The age-herald., 1900-10-11
SKETCHES FROM
 EVERYDAY LIFE

''Jedge," said colored woman yesterday to Chief Clerk Tarrant of the Probate Court, 'I wants yer ter gib me yer handwritin' on dis chile"
 Want what?" said the clerk
 "Jlst wants yer handwritin on dis chile"
 Are you talking about Belshazzar's handwriting the wall?" asked the clerk ''No, sah-on de chile; don't know muffin bout no Belchudder"
 What child?" asked the clerk looking around for one.
 "Jist Jemimy Jones'" holding up a small pickanlnny, who up to this time had been hidden from view under the desk.
 "ohf' said the clerk, beginning 10 see day light you want the child bound over to your"
 'Yes sah, dAts de berry Idee; Tse bound ter git dat child"
 Well, if you want the child apprentced you will have to go next door and see Judge Stiles. He will do the handwriting I don't think he will put 1t on the child, because Jemimy is so black 1t couldn't be seen. But he will put it on some paper Now step along lively and make room for the next"
 
 A man nowadays is not known by the company he keeps, but by the shirt he wears. In a democratic country in a demo- cratic age and in democratic town, people from business or necessity keep all kinds of company. Formerly a member of the leisure classes had the time and opportun- ity to choose his associates. and then per haps he was properly known by the com- pany he kept.
 But now every mans shirt is badge de- claring to the world his trade, occupation, condition in life, wealth and taste or lack of taste. Alas! that nearly all shirts should show as their chief characteristic lack of taste.
 Shirts have grown bolder and bolder in recent years, advancing from the negligee shirts of a few years ago with their mod est and almost invisible stripes to the blatant solid fields of yellow and green with blue and red poker chips and polka dots printed upon their hard and unfeeing bosoms.
 There are dollar-shirt men, fifty-cent men, and men whose shirts cost twenty dol lars each Everybody who can should wear a twenty dollar shirt. These are soft em- broidered dreams in silk, in contradistinc- tion to the fifty-cent nightmares. In their manufacture they give employment to high class needle workers, who are dependent on lfiS S1O Snift t1dil LOT u 1lNlu6.
 Shirt makers strive for novelty like all other manufacturers. A recent display in Birmingham window consists of white bosoms with one strip of red or green blue down the front. A man who would wear a shirt like this is dead to all sense of shame. Science has recently demon strated the effect of colors the mind. Put a man in a red room and he will be- come joval and cheerful. Put him in a blue room and he gets the blues. A violet room makes him sentimental. Put him in a green room and he calls for harp and a shamrock.
 The color of a shirt therefore has a large influence on the mental attitude of it's wearer, while the price has it's ef- feet on his moral being. He will slink around the alleys in fifty center and walk boldly up the avenue in a five dollar crea-. ton.
 A young man was recently found dead in Avondale Park. For a time it was not known who he was, but certain postmarks in his letters indicated that he was from Thomasville, Ala. The Age-Herald tele- graphed a newspaper there a description of the body and asked for information of the man and his family to be published the next morning. A telegram was received in reply that a person would leave Thomas vile at once and arrive in Birmingham at 5:30 a. and to get the information from him. There is no point to this story unless you know, as the newspaper man should have known that a paper goes to press between and o'clock.
 
 
 In the quiet and serenity of the Woman's Exchange several men sat enjoying lunch An unusual number of women seemed to be in and around the ex- change They moved around en- livening the place with their grace and charm, looking at the stuffed rag dolls in one case and then at the pies and fruit cakes in another. Nothing seemed to suit them, for they did not buy. Then at some understood signal they all retired into a little hole in the wall about five feet square, and placed couple of screens be- twixt them and the "uitlanders" who were eating their lunch. Then a mingled and melodous chatter arose from behind the screen. Everybody seemed to be talking at once. It sounded like prayers in church. This went on for some tdme when the meet ing broke up and the members separated.
 It was not prayers at all, but the annual meeting of the exchange. Women superior to men in every way. Now men when they hold a meeting do it under old and silly rules that only allow one man to talk at time. This Of course offends the other members and makes the meeting last that much longer. Women on the contrary can all say their say at the same time. Nobody Is offended and much valuable time is saved. The sounds evoked are sweet and melodius Nike the soft drone of humming birds, and make an agreeable accompani- ment to the commonplace matter of cut ting roast beef.
 Many unfnrtunateS in Birmingham Inaing