The age-herald., 1899-07-07
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE

"Sometme ago I desired to bring my wife to Birmingham for a stay of several weeks, but found it impossible to make satisfae- tory hotel arrangements" said a visiting banker yesterday "Pd bring my family here to spend half of next winter if such arrangements were practicable; but the hotel accommodations of Birmingham are hopelessly inadequate. It is not speaking much for Birmingham perhaps to say that 1t has about as good hotel accommodations be enjoyed in the south, outside of Florida; but the point is, this city needs great hotel of the first class. I can think of no investment that would pay better re- turns. The development of Birmingham has brought about new conditions, new needs and the demand for great hotel is amongst them. This is imperative. Noth- ing can kcep back the city, but there arc many things that could hasten it's growth to greatness. Most important of all is hotel of the first grade in every respect number of rooms, furniture, general equip- ment, and restaurant attached. The day of the hotel on the American plan is pass ing rapidly: it is almost done. What the iIdNelllS puDllC ueIIdIINiS diS tiiC DNSN ~ commodatons for rest, and the best of good places in which to purchase such food as each individual shall demand. If a man desires plate of soup only, he is averse to paying for a twenty-dish dinner Birming- hams greatest need just now is a superb hotel run on the so-caled European plan: that is a place where traveller may get what he desires in the way of food, and pay only for what he gets.''
 "rhe south is wretchedly lacking in ho- tels of the higher class said man whose business forces him to travel in all the southern states. Alabama has one such hotel. Virginia has one, away from Old Point; North Carolina has one or two in the mountains South Carolina has none; Tennessee had one, but it was burned down the other night; Georgia has one; Florida has many; Mississippi none; Louisiana has one; Texas one; Arkansas none. And so run the facts about really good hotels in the south. Even at pleasure resorts the hotel grub is tough, It is likely to be long time before there is any great im- provement in the hotels. Those responsible for the conduct of hotels do not heed pr. Johnson's remark to the effect that the best thing ever devised for the comfort of man is a good inn. Possibly pr. Johnson didn't know what he was talking about; but travellers believe he spoke truth"
 
 Say, my man. do you want a job?'
 ''No, sir; don't want nothin now ceptin' money to bury de dead. l got to bury de dead"
 "Ill give you a dollar and a half a day ard permanent employment" was urged.
 "No, sir; don't want no job today. Fust thing l got to do is to bury de dead.'
 That's the way it goes," said an agent from an ore mine near the city. ''I came to town early this morning to secure twen- ty-five laborers for our ore mines, and have been offering dollar and half day and promising steady work l have succeeded in getting four men. Nearly all I speak to are employed at satisfactory wages. The others, too lazy to-work, put up some ex- cuse like the negro who had to bury de dead.' We want twenty-five men, and want them badly but it seems impossible to get them. The truth is that every man, white or coored. who is willing to work, is a- ready employed. Work is plentiful, wages are good and there are practically no idle men in Jefferson county or the Birmingham district It is safe to say that there is not laborer in the district who has been idle three days because he couldn't obtain em- ployment. A dollar and half day for ore miners is good pay. In Taladega, I hear, laborers get only 80 cents. There is plenty of work, plenty of money-plenty of every thing except laborers.
 Down where the Spanish moss robes the primeval oaks and where the mocking- bird sings his sweetest, there-is a certain bosky dell, and from it's heart there bub- bles up through great mass of mint spring of clear, cold water" said a lover of good things and the beautiful. "It is one of the many dream-haunted spots of the Blackbelt, the land of the cotton and the corn Many time, in years gone by f speRt- ,5iessssassa1tt ,5iessssaa hours there Amongst the mint, on festive occasions, there could be seen a corn cob moved gently by the water. That corn cob was in the top of an old brown jug. In the jug was that generous liquor without which mint would appear to every wel-regulated southern mind to be useless. Near by there was some sugar. The, jug and the mint, the cold water and the SuSar-Cl, well! no Iaun ever urank sweeter draught from the bosom of the good earth than the juleps which we eom- pounded. Those were glad, careless days; and these Fourth-of-July times fin the city recall them to me with remarkable force and sweetness. The best mixer of juleps ever knew was that old sweetheart of mine, and she made them there at that mint-fringed spring. The water from the spring formed lake near by, and-well down by the lake where dropped the will low, long time ago. there lived a maiden and I loved her! Excuse the poetry, my boy. An old man believes in nothing but that which is past''
 "The fact that Birmingham is the sec- | ond largest interior cotton market in Ala bama will surprise most people. Many l think that Birmingham is only an iron manufacturing center," said a prominent cotton exporter yesterday. "Our receipts 1 last year exceeded 100000 bales and they