The age-herald., 1898-10-28
CHATS WITH MEN
 IN HOTEL LOBBIES

who had just returned from Chattanooga. where he acted as best man in a double wedding equally brilliant. The man was Henry Wyly,. well known in railroad cir ces in the south. He didn't attend last nights society event. as he did not per- sonally know the happy couple; he went to the theater. There are many interesting things about Wyly; but perhaps that
 which is of greatest interest to the public is the fact that on Wednesday evening he l oficiated at his forty-first wedding. Not | that he has been married forty-one times, | but that he has acted best man or att l tendant at each of that number of bridal | functions Remarkable fact! Wyly had an average of two weddings a month last | winter, and he has started out well for | the season now opened There is a Scotch l phrase to the effect that the unmarried in- dividual who witnesses fourteen marriages can never attend his or her own connubial | takng-off. That doesn't disturb Wyly. | He is going to his forty-second within a week. Undoubtedly he breaks the record.
 
 There was a 1OO0O fire in Birmingham l this morning; a big blaze for the town. "The small number of fires in this city is remarkable" said pr. Davidson, the real estate owner. The doctor did not speak gretfully; he merely stated a fact as to fires of any consequence. There are a plenty of fires, but the fire department gen. erally manages to check them without se- rious loss. This town sends s1,O00,OOO to the insurance companes,,' observed the happy doctor, but receives almost no money in return" He did not say what space of time was required to spend the enormous sum mentioned; but he meant a reasonable time Fires make business for the insurance companies" he said; and l then the talk turned the desirability of some large fires in certain blocks of the down town district. But if the fire this morning had spread to any great extent | it would have been calamitous. It broke out in the wrong block.
 Speaking of fires, Dr. Blake. the popular physician inspector of the state peniten- tiary, yesterday in a place where fire has to be guarded with the utmost caution. i He was deep down in a coal mine near the l city, looking out for foul gases and bad 1 ventilation generally. He crawled a mile 1 through the opening of a thirty-inch seam, and his knees were sore that he went | to bed at o'clock last night. Had it to | do,' he remarked. ''I am largely responsi- | ble for the health of the convicts, and the only satisfactory way of ascertaining my | idea of the whole truth is to go down into | the mines myself
 Do you like the work?'
 Like it? You ought to see my knees! 1 The good and able doctor then took his l knees to bed, as a good and able doctor should very properly do in the circum- 1 stances.
 | Chief Clerk Charlie Allen, of the Mont l gomery county board of revenue, is in the city to arrange for the hiring out of the l able-bodied convicts from that county. He l was with MT. Rogers, of the Tennessee company. The women and weddings amongst the conyicts are hired to the Wal l ter Bros, near Montgomery. who produce l enough cotton every year to keep a big 1 factory busy.
 "The best oysters in the whole world are l found on & reef near Milton, Fla, thirty l miles up the coast from Pensacola" said Jake Weiss, of Mobile, as he enjoyed | half-stew of Blue Points at the Morris last night.
 "Why hasn't persons of ordinary infor- | nation ever heard of these oysters?" was | asked
 Every scarce-very difficult to get. Six l of us dredged the bed all day once and got only a half-bushel, but they were worth l the trouble. They are unequaled. Talk | about Blue Points, Norfolks, Saddlerocks | and all the others-they not circum- | stance to the Milton bivalves." Weiss l knows oysters. He also knows personally
 more Alabamians than any other man 1 living.
 l The mayor of Huntsville the inimitable l Jere Murphy, Is at the Morris. So is I Dick Lowe the popular state solicitor of the Huntsville circuit, likewise inimitable.
 Jere Murphy is filling his tenth term as the
 mayor of the city of the unrivaled spring | and Camp Wheeler. The Huntsvillians l elect him every time the law allows, and | they promise to keep up the practice He
 is the most famous mayor in Alabama.
 Word comes that he is improving the big 1 spring. If he "improves' 1t too much he
 will undoubtedly be lvnched
 
 Dick Lowe is one of the 13S candidates
 for solicitorships who will appeal to the leg
 isIature for indorsement and amongst them
 all there Is not truer, better man. One Of | the best informed politicians in Alabama | was asked yesterday to assist in prepar- | pairing list of the candidates for solicitor.
 "Such list is impossible,' said he. T | should say that there are a hundred and | fifty of them. But I don't anticipate any | prolonged session of the democratic cau- | GUS Most of the winners will be virtually
 agreed upon on the first ballot in each | case"
 | "Governor Johnston has made about the | best governor the state has ever had," said | Colonel Tom Bulger of Tallapoosa, yester-
 day. "He Is most painstaking, methodical | and conscientious. He works harder than | any man know, and he deserves the praise
 that he Is receiving"
 | State Senator Deans, late populist nomi- nee for governor, Is shelng the woods for | Aldrich in the Fourth congressional dis | trict and Aldrich is doing a lot of shelling
 on his own account. Both say they are
 fident. Senator Deans said yesterday: T
 decline to give any figures about Aldrich's
 majority I have refused all the time to
 give out estimates, but I have been very
 unkindly misrepresented in that particular" | The congressman said that he was charged
 with voting in favor of very important
 measure in congress, which was passed
 more than seven months before he obtained | his seat
 | 0F THE OHIO SORT