The age-herald., 1899-01-17
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE

'.AIany cities of this country, especially
 cities of the smaller class in the south and west, have way of overestimating their population" said a wide-awake eommer-
 cial traveller.
 Tt is all wrong. In the New York World Almanac for this year is list of cities with estimated population, furnished by
 the respective mayors. Chicago appears
 with a population of 1,95O,OOO. In the gov ernment census of 1900 it will fall much be- | low that figure. Louisville is set down
 with a population of 225OO0. The census
 will give that city just about 100000 At | lanta's mayor claims for that city 123,OOO, but if Atlanta reaches the hundred thous- | and mark by 1900 it will be as much as 1t
 can do Memphis, as everybody knows,
 is growing but when she claims 10000 she claims about 25oOO too much. Nashville | and Richmond are given at 100000 each, and | New Orleans at 300, ,000 These figures are | conservative and will not be disappoint- l ing in 1900. Brag and bluster may help
 some cities, but doubt it. The New Or | leans, Richmond and Nashville rule is the | best, on the principle that honesty is the best policy. The city of Birmingham is, l<strange to say, not included in the World | Almanac's list of estimated population, al- l though cities of only 10000 appear. I am | glad to know that the men in authority | here take the honest, sensible course. They | do not exaggerate the c&y's population. | Indeed, they are inclined to claim less than | Birmingham has, My idea is that when I Atlanta, with all it's brag gets up to 1250O0, | Birmingham will have population of 150,- | 00O"
 | MT. Willard, a manufacturer, of Coving- | ton, Ky, has been spending several days in | the city, with a view of making arrange ments for removing his plant to this city. Mr. Willard manufactures architectural | iron and wheelbarrows, and so on, and 1t Is believed that he has arrived at the con- clusion that Birmingham is the proper place for all that class of industries. It is not | understood that he has definitely decided to remove his plant to this city; but that step on his part seems very probable. He Is greatly pleased with the present situation and the future outlook here, and there is good reason for believing that he will es- tablish business here between the moun- tains.
  chancellor of the Southwestern division, and latterly state senator from Mobile, is in the city, During the great struggle that
 resulted in freeing Alabama from negro domination, MT. Austi1l then young law yer of Mobile, was chosen chancellor, ana served on the bench with distinction. In 1S92-94 he served Mobile in the state senate. He served well his time in the stormy days, and in the days of peace and quietness he is one of the most useful citizens of the
 state Judge Austil is here on private bus
 mess, and will probably return to Mobile this afternoon. A western newspaper on Sunday last
 printed telegram from Louisville to the
 effect that it was reported from Mobile
 "that the steamer Lawrence Jones, with
 load of Louisville people, has been sunk
 in the Gulf of Mexico.'
 Some feW persons in Birmingham read
 this statemtnt and the substance of it
 came to be very generally discussed caus-
 ing a great deal of apprehension and re-
 gret, for Lawrence Jones, of Louisville, the
 owner of the steamer, is known and greatly
 liked by hundreds of people here. It was
 feared that he himself was possibly lost.
 As soon as MT. Duncan c. McPhee saw the
 telegram in the western paper he wired to Louisville for information. Lawrence Jones
 himself answered MT. McPhee, as follows:
 "Neither myself nor any member of my
 family or the Saunders family was aboard;
 but party of very warm friends. It is not
 an established fact that the boat is lost"
 For fifteen years Lawrence Jones has
 of ha hos
 in the south. He represented the Paul
 Jons distillery, and upon the death of his
 uncle two or three years ago he inherited
 the splendid property at Louisville and be-
 came it's active manager. MT. McPhee is
 MT. Jones' popular representative lon the road'' at the present time.
 "The Cubans are a bad lot" said a New Yorker, at the Morris last night, land Havana is an abominable
 place in which to live" The New
 Yorker went to Cuba shortly after
 the close of actual hostilities between Spain and the United States He had an eye to
 business and was also in search of pleas
 ure q am greatly disappointed, he said
 Havana is unspeakably dirty, and the Gu
 bans are incorrigibly lazy, and dirty be- sides. If you give Cuban dollar he will
 spend 90 cents of 1t for cigarettes, and 10 cents for coffee and bread, and count him. self happy for one day at least. The Gu bans are lazy, thriftless and unclean, and are of no sort of use to themselves or any, body else. Havana is most foully unclean. After a heavy shower of rain there one can't walk the streets, because of the foul odors arising from the decaying matter
 washed out of the miseraby inadequate gutters.
 Prices of food are frghtfullly dear. You
 go into a restaurant, and are compelled to
 pay a dollar for white steak" What is white steak? ?"
 "A Tampa steak, which is whitish-looking
 when cooked, and is tough and stringy that
 one couldn't eat it. cup of coffee is twenty cents, bread twenty cents, and po- tatoes the same price, So about the mean