The age-herald., 1899-06-10
IN HOTEL LOBBIES llI AND ELSEWHERE

"The Eager agony is over, I perceive" | remarked a public man yesterday. ''Dr. l Eager declines the presidency of the Girls 1 school at Montevallo; and his declination will be surprising to the public as was 1 his election, or 'call, sas he phrases 1t. 1 Why the good doctor should have ever | suffered himself to even consider this 'calP 1 is puzzling. He is the pastor of the fore most Baptist church of the state receives a salary of $2,500 a year. has the use of | house rent-free, and the members of his | church are very much attached to him, going so far in their thoughtful eonsidera- tion of his comfort as to even supply him 1 with telephone. Assuredly his place in | the ministry is preferable to the burden some duties of managing a great school for girls! Yet. Dr. Eager has taken an unconscionable time in deciding the mat ter. And the public mind is more be- logged than ever regarding curious chap 1 ter in wh2t be termed political history" |
 Commenting on the fact that the board of trustees will assemble in Birmingham to- l day to elect a president of the Girls school, 1 the observant public man proceeded to l say:
 Tt is idle to guess at the action of the | trustees. A board that could hurl a bolt from the blue sky like the Eager election may have a yet greater surprise for | somewhat weary public. It may be that 1 Dr. Eager will be again elected it need 1 not be surprising if he is. Caesar did thrice | refuse the crown. Or it may be that some mere politician will be chosen. All acts | affa ba 1in to hau | political application. Governorship, sena- | torship, constitutional convention-these | important matters must be taken care of, | or in good sooth they will taken care of | themselves in the old way favored of the people. It will require a long time for the | Montevallo school to recover from the dam | age already done to it. I hear that many parents who sent their daughters there last session have expressed in writing a pur- pose to no longer patronize the school since it has been brought into politics. Key noldss successor will have an extremely difficult task to perform; and I shall wish him well of it, whoever he may be. The gossip about the possible reelection of Reynolds is nonsense He wouldn't accept"
 "Whatever may be the action of the Montevallo trustees regarding the presiden- cy of the school under their charge, there is likely to be considerable politics discuss ed by some of them tomorrow said a politician yesterday in discussing todays trustee meeting in this city. "There are some wide-awake politicins on the board, and it is not probable that they will come together without having a little talk re- garding the situation. The only active ele- ment in state politics just now has a ma jority of the board, and it would be quite natural for those constituting that majority to compare notes and talk over matters. The opposition to their political course is quiescent. This opposition is doing nothing, and is. not manifesting any disposition to do anything. There will be an awakening, no doubt, much as there will be the be- ginning of a new century; but there ap- pears to be over-much peaceful folding of the hands. Senator Pettus is ready and eager for fight; and if he and Senator Nor gan, who is understood to be equally strong in favor of a vigorous canvass, will go out amongst the voters and sound the battle cry, we shall have lively times by the Fourth of July. and henceforth till vic-
 
 used to be were worth an army of common place fighters The situation is probably irksome to them both. They have power to end it of their own powerful will"
 Referring to the necessity for the pres ence of a strong force of the national guard at a murder trial at Manchester, Ky, former Kentucky officer in the union army,
  said:
 "The ignorance and savagery of those mountain people is deplorable The feuds there are as deadly any that existed in the middle ages. There is no respect for law, for human life, property or anything else worthy. The schoolmaster if he eyer penetrates those wilds, must be an unwe- come suspect. I knew of entire companies in the army, not a man of which could sign his name. Those people defy the law and live in wretchedness, vice and lawless- ness And what is true of certain moun- tain districts of Kentucky is likewise true to some extent of some mountainous sec tions of West Virginia. North Carolina, Tennessee Georgia and Alabama though powerful feuds do not exist in Georgia and Alabama. Some of those people don't know that the civil wsr is over.'
 Lieutenant James Kelly Parsons of the United States army is still at San Fran cisco, and is quite unhappy that he has not been ordered to Manila. He writes his father, Hon. Lewis E. Parsons, of this city, that recently some of the officers in the barracks at San Francisco were called upon to draw lots to which of them should be ordered to the Philippines. The young Birmingham officer lost out in the draw, and now he writes to express a fear that