman. I have known him nearly twenty years, and I never knew anything of him that was not highly creditable."
 | MT. Vigal died at the home of his mother after great suffering from congestion. He was the younger brother of Mr. Will H. Vigal, of this city
 "Colonel Robert Mckee, at one time the most influential newspaper man in Ala bama, is in Birmingham" said a man who works for the press. 'He founded the old
 Selma Argus and made it the greatest single power in Alabama politics. He sold
 the Argus in 1880 to Chapel Cory and Cas- ton A. Robbins, and became private secre-
 tary to Governor Cobb, and held that po- | sition under Governor O'Neal. He passed
 out when Governor Seay entered office in 1SS6 and since then has resided in Calhoun
 county. Colonel Mckee was the editor of
 the old Louisville Journal before its con-
 solidation with the Louisville Courier, and Iachieved national reputation. It was said many years ago that he was offered $5 900 | a year to come to Birmingham and edit
 the Iron Age, the weekly forerunner of The Age-Herad, but he declined the offer on
 the ground that he was opposed to a pro- tective tariff.'
 Congressman W. F. Aldrich, of the
 Fourth district, Is in the city It is under
 stood that Mr. Aldrich will contest the
 recent election of Gaston A. Robbins.