The age-herald., 1900-07-03
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE

| Astrologer Raphaels prophecies TOT tnls day. Tuesday. July 3, 1900:
 ''very doubtful keep quiet"
 "Thou wilt be much inclined to pleasure and company, and thy business will pro- l ceed usual"
 ''The young will court or marry" "A child born on this day will be we'll conducted, much respected, and on the whole rather fortunate" This day marks the beginning of Dog Days or Canicular Days: the forty days between July 8 and August Il. Canieular 1 is derived from Canicula, the Latin name | for Sirius, the dog-star, which rose helia- | cally near July 1. The ancients ascribed l the great heat of summer to the influence | of this star but it was by accident only | that it's rising coincided with the warmest l season in the Latin world. The time of the stars rising depends, of course, on the l latitude of the country and, owing to its | procession, it is later every year. Sirius is a star of the first magnitude in the constel- | lation Canis Major, and is the brightest | star in the Armament
 l The popular superstitions connected with 1 the Dog Days are very numerous. One which is seldom true, but which will be | realized this year, is that here in the l south the 3rd of July marks the actual | beginning of the hottest period of the year. | In nine years out of ten June is our hot l test month; but owing to the rain which | fell on all but two three days of the l June just past, the temperature of the month was below normal except as to the l last two days. Last Saturday, the last | day of June, was the hottest day experi- l enced in this valley in perhaps fifteen | years. The atmosphere was completely saturated with water; yet on a farm out | side the city, the mercury recorded sS de- grees in the shade The effect on the pub l lie health was instant and deplorable. h. fants especially suffered terribly. Identical l conditions prevailed up to l o'clock yester- day afternoon The heat was overpower- ing, until it was dissipated by thunder | storm of great violence.
 There Is an old-time theory that the 1 period upon which we now enter so called because dogs have hydrophobia and l go mad. Wise men now hold that hydro phobia is purely an imaginary malady; | that no dog ever did or ever will suffer l from such disease. The superstition ap 1 piled to St. Swithin's, that if rain fall up- on the first day it will fall on every one t|oS But, since we have already had about for ty days of deluging rain, let us hope we will not begin today a similar experience In the romance of the cotton fields, if a nigger begins to Tub in Dog Days, da will jes keep on a lubin f rebber. The position of the moon and Venus, with the sextie sign, at the rising of Sirius this evening would indicate important events s,, tl,ol of o1opo
 
 9rtant part in many a Brming-
 Neen filled by the Capitol
 of interest to all the inhabi-
 -t Hey that the park is at last
 improved and beautifed.
 rection of Alderman Camp, a lover of order, neatness and bea. ..e hideous picket fence which had | for twenty years enclosed and disfgured I the park, has been removed; and the work of improving the grounds is in progress The street curbstones will be fixed further l out, leaving a broad space for grass, in side of which will be the sidewalk on each side of which will be well-kept turf. And the walks and the turf of the park general l ly will be improved, and the shrubbery and | trees will be properly attended to. An or
 
 center of the park, near the old disused l fountain. Hereafter there will be a gard ner whose sole duty will be to attend the park.
 Many thanks will be accorded to the ener- l getic and popular Alderman Camp, And | congratulations, too, are due him today since he is out and about after a weeks tussle with chills and fever. He hopes to | 1 change.
 "The citizens in the vicinity of Avenue F | and Twenty street bitterly oppos- l ed to the locating of the proposed negro 1 school in that part of the city, said Attor- l ney H. c. Bullock Tt will virtually de- stroy the attractiveness of that beautiful | location. There is good class of white citizens residing there, and property is rap idly advancing in value. Negro schools and negro churches should be located in negro settlements, and not placed where they will 1 injure property of good white citizens and tend to provoke conflict between the two races"
 Hon. J. P Mcqueen of Eutaw spent yes- 1 terday in town with his brothers, Hon. John Mcqueen and MT. J. w. Mcqueen.
 J. H. Minge, Jr., of Faunsdale was in 1 town yesterday.
 l J. E. Walker of Washington, D. C., Is at the Florence.
 Dr. John Davis is at Blount Springs, re- l cuperating after a weeks illness. l Hugo Marx of Marks fashionable dry | goods house has gone east. l M. P. Messer is in Florence.
 The meeting called by Mayor Drennen | and Secretary John w. ONein to assemble in the Commercial Club rooms at o'clock this afternoon, to consider the question of l holding a State fair at Birmingham next