The age-herald., 1899-01-06
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE

this most useful institution of the state, and the school is in the highest degree pros- porous. Many girls from the best families in the state are there, and they are learn ing much of the practical affairs of life. They are learning how to make dresses, hats, bonnets and other articles of woman's apparel, and they are also learning how to cook, and are acquiring a thorough knowl- edge of the art of housekeeping. On Sat urday next, the 7th instant, the class in cooking will give an entertainment, and there is every reason for assuming that it will be in the highest degree enjoyable. I doubt if the people of Alabama fully realize what a grand institution for the practical education of young women they have in the Montevallo school. It ought to be the pride of the state and receive the hearty support of all Alabamians. The pupils are being given practical instruction. The class in dressmaking has recently earned for itself $299 for making dresses for society women in Montgomery and elsewhere They have made dresses costing $50 $75 $l0O, and up to $l25 each, and the profit from this work goes to themselves. Only girls who have been two years in the school are per- mitted to undertake such delicate work, requiring as it does, such a high degree of skill"
 MT Reynolds is the son of President Key holds, under whose management this great school has attained such high degree of effiency and success. The son has imbibed, so to speak, very much of his distinguished fathers enthusiasm for and devotion to the school, and takes the deepest interest in it's welfare. The son is a strong, successful young business man, and Is of the worthiest citizens of Shelby. The father is doing a great and noble work-greater and nobler than he has yet realized.
 J. J. Wilett, the eminent young attorney of Anniston, was in town yesterday on legal business, though, like everybody else, he was suffering from the grippe. He came here straight from Fruithurst the model settlement in Cleburne county, where he had been in the interest of clearing up ihe titles to the gold mine property there being worked by Chicago investors.
 "The Chicago investors are very confident of their property proving to be of great value" said MT. Willett. "All that stands in the way of rapid development is the
 
 great deal of land in that district, including some of the vineyards at Fruithurst, have been questioned and thrown into litigation. This is extremely unfortunate. The Chi cago investors have already spent $3O, 900 in developing the gold mines, and they are going to spend more. They are perfectly satisfied with their investment, but the doubt as to clear titles hangs over them. That will be finally adjusted, however, and we shall see a great gold producing plant constructed there, and experts have no doubt as to it's paying"
 Yesterday was the miserablest of all mis- erable days, so far as concerned the weather The temperature was like that of rainy day in April yet in this epidemic of the grippe men had to go about muffled up in overcoats for feat of catching their death of increased cold and wheezing and coughing. Almost the entire population was coughing and wheezng and suffering nameless pains. One couldn't meet a man who didn't feel "like the d-l," as the phrase went, and no cheerful mortal could anywhere be discovered. The rain fell nearly the liyelong day, in mean, nasty ul lHAlt UT SIOW SHOWeF anu the races or the reluctant passers-by in the street were quite smileess. One felt cold chills one moment, and was burning hot the next. The town and it's thinned crowds looked bedraggled, and every person seen looked undoubtedly unhappy. It was a sort of day planned for the benefit of the doctors and the profit of the undertakers. The weather was startlingly unseasonable-a muggy, damp miserable day, thrown into the world out of disjonted time The grippe, damnablest of all human ailments, f1ourished apace, and hourly claimed new victims. It is doubtful if there was a man in Birmingham whom the wretched, steamy day failed to make miserable. Bus mess was dull-every rythng of human inter- est was in an unsatisfactory condition, and all individuals had something worse than the 'blues
 Things are dull, anyway, since the holi- days, that is, dull for Birmingham. It is the reaction from the almost feverish &C., tivity that has prevailed in business for several weeks past, and is therefore not an unwholesome sign. It requires a few days for trade to settle down to it's normal condition. Holiday trade was, of course, abnormal It was the heaviest and most satisfactory enjoyed by Birmingham mer- chants in many years. Indeed, some of the big dry goods and clothing houses did the best trade in their history. So these few days of quietness come in good time to permit of stock-taking, and the rearrange- ment of things after the almost unexam- pied rush.
 Judging by present indications, I am almost afraid the constitutional conven- tion will go by default" said a distin- guished citizen in the lobby. "So far as my observation goes, the general public is talk ing surprisingly little interest in the call for the convention. Certainly We couldn't ex- pect very animated interest or discussion this early, and before the state democratic executive committee has formulated and promulgated it's plan of campaign, but still one might hope for more general interest than that now manifest, 1 presume how