The age-herald., 1900-10-14
She Notes Many Changes in
 London of Today,
DICKENS HAUNTS THREATENED
WOman's Influence in City Government A Chicago Woman Who Lives on Her Alabama Farm
 The News of Society.
BY ANNIE KENDR1cK WALKER.


 To hear a charming and clever woman recall her observations of foreign life is always interesting, and the attempt to af- terward repeat the conversation places one in the attitude of doing her an injustice, since newspaper interview can not pos sibly convey the charm and enthusiasm which characterized the speaker. I am sure that in recalling a conversation that l en- joyed with Mrs. Zac Smith yesterday, that l shall fall short of giving my readers the delightful impression that she leaves upon every one for not only has she a vast fund of information, but she possesses the happy faculty of recalling incidents in a way that is always interesting
 Mrs. Smith returned to Birmingham the past week after passing the summer most happily in Europe. She conducted a charming party of eighteen persons, and her stay abroad the most delightful of any past seasons.
 Birmingham clubdom has welcomed her return with more than ordinary pleasure and she is herself happy to resume her club duties. Indeed she talked yesterday of her plans for the Woman's Club, and she hopes that the coming winter will be notably successful as every one believes it will be made by her administration.
 Emerson" she began, somewhere asks what are the best days in memory and answers by saying those in which we met a companion who was truly such. But I feel that the best days in memory are those when we again meet loved ones and cher ished friends after a long absence. The immense distances covered while enjoying foreign tour make one feel more keenIy the separation from home and emphasizes with equal pleasure and qualification the return 10 one $ own home And so it is that l always say that the homecoming is the very best and sweetest part of the entire trip. One good friend very promptly asked me if I would be of the same opin- lon about next June, thinking very like ly, good friends are apt to do, to em- barrass me by the question: But of course everything depends upon the point of view and if the long tour is not taken, how can one enjoy the delightful finale of the home- coming.
 However, travel with a large party has many cOmpensatons for one far away from home. Aside from the responsibility and entire absorption of ones time in car Ing for the welfare and perfect enjoyment of eighteen persons, there is also a large amount of added interest and plea sure Human nature is such that the novelty and delight of a first experience can never te quite equalled in a subsequent repetition 'f that experience. This is particularly rue Of foreign travel. Upon the first trip
 road ones enthusiasm is unbounded and
 
 the unique delight of the rirst glimpse
 foreign land, the varied customs and fraeteristics of those lands and the many
 7ders of the old world with the entire
 'husiasm of child. It would really
 m to the observer that time had indeed
 ~rad backward in its flight and made us '''ldren again. For, under no other cir i. instances or conditions. does a person ! TOW aside completely the cares and 'onVentionaities of life as during a tour abroad Every one seems to leave all ,ares-even all internal cares-at home lRd if we may judge from appearances to .>e intent upon getting the utmost of the "Trip in the way of benefit spiritual, mental |, nd physical
 And so it is that the second trip one lakes Is lacking in this spontaneous en- nuSiasm which invariably characterizes Ee first trip. But when one is so inu- mately surrounded by eighteen joyous trav- elers, whose enthusiasm and eagerness and delight is of the .most contagious quality, a pleasure is added to a third voyage that could be gained in no other way. So many different temperaments and varied tastes banded together into one little company made it extremely interesting to see just how each one would appreciate and enjoy the many wonders of the old world. To be a successful tourist one should be a phil osopher for under. no other conditions on the face of the earth does a person so en- tirely give vent to the natural. true inward preferences and emotions. Tn the environ ment of ones own home a person may not feel 1t prudent or altogether good form to profess candid abhorrence or lack of rev erence for opinions or fads that are popu- lar But in the old world the happy tourist