The age-herald., 1899-08-06
IN HOTEL LCBBTES
 AND ELSEWHERE

comed to his own home because he. comes with the smiles of fortune. Mir. Worthing- ton, like his former and famous associate in business, MT. DeBardeleben, has come by his own in some measure. Whatever concerns MT. DeBardeeben, the first of all the great developers of the mineral region, concerns every person residing in this re- l zion, and the return of fortune to this Great Developer has pleased everybody. But nobody forgets MT. DeBardeieben's able and distinguished associate, MT. 1 Worthington. An eminent American once declared that he'd rather be a beggar and i spend his last dollar like a king than be 1 king and spend a dollar like beggar. That spirit moves MT. Warrington and | that spirit has enabled him to do great 1 good for the Birmingham district. One | other man, perhaps, has done more. His name is DeBardeleben. MT. Worthington 1 conceived, planned and carried out that which may now be termed the Soss- 1 Sheffield combination, and his farsighted wisdom has in this particular brought for tune back knocking at his door, and the door has been opened. There is no person of any degree in Birmingham who will not rejoice at this confrma ton of personal ! news which the Age-Herald ventured sey- eral rays ago to make public concerning Mf. Worthington.
 This publication will not please MT. Warren Warrington, for he is amongst the most modest of all men in the public eye. but honor shall be given in this in stance to him to whom honor Is due. MT. Warrington planned and carried out the great Sloss-Shefeld combination, or con- solidation, whatever it may be termed, and it will be pleasing to all the people of the mineral district that he profits by it. Probably there are few figures in Jones Valley so engaging as Warren Worthing- ton. Certainly there is in the valley no man more unpretentious or more modest than he. Therefore the return of good luck to him is a matter of more than ordinary public interest. And so his homecoming is of much concern to his own home-folk; and it 1t not saying too much to say that all people will rejoice that he has cause to be glad.
 Another old-time associate of Mir. De- Bardelehen, in whose good fortune the pub lie is pleasantly interested, is Hon. w. P. Pinckard, who arrived from New York day or two ago. MT. Pinckard never before looked so well, probably never felt so well. Things have again come his way, as the , Age-Herald has already told, and good things never better became a good man. Anxiety and the years have softened the lines of his face, and those who meet him feel like echoing the greeting of the Irish in Ireland: Good luck, and God bless you!" MT. Pinckard expects to leave Bir- mingham on his return to New York next Tuesday. He is still engaged~in important business transactions, it is said.
 
 J. Courtney Hixon, of Bullock county, formerly commandant of the State Uni- versity and latterly a captain in the Fifth United States volunteer infantry on service in Cuba has been ordered to report fer duty at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. MT. Hixon was recently appointed lieutenant in the provisional army, and has been as- signed to tfe Thirty-second regiment for duty in the Philippines. He has friends in all of the sixty-six counties who will wish for him the best of good luck.
 Editor Needham L.. Graham, of the Calera Shelby Sentinel was in town yester- day. Editor Graham is one of the oldest members of the Alabama press and one of the most highly esteemed. His distin- guished father, the Hon. Joh Graham, was many years ago, in the good days, probate judge of Lowndes county, and he is worthy an honored ancestry.
 Birmingham is known throughout the length and breadth of the land as a com manding center of the iron industry. but the time should soon come when it will be recognized as city of lobbing importance as wel," said William Ryan, secretary of the board of trade. "When Birmingham first loomed into prominence it was the result, as every one knows, of the mineral wealth of this section. In the Birmingham district the iron ore, limestone, and coal were in such proximity as to make it the best iron producing district in the United States. Pig iron was turned out in Bir- mingham with an economy never dreamed of in the old days. And when the railway companies began to give their attention to this place they figured closely and skill fully on heavy tonnage-nothing else. The traffic managers assessed as neary as pos sibe the value of the tremendous volume of business that the furnaces would give them. They wisely made low rates for iron; otherwise in the early stages of the districts development, notwithstanding natural advantages. it would have been impossible for the iron industry here to compete successfully with the furnace dis tricts nearer the centers of distribution and consumption. But no account was taken by traffic managers of the purely mercan- tile interests of Birmingham.
 Retail merchants must come to the Magic City, no matter what the transpor- tation lines might charge them in the way of freight rates As for a jobbing trade, it was something unthought of, or thought of only as something far in the future. The minds of railroad officials were taken up entirely with the idea of fostering this heavy traffic-coal and iron. And that was natural and proper. Iron and its mora valuable offspring. steel must always be &t