The age-herald., 1899-01-13
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE

l and coughing, and sneezing, cold rigors and hot levers, throughout this valley from
 East Lake to Bessemer, and from High 1 lands to Highlands Nearly every man one
 meets has Bot 'the blues,' the effect of the | grippe, and many hundreds of men, women
 and children are kept at home. There must ! be thousands of cases here, and many of
 them are serious though fortunately. the
 present type of the malady is comparatively
 mild upon. the whole. Unhappily, pneu-
 monia is growing out of the epidemic.
 Last night one doctor stated that five cases | of pneumonia were under his immediate
 treatment. The epidemic is frightfully de-
 moralizing in every direction. Lifelong
 friends are becoming estranged, lovers are
 having violent, almost fatal quarrels. busi-
 ness halts, and all the local world is
 a-swearing. The situation brought about
 by the grippe is painfully strained One scarcely knws what to expect. It is idle | to guess what any one hour may bring forth. It may cost you your best friends | or your good health for months to come. | Absolutely we walk in darkness and
 wasteth at monday. Romance is not | dreamed of, business is considered only as | dire necessity. Verify is the grippe mighty!
 
 What day was yesterday-how fruitful | of sickly melancholy Ones best friend | passed one in the street with the merest | inclination of bow, as if to say, q am | miserable. Go jump yourself in an iron | furnace" Ordinary civility lost its charm under the distressing atmospheric condi- | tions, and if there was a really cheerful | spirit in all the streets, that spirit did not ShnW faoa body was either openly cross, or offensively taciturn. All eyes were lack-lustre, all brows gloomy. The clouds hung low, every | thing was damp. What wind there was came from the east, and came as the breath of some foul contagion. Friends disagreed, disputes arose, hard feelings were engen- dered, and so passed day accursed
 General Michael L. Bulger, in many re- spects the most remarkable man in Ala bama, is. at the age of 95, enjoying the best l of good health amongst his children and their descendants in Tallapoosa county. His son, Colonel Thomas L. Bulger, a leading member of the present legislature and one of the noted lawyers of the state, was in | town yesterday, attending court. Colonel | Bulger was questioned concerning his dis tinguished and universally honored father. General Bulger is quite we'll and is en- | toying life,'' said Colonel Bulger. "He is | now living with his daughter, my half-sis- | ter, in Jackson's Gap. Much of his time
 he spends at my house in Dadevie. His health is excellent and, notwithstanding 1 his advanced age, he reads the newspapers | regularly and keeps informed regarding all current topics. He sleeps well, eats well and enjoys life.'
 Docs he receive his pension as a veteran Of the Mexican War?"
 | 'Oh, no! He positively refuses to accept a | pension from the government, and I guess
 he will maintain his attitude in that respect until the end of his life. He'll accept no pension from any source."
 General Bulger was an officer in the war between the United States and Mexico, which ended more than fifty years ago, and was brigadier-general in the confederate army in the war between the states Gen. eral Bulger was the chairman of the first democratic convention to assemble in Ala
 bama after that disastrous war ended. The
 democratic party had not been reorganized; but somebody ventured to call state con- vention, and most of the counties responded
 
 sembled in Montgomery in September, 1887, when Alabama was under bayonet rule; and it was the beginning of the reorganization
 of that democracy, which, since 1884, has
 ruled Alabama. General Bulger's life has been wonderfully eventful.
 Colonel Robert Mckee has an acquaint- ance who is called hoodoo doctor, but who to l1a, o Of al, gifts The doctor spent several months in Piedmont, Ala, and performed some mirac- ulous cures without the aid of medicine
 He now resides in Chicago. Yesterday Colonel Mckee received a lengthy letter rom the doctor, in the course of which he stated that the colonel was suffering from a certain common ailment He had ceived no word from the colonel but he felt certain that the latter was not well. "You will probably recover by the end of seven days, but if you shouldn't be quite well by the time this letter reaches you, make
 use of my hot water remedy." And he pro-
 ceeded to state what his remedy was Yes terday was the seventh day from the date of the letter, and, sure enough, Colonel Mckee was quite well. The question arises, by what extraordinary means did the doctor in Illinois discover that Colonel
 Mckee in Birmingham was ailing? How was he enabled to state the nature of the coloners ailment and prescribe remedy, when he had no word of writing upon the subject? It is very queer case-as queer
 as the astral body or the story of Dr. Jekyll
 and MT. Hyde.
 "The bitterly cold weather in the east reminds me of old times on the St. Law renee river" observed MT. D. c. McPhee,
 one of the best known, most popular and influential commercial travellers in the United States. MT. McPhee has been ill with the grippe and jaundice at the Morris for two or three weeks, and during that time has been the recipient of numberless kindnesses from Birmingham friends and
 the leading travelling men of the country. nearly all of whom come to this city. q was born in Canada and our ola fo,,u..