The age-herald., 1898-12-15
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE

Winston, N C., who was at the Morris last
 night.
 T am now returning home from an ex-
 tended tour, and at almost every point I
 visited business men have said to me, 'Br-
 mingham is evidently on another boom
 That is not the proper way to speak of Bir-
 minghams revival, but 1t can do no harm
 We have been whipped. The panic of 1893
 whipped us, and now we are coming to our
 senses. We shan't be foolish again. The
 boom in the south. beginning in 1886, went
 too high. Collapse was inevitable, and
 when it came we fell too far, absurdly too far But we are recovering our balance, | and we will the coming year reach the | golden mean of continuous prosperity.
 Mark you The year 1899 will be the
 actual beginning of many years of the 1 greatest prosperity this country ever has | yet enjoyed The conditions are favorable
 to it, and it will certainly come. Here in l BirminghamI find the business and indus 1 trial situation most encouraging. I own | property here, and l have intention of
 selling 1t at present; l am holding for bet l ter prices. There Is no better place than
 Birmingham is today in which to invest in | real property.
 l 'The only drawback to the south at pres l ent Is the low price of cotton; but that is | largely counteracted by good supply of | meat and bread There are more hogs and ] corn in the south this winter than al any other time since the war between the states, | and in all the district have visited there | Is feeling of confidence very comforting | to observe.
 'In the tobacco trade, in which I am most interested, business is satisfactory, and promises to increase this winter. Bir- mingham is one of the best centers of to- bacco trade in the south. And this applies to other trades as we'll Birmingham has
 solid backing-it has backbone, so to speak. It is in the heart of the richest mineral
 region of the country, and is on the edge of the cotton fields.
 What Pittsburg has been to the indus trial life of the north, Birmingham will be to the industrial life of the south. Birming ham must inevitably be great city, city of splendid dimensions. Nothing can keep it back
 MT. Hanes is one of the largest manufac- turers of plug tobacco in the country, and
 is one of the wealthiest men in the south. He has made his own fortune. He started his factory with a capacity of 15O,000 pounds a year. Its capacity now is 1000 pounds, and it actual output about 100000. "It requires great deal of capital to run
 large tobacco factory said MT. Hanes.
 "All leaf tobacco is paid for in cash, all sugar used is cash or thirty days, all labor is cash, and the revenue stamps of F cents 8 pound cash. But we sell the manu- factured product at sixty to ninety days
  quires large capital in ready money"
 MT. Hanes' tour has covered parts of the two Carolinas, and Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana and Alabama. He was accompanied by his accomplished wife and beautiful daughter.
 Yesterday in Louisville I witnessed the reception of the First Kentucky regiment, recently returned from Santiago" said Captain P. Sid Jones. Ut was certainly a splendid reception. All the people appeared to have turned out to greet with wild en- thusiasm the returning volunteers. It was a brave show, and in the matter of con trast it brought to my mind the last pre- vious occasion when in my persohal knowl- edge a regiment of soldiers marched Through the strets of Louisville. That was in '65, when my regiment of ragged confed- crates marched through the streets of that town unnoticed, and camped in the fields beyond. Nobody paid any sort of attention to us, although we had been through four years of the most bloody war in history
 Our homecoming called forth no demon
 stration of welcome; we were simply ig- nored. We were ragged and hungry and had been so for years, but the citizens of Louisville didn't seem to care.
 "The First Kentucky volunteers of 1898 fared like princes, and Kentucky volun-
 teer of 61-65 did not envy them. They hadn't seen much service; they had been well-fed and well-clothed-looked after al- most as carefully as the children of the rieh-but they came home to be acclaimed heroes by every fair woman in Louisville. They went into camp, and the grateful public supplied them with every luxury. They had quail on toast, and every other delicacy one could think of. In '65 the veterans of the civil war were glad to get bread. But that's all right; I am glad of it. It shows how things have changed within thirty-three years"
 'I got into sore trouble in one of the wild est swamps of Arkansas once," said man who has travelled much, land it was on account of a mule and the incidental fact of too much red liquor. started out for long ride muleback across densely wooded swamp over a bad road. had im-
 bibed too much drink before started, and
 carried bottle with me. In the middle of
 the swamp the mule suddenly refused to go forward another step, like mules some- times will do, and the beast actually laid down with me in the saddle. scrambled to my feet, and tried to coax the mule up. He wouldn't move. Then I beat him, but he merely kicked. After vain efforts to get him on his feet decided to leave him there and make me bed of willows near by, as I was very tired and drowsy. In a clump of willows I cut enough leafy limbs to form me a thick and comfortable bed, and was