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

| the thrice-heated fires of the hell of the | exchange have made money during the l current season." said a business man who l keeps up with the fluctuations of prices | for future delivery and spot cotton as we'll. | "The southerner is by instinct a bull in l exchange gambling, and for more than ten years he has been loser. But during the 1 past five or six months cotton has been l advancing in price as steadily as 1t fell dur | ing the previous decade, and it has been
 easy enough for bull. though a fool, to
 win. In Alabama there have been some
 heavy individual profits. A Lowndes coun- | ty man. who conducts large country | store, does an immense advancing busi- | ness, runs many plantations, raises thou | sands of bales and buys probably thou
 sands more, Is understood to have cleared
 over $750OO in futures. not to mention enor-
 nous profits on his thousands of bales of
 spot cotton. The rise in cotton has prob
 ably netted him s15OOOO He was already | a very rich man. He and his family re- side in Montgomery. know of another l Black Belt man who has cleared upwards
 of s20,O0O in futures. The increased profits
 to Montgomery and the Montgomery dis
 trict run away up in the millions. 1t is not | uhliASiy tHdl MontSOnery clly cOuiu SuOW l aggregate profits in the neighborhood of
 a million. But this year there will be an
 enormous cotton crop, and all those mill lions will vanish as morning mist before | the sun. The southerner will remain bull
 in the face of twelve or fourteen million
 bales. The cotton planters are about to 1 commit hara kari"
 l nj.
 10000 bales of spots last cotton year, this
 city does almost no gambling in cotton | futures" the observer continued Person 1 ally, l know of but one man who is inter- | ested at the moment, and he has but e | trif1e of hundred bales, on which lot he
 has made between three and -four hundred
 dollars. Of course, the rise in cotton is of
 vast benefit to Birmingham, but it comes | in the form of legitimate trade from all 1 northern and western Alabama, and east | ern Mississippi. The fancy of Birmingham | speculators runs to grain, meat and stocks. | The cotton exchange is to the local public | but a trifling temptation that is not yielded l to in any appreciable degree. It is a great | pity that nearly all of the last cotton crop | has passed out of the hands of the small | farmers, now that nine cents have been reached. These farmers got good prices, as comparisons go, and are in better material ] condition perhaps than they have been since 1872; but they didn't get nine cents. | There Is a large amount of cotton still in the hands of the big planters in western Alabama and eastern Mississippi. Birming- iam's trading territory, but the planters | are showing a disposition to turn loose. | One sale of 200 bales at SIS all around is
 noted. The planting of this years crop
 will be well begun within thirty days; and, ahi if the hand of the sower of the seed could be stayed ere he be half through his task!'
 Former Representative Rogers of Sum- ter, one of the largest planters in the | Blackbelt, Is understood to have disposed | of his plantations for $S5,0O0, and will re- move to Birmingham to reside. It is not | known whether be intends to engage in any sort of business. Mr. John Lee, of Perry, | another large planter. is about to take up | his residence in Birmingham
 
 There is bright little fve-year-oad boy | at Beelers, South Highlands, who saw policeman for the first time the other day. | He is the promising son of Alderman Heidt | and the alderman tells t11e story. some days ago Alderman GTeidt had occasion ito l call at fine office of Chief of Police Austin | The chief took advantage of the oppor- | tunity to thank Alderman Heddt and | through him the city council for providing for five additional policemen, the force | having been uotoroulsly shoGft for years
 "That reminds me of my boy" observed I ooyra tef- day evening the youngster came running down to meet me, tn great glee. Oh, papa, papa, you don't know what I saw
 today-you couldn't guess dn a whole year
 ..What was it, my boy?' I asked him; 'WGlat in the world was it?' ".Oh. papa,' he shouted almost out of breath, T saw a policeman!
 In all erpese years there had not been a
 policeman on duty at Beelers, one of the
 most popular and beautiful districts of the South Highlands
 Colonel John C. Haskell of South Caro- lima, who is vlassing his son, Mr Preston | Haskell, dn Birmingham, was one of the
 most gallant soldiers in the Confederate
 service in the war between the states and | he remains gentleman of most courtly | manners and of marked military bearing | At the battle of Seven Pines, when he was lieutenant, Elis right arm was shot away | He was seut>to a hospital, where he re-
 covered from his wounds. Rejofning hrs command, he was rapidly promoted for gallant conduct In the field, and left the
 service after Appomattox a full colonel. Captain Frank P. O'Brien, the sheriff of Jefferson county, was on Colonel Ffsskels
 staff, and while serving in that capacity
 was desperately wounded in the engage
 ment at Little Washington, N. c. Colonel
 Haskell married daughter of Wade Hamp- ton, the famous hero general of the Con-
 federacy, political redeemer of South Caro- | Qina, and leader of the United States sen | ate. The colonel is a noble type of the | southern gentleman.
 | Wade Hampton probably owned more slaves than any other man in the south. It was said that the money value of his slaves | tn1 tx tr,iIIi 1olla