The age-herald., 1900-12-10
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE

day, Monday, December 10, 1900:
 Travel, ask favors and seek work"
 Beware of losses in thy business and run no risks; thou wilt have sickness in thy family and an unsettled year."
 A child born on this day will be fond of change and pleasure, and spend its money therein"
 Astrologer Raphaers prophecies for Tuesday, December Il, 1900:
 Buy ask favors, and push thy business before noon."
 "Thou hast fortunate birthday, and thy money and business will increase; those in employ will be promoted"
 "The young will court"
 "A child born on this day will be for tunate in all it undertakes. whether in em- ploy or not; if a female, she will marry well and be happy"
 Perhaps the most high1y-prized small thing in the estimation of most men is a free pass over a railroad" said a man who had travelled over half the world, more or less. Tt would amaze any man outside the railroad business to know of anything like the universal and eeaseless demand for free passes, and the singular sources from which many of the requests are made. The average man who tries to get a railroad pass has no more right to ask for it than he has to ask a tailor for the gift of a suit of clothes or real estate owner for cor ner lot. And many man who asks for pass is financially able to buy private car or make tour around the earth in first class style Rich men, or the well-to-do, 1boI 4o oI,. asked for by the poor. It Is likely that these courtesies from the railroad com panies are most frequently asked for by rich men and by such as are dead broke; the average man paying his fare and say ing nothing about it. Some compan nies, notably the Pennsylvania, will not give passes at all; but most of them are very generous, and do not hesitate to give passes when convinced that such courtesy is deserved. And by deserved is meant that those receiving the passes are regarded as having actually earned them in serving the material interests of the particular line in question, apart from patronizing the traffic department One man known to thousands of people in the Birmingham district asked for pass over one of the 6lSdl llllSS SSINilS lhS dlolllCl. AiS "oS questioned as to his reason for making the request, and his answer was he paid freight Asked to whither he wished to travel he replied 'anywhere'-didn't make any difference = New York, New Orleans, Louisville or Shreveport-just wished the pleasure of travelling on free pass; that he had paid freight and was entitled to a pass. He didn't get it.
 "The great lines are becoming more and more reluctant to grant passes and it is safe to say that fewer men will receive New Year cards in the shape of 'annuals this year than ever before, and the free pass business for 1901 will show great falling off. With new purpose to grant fewer passes one railroad company has posted conspicuously in its chief offices these Biblical quotations
 
 IN THOSE DAYS THERE WE'RE NO PASSES. "Thou shalt not pass. Mum. XIX. 18 Suffer not a man to pass. Judah. "The wicked shall more pass Nahum, i 15. "None shall ever pass. Mark xiii. 30. Though they roar, yet they shall not pass. Jeremiah. 50 he paid the fare and went"-Jo- nah, i. 3.
 
 "A railroad pass would be called by the Scotch beautiful, meaning pleasing, grate- full comforting-as a beautiful pudding, beautiful whiskey, and so on. Therefore, as the Scotch would say, all- passes are beautiful; but in that country the passes given to certain persons are actually beau- tifu1 as they are the size, shape and value of
 
 our fve-dollar gold piece. These passes are given to railway directors only, and are worn usually on the watch-chain. The directors of a British railway meet once a week at least, and each director is paid s25 for attending each meeting, assuming that a meeting does not hold for over one day. In other words the director gets $25 a day; but more than day a week in ses- sion is of unusual occurrence. An, the golden passes to gold over British rail- waysi
 q shall not forget the first golden pass I ever saw, for it was worn by the first real live lord I ever saw, man who bore an illustrious name, and who has since be- come famous as the vice-king of India One morning, fifteen years ago, I entered first-elass smoking compartment on the North British Railway, at famous Scotch city, accompanied by a new-found Scotch friend. In the compartment, which had seats for six, when we entered sat a very small, dark man. with intensely black hair, and black beard worn in the familiar Van Dyke style, and black, sharp eyes, My friend lifted his hat to the little man and instantly I knew the little man to be nobleman, for the Scotch lift their hats to none other than peers and princes In one glance I saw everything there was about the noble lord and looked no more. as I could not vulgarly gaze at stranger.
 'The railway guard, or as we Ameri- cans call that officer, the railroad conduc- tor, came along outside the compartment as he couldn't come along inside, and touched his cap to the little dark passenger, who carelessly fingered what I thought was sovereign coin on his watch-chain. Arrived