The age-herald., 1898-12-30
IN HOTEL LoBBIES
AND ELSEWHERE

has been travelling a great deal of late, and says that Birmingham is the topic of dis cussion everywhere. "In one city" said he, ''I met at my hotel one evening twenty or thirty commercial travellers, and we got to talking about various southern cities. You must see Birmingham they all declared. That is easily the best town in the south, and has more of promise about it than any other town in the country. I discover that as much as I had heard in praise of Bir- mngham, the tenth part of the whole had not been told. never dreamed of any thing equal to its natural advantages and attractions. And there is so much life and hustle and energy here, and the people have such confident, self-reliant air about theml No one see Birmingham and look into its attractions and study it's development, and then doubt for a moment that it is going to become the greatest of all southern cities. It is already the most attractive of them all
 In the course of short interview with Hon. ". H. Seymour, the distinguished young representative from Sumter, publish ed in this column on the 27th, MT. Seymour was made to say in effect that the money SO lar pau out 10 anu other employees of the senate and house at Montgomery exceeded for the time in ques- tion that paid in any other general assem- ply since 1875. Reference to his own notes convlnces the reporter that he unwttngiy misquoted MT. Seymour There was con- fusion in the notes, which caused the error in the printed report.
 The tallest and most stalwart young man in Alabama was in Birmingham yesterday. He is veritable giant. His name is Sam uel Hancock, and he is a Talladega county farmer. He is 21 years old and is six feet seven inches in height.
 Hancock is a splendid young fellow, and is unusually intelligent" said Colonel Rob- ert Mckee "He impressed me as much by his sound common sense and intelligence as his extraordinary physical proportions. He is splendid type of the physical man, straight as an arrow, and is yet mere lad in years"
 It is fortunate for this young giant of the Talladega hills that he does not live in Ger many. If he were a subject of the Emperor William that redoubtable war lord would certainly kep him in the imperial house. hold guard until he got too old for ser vice.
 MT. Hancock is a relative of Mrs. Chas. M. Shelley.
 Assistant State Examiner James G. Cowan has returned from his brief Christ mas holiday and resumed his work on the books, records and general accounts of the county commissioners of Jefferson. He said last night he was making good pro- gress with the work in hand, and hoped to complete it by the 12th or 18th of Janu- ary. Further than that MT. Cowan had nothing to say.
 You asked me about the hotel discom- forts of small county towns" said MT. Cowan. "I spent four weeks in a certain county town Investigating public accounts, and 1 wouldn't take $2,000 for my experi- ence. The little hotel I stayed at was very objectionable in one or two very important respects, but I had to put up with it. My hearing had been defective for many years. For twenty-five years I hadn't been able to hear a clock tick One night was awaken ed in my room at the little hotel by most violent pains in the head, and I sent the landlord in great haste for a doctor. Mean tiliIS, dS oii lhC punt Ol SOihS ihao HAth pain The doctor arrived; and after a cur sorry eXamina ton, he said something had gotten into my ear; but he would have to wait for daylight before he could make an examination. He then gave me something for temporary relief. He returned next morning with big horse syringe, and, fill ing it with water, put it in one of my ears and sent a powerful squirt into my head knocking me down on the floor and stunning me. l was relieved, however. | Upon examination it was discovered that a 1 moth and a cimex lectularius had gotten | into my ear. But the big squirt from the l horse syringe had restored my hearing. My l hotel bill at the end of the month was SIP; but the landlord knocked off a dollar for | the intrusion in my ear."
 "The two most agreeable surprises that I | had in the old country were, first, the ab stlnence from profane swearing, which | seemed to be the rule; and, second, the ex- ceeding friendliness of the people of London toward strangrs," said a southern gentle man who had recently returned from an extended trip abroad q was born and | reared in town where nearly all male persons, except the clergy, used profane  | language, and in travelling through the | north and south and west I have been dis gusted at the coarse talk and blasphemous phrases indulged in by young men who 1 happened to belong to the irreligious class. "Well, in England I met all sorts of peo- pie, high, low and middle subsequently, the merchant and the mechanic classes; met Jews, Christians and Atheists, and I never once heard the name of God used in l vain; never heard so much as our familiar expletive, damn it. If the English people ever use 'cuss' words failed to catch any
 of them. did not hear any profanity in Germany nor even in France. One morn ing, as I was seated in railway carriage in Paris, ready to leave for London, large, able-bodied Frenchman, who followed the | business of guide, came along and accosted | fellow passenger-an Australian. He de- | manded from this person $5, which he