The age-herald., 1900-08-05
THE HOTEL MAN
 AND HIS HOTELS
One Man Whom Birmingham
 Found in This Valley
CLlFF0RO'S CLEVER CAREER
The Poor Little Birmingham Came to This Man, and He and Great Grown Birmingham Are
 Here Together Now

Michael Clifford is one of the very few men now living to whom Birmingham came. He is one of the few such men who ever lived; for when Birmingham came to this valley there weren't many men here. outside of the little country town of Ely ton.
 MT. Clifford was here in 1870, and so poor, little Birmingham came to him. and he and great grown Birmingham are together in these closing days of the ending century He is literally one of the oldest inhab- itants;' though in years he is not old at all. He is old for young Birmingham, old in honest labor, old in public esteem, old in duty dore; young in prosperity after old diversity is gone.
 After living here for many years and materially aiding in giving Birmingham fair start on the way to greatness; seeing the streets marked off to become rivers of mud; seeing huts give way to solid struc- lures; Birminghams first hotel, the famous Relay House, take the place of rude shelter; gaslights where tailow candles had burned; waterworks cause the filling up of unwholesome wells; seeing street cars come to crowd oX-carts, and sewer-pipes take the place of open gullies, this pioneer whom Birmingham found here in the val ley went away for a time, went and waited.
 MT Clifford dwelt in Louisville a few years, and there had successful experience as an hotel manager. The coming of Birm- inghams renowned boom increased MT. Cliffords desire to return hither. He gave up his prosperous hotel work in Louis vile, and in 1886 leased the Wilson House, Birmingham's greatest building, then just completed, at Second avenue and Twenty first street. That structure was the pride a D6 ast nf ha ssbanraifo'' RiPf1in and when MT. Clifford opened it as an hotel it at once became the center of all that marvellous activity that astonished the world; for Birrningham's unexampled boom sent the name of the new town ringing around the earth The muddy streets here were densely crowded by in vestors, men with money, men without money business men, professional men, statesmen and preachers, together with adventurers and plunderers; and everybody was in a hurry. The center of all this was Clifford's Wilson House. MT. Clifford coined money, so to speak, for a year or so, when another man came along and wished possession of the hotel to the extent of such a large sum that MT. Clifford sold to him.
 MT. Clifford then went to Bessemer and leased the historic hotel Montezuma, which was burned a year or two ago. That hotel fitted together in Mexico; taken to pieces and shipped to New Orleans, where it served as the Mexican government build ing at the Cotton States Exhibition in 1885; was again taken to pieces and shipped to Bessemer, where it was re-erected and became the hotel MonteZuma, which MT. Clifford's rare genius as caterer and keeper of hotels. made famous throughout the country. As MT. Clifford aided in building Birmingham, so he aided in build ing Bessemer. As Birmingham found him here, so also, seventeen years later, Bes- semer found him there. His enyiable repu- tation as a keeper of hotels constantly grew.
 The clouds of business depression and widespread disaster which had begun to lower with 1893 were beginning to pass when MT. Clifford acquired the lease of the Florence Hotel, Birmingham, which he still holds. At once he set himself to the task of filling the Florence with guests and at once he began to succeed. Almost from the day he took charge, the daily register at the Florence began to increase, the register began rapidly to be filed And during the past two years a greater num- Der of persons have registered at the Flor ence than ever registered at any other Bir- mingham hotel in any twenty-four months of the city's history. During the past two months a greater number have registered at the Florence than ever registered there before, or in any other Birmingham hotel during any June and July since Birming ham begani
 MT. Clifford. like all other southern hotel proprietors outside of health resorts, ex- pected June and July to be dull. Instead of dullness, he has been unable to provide beds for all who came.
 MT. Clifford has made the Florence one of the best known of all hotels south of the Ohio and the Potomac. At the same time he has made it one of the best and most prosperous hotels in the country He has kept the house constantly filed kept his great diningroom filled, and he has, notwithstanding low rates, made a great deal of money.
 MT. CHfords remarkable reputation in the hotel business, and his enviable repute as business man, constitute within them selves capital for a great hotel