The age-herald., 1900-02-28
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE

 from the fact that in ancient times. when the power Of the mother church was ex- erted to curb the great and raise the lowly. 1t was the custom for penitents to enter church on the first day in Lent in sack cloth, as it was also custom for the priests to sprinkle the recently penitent with ashes. Lent, the fast of forty days, not including Sundays, which begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with Easter Sun day, commemorates the forty days fast of our Lord in the wilderness. In old Eng fish and modern German it means spring. It is observed by the Roman Catholic, Eastern, Anglican, Lutheran, and some other churches It ds obligatory upon all Catholics to take the sacrament of the holy communion within the Easter-time.
 
 Judge G. B. Mobley of Eutaw, is amongst the thousands of visitors who have come to the city to enjoy tlhe Mardi Gras fesltivi- ties. The judge is one of the most conn panionable and engaging of men, and he laughs his happy and charitable way through life. Speaking yesterday of ma terial conditions in west Alabama, Judge Mobley said that very fortunately the planters and small farmers had been en- abled to withhold from market a large per- centage of last years cotton crop and there was stdH great deal of cotton the farms and plantations. IA large planter, for instance, a neighbor of Judge Mololey, has been holding about 200 bales for cents pound. He received on Monday an offer of SIS cents pound for the round lot, and had about decided ito take it. That cotton raised ant aoG Thus the planter receives about $5.OOO more for his cotton than he expected to receive at the time the seed were planted. Prepar- ations for thls years crop are progressing fairly satisfactorily throughout the Black belt Judging from the amount of fertil- izer sold, there will be g. calamitously big crop of cotton planted this year. The southern farmer cannot stand ever so ht- He prosperity. The resources of the fertdl- izer factories to the southward are prac- tically exhauseted, and next season the markets will be flooded with four-cent cot ton. It really seems that whom the gods would destroy they first make plant for 100000 bale crop of cotton! The move- ment this season to put everything dn cotton" would be Imaginable were it not tragical
 Winfield Scott Byrd, of Greene, for fifteen years consul of the United States in yen- ezuela, Is in Birmingham MT. Byrd was appointed in 1881 and served until 1896, when he voluntarily resigned. So excellent was his record that he was kept in office through
 both of MT Cleveland's administrations.
 TIe enjoyed the warm esteem and hearty GegrSOOan 1xriu fNf Bayard and by MT. Bayard's successor in
 the state department. MT. Blaine, and his recollections Of those two illustrlous Amer | deans are dearly cherished by him. There | is story that t.when the late Major Charles Scott of Monroe was sent as United States
 minister to Venezuela, he was urged by Sem ator Morgan for political reasons, to get | MT. Byrd out of office as consul. By the | time the minister got to Venezuela he had heard on shipboard so much that was
 praiseworthy regarding the consul that he | resolved to keep him in office if possible: l and so he was retained. Mr Byrd was a | brave and daring Confederate soldier, and | was one of the few men who survived deep bayonet wound. A federal bayonet | was thrust through his body, and the scar | is still big mark on alis left side This | typical southern gentleman from Greene is a scholar, poet and essayist for his own amusement and is a gifted and polished
 man of the world He has the manners of a | courtier and the bearing of soldier!
 
 ''Nobody who has not come into personal relations with officers or men Of the British | army can have any conception of the super lative joy that thrilled every officer and | every private wearing the queens uniform, i because of todays triumph over the | Boers" said former soldier of the queen | yesterday "The day is the nineteenth anniversary of the slaughter by the Boers of an entire. British battalion of several | hundred men at Majuba Hill. For nineteen | years every British soldier has had in his | heart terrible passion to avenge Majuba Hill. At last the hour struck and hence- forth the sheeted dead that did walk Ma juba's heights are laid. One of the most pleasing deeds of heroism in the war was that of the Irish lad Dunn, the bugler boy of the
 Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Bugler Dunn was
 leading his regiment across the Tugela
 river, holding his bugle to his lips with his
 right hand. A Boer bullet pierced the boys l
 the bugle hanging from his neck. Without | pausing or faltering this remarkably heroic boy reashed down with his left hand, caught l the bugle placed it again to his lips. and | sent the clear notes back to a thousand | soldiers, cheering them on Nob1er nerve ds | impossible amongst the children of men. | The young bugler was invalided home, and | has just been discharged from Netley hos | pital, cured. His arm was saved. On being discharged, the queen sent servant of the royal household to Netley with the com | mand to conduct Dunn to Windsor Castle, l where he was received in personal audience | by the queen. and was her majesty's guest | for day or two'
 ''The death of W. c. Elam, editor of the | Norfolk Virginian-Pilot calls to mind the | fact that this journalist was principal in | the last duel fought In Virginia, certainly | the last duel between prominent men," said | well known native of the Old Dominion. "Elam was an able writer and was in many ] resnacts a rema rkable man, He fought