The age-herald., 1898-02-27
MATT MINORS
 TOPICAL TALK

very recent and fashionable wedding has brought to light another story. While | many. of the members of the oldest and | best families' were deporting themselves | in the church in manner that would have | been regarded as impollte by crowd of ward politicians, the fact remains that 1t l was not at the church alone where Bir- mingham's social set displayed it's lack | of good manners. Report says that at the house of the bride where large reception was given, the guests were equally as i'm polite as they were at the church. Of course the crowd was very large. There are few people invited to weddings who do not attend. Science has never yet been able to discover the source of the amount of accumulation of morbid curiosity on the occasion of a wedding. The average man and woman looks at the bride with in tensity sufficient to stare a brass image out of countenance.
 I hear that everything went we'll at the reception until refreshments were an nounced Then there was scramble It was kind of a knock-down and drag out affair. Men and woman fighting for positions. Women's dresses were torn. Expensive shirt fronts were broken by women pushing elbows against the ala baster bosoms of the men. If all reports be true the guests acted more like pigs in clover than civilized and cultured men and women. Perhaps it was the first time in long while that many of the guests had been invited into society. No doubt there were others who had not had the opportunity of eating at somebody's else's expense for a long time.
 Several years ago there was a reception given at the Chinese legation in Washing ton by the then new Chinese minister. In addition to there being many times more than enough to eat than was necessary, there seemed to be no end of wine to drink Upon that occasion Washington society was very much lon the hog" just like Birmingham was upon the occasion of the recent wedding referred to- The Chinese minister had been indiscriminate in his invitations. He was determined to give great reception. He did it. All the hogs of the nation seemed to be assembled at Washington on that night Some of the women had their dresses practically torn off their bodies. It was one great "hot touch' to get to the ''pie counter" as it
 
 were.
 The Birmingham wedding was of course a success so far as society was concerned. It was a grand social success. Society was out in full force. Everybody that is anybody in Birmingham was invited. No expense had been spared to make 1t the most fashionable wedding ever given in the city. Most certainly the bride looked beautiful All brides seem beautiful. This bride was handsomely dressed, and made an exceptionally fine appearance. It is good thing that soup was not served. If so, there would have been several thousand dollars worth of ruined dresses the next morning Many of the ladies had salad spilled over their gowns. Ice cream plates fell from the hands of the men like stars from the heavens.
 
 It is reported that some of the clergy are going to devote considerable time to- day to roasting the Mardi Gras festival. I do not know why that should be done. I know nothing whatever about Mardi Gras, nor do I care anything about it. It looks to me Nike lot of foolishness. The crowds which filled the streets upon the festal oc- casion seemed to be of good nature and had no disposition to injure any one. There were only few fights, although there was a great deal of drinking. Aside from a lack of lights on the floats in the night parade, it seemed to be a very creditable demonstration. I have no doubt that the committee did all in it's power to make it success and the reason there were no lights on the floats was not especially the fault of the committee, but some trick had been played upon it.
 The most striking feature of the festivi- ties was the disposition of the races to mix up. There were two young beardless and brainless members of Birmlngham's swell club who made conspicuous fools of themselves by taking up with thoroughly masked colored girl. They were themselves masked and. supposing the girl to be white, they were with her for more than two hours Like little fools, they gave the girl their cards and asked her where she lived She said she lived on the South Highlands, and she did. They asked to call, but the colored girl had more sense than they did by telling them they could not. They imagined her beautiful society girl from the South Highlands and thought they were having, in fact a great time. They took the colored girl into the saloons and, as they said, they were showing her the town They were stunning in disguise. There seemed to be no disposition to draw the color line White and black going arm in arm, drinking at the same bar. White men walking the streets with colored wo- men and white women walking the streets with colored men. It may have been very delightful pastime for some people to mask and make fools of themselves.
 There seems to be a great deal of talk about town in reference to the king. have read several papers where he was described as awkward and without that grace of bearing required in one of his high and exalted position. All I saw of the king was when he passed in his chariot making his bows and salutations to the people. He bore every appearance of being very new