The age-herald., 1900-09-25
SKETCHES FROM
 EVERYDAY LIFE

Saturday night is a great time for popu- lation in Birmingham. Population fairly ebbs and flows, like tidal wave, and the sidewalk ronnder, if he thinks at all, is apt to imagine himself in Galveston with the sad sea waves sweeping over him and drowning him beneath countless little drops of water. of which they say the ocean consists; or if he is stranger and tInac- customed to Birmingham dust, he will think it is countless little grains of sand. Population is everywhere; it overflows the markets, the sidewalks, the by-ways and hedges. There are some hundred thousand people, more or less; wIfo, come into Bir- mingham an Saturday night to shop, and buy thingBi to eat, on Sunday. Sunday even in Lent. is always a feast day. If you' were to stroll through the markets onta Saturday, night you would think that tbere are numbers of people in Brmng1 ham who are so busy during the week that they haven't time to eat, but when pay day comes on Saturday, they wake up to the fact that the morrow is a feast day and they straightway hie4 themselves unto the markets and begin to buy
  A. stroll through thes markets is inter- esting. Here there is a. swarm of people so thick around the meat stalls thats fly would give up the attempt to break through the line to light on some juicy tender- leih; and go off and alight on some fruit stand and ponder on his wrongs.
 In the stalls arc all sortsf and conditions of meats. Therei are, sausages as big as a piano leg and as small as a pencil Fat ribs and ribs that would require a micro- scope toIffnd the'meat- on -tfem; huge hunks of liver that look like a railroad accident: meats tender ass loveas- young. dream and tough as a circus girl-all are spread be- fore the purchaser in. sizes to suit his nurse or his appetite. These purchasers are eff all sorts and conditions of men, tie mechanic; the Russian Jew, the man with the hoe, the clerk with his dough-" and always in an unerr1ing> profusion the Ala bama ''conn.''
 If tho Sunday feaster wants fruit there are some thirty odd ftit stands in the city that are open and exposed to the dust of the streets all day and all night These fruit stands never sleep. They recall the old. .nurseryirhyme;
 Bound to run all night,
 
 Some bet their money on the bob-t tailed nag,
 But I bet mine on the gray
 There never was a horse or anything else however that could run. all night and all day, except g fruit stand Here the blush ing peach and the rosy apple expose their cheeks to the kisses of a burning sun and the smiles of palHd moon. This is. some what poetic, but then slips of the pen will occur. The peach and the apple, however like the wise virgin, only court the sun light in their youth. At the first approach of age they retire to a back shelf, and go into mellow and aromatic decline.
 Did. you ever. ladye faire take a meal in Ia cheap restaurant? Probably not. But your warrior bold does sometimes and it may not be amiss to tell you what he does He enters the place by the door, stepping first on one foot, then on the other" He sits down. on an iron stool, which has one leg; and faces a counter ornamented with glass dishes filed with last years pies He calls. for ham sandwich and cup of coffee. He eats with his hat on that he may not offend the custom and good taste of the establishment. He deposits ten cents . on the counter. does not have to fee the waiter, but spends it's equivalent in buying pepsin tablets. If perchance he is rich. aud can spend as much as fifty cents for hi5 meal he walks boldly up to table, takes off hiss hat and sits down in chair which has four legs. The waiter takes hiS' order, , slams down a plate am inch thick on. the table, brings some coffee, in a. cup without "a handle, and which is more suitable for "a montar than anSthing1 else. supplies him with a napkin, and. regulates his gyTations antfs ei3trusiveness in proportion to the size of thH ordsp and tile' anticipated tip: -, i There is. but one way to treat a, waiter in a cheap restaurant, way not unfyersat- i, lk uractteed,i owing to- son1e defect in. the laws and that is to eat your meal astqhisty ly as you can wftff such a waiter flying around, and when yoa have finished. draw your revolver and iin him
 The Menttiie, Seimitar in publishing tire following story is evidently relying. on it's immunity from circulation in Northern |. Alabama. tos insurei it immunity from libel . suits. Though the tha inhabitants be sans culottes they are not sans everythins--they 2 have the Age -Herald, yandi what more could they wantT The Scimitar says "In swapping yarns about the pecullari- ties of different people, Squire Harrelt got off a pretty good one ons the crackers or North Alabama, who are noted through out all Dixie for their aboriginal modes | of life and saus culotte modes of dress.
 "'During the early part of the Spanish k American war; said the Squire 'a con- pany was raised from among these crack CTS for service in Cuha. Of course, they didn't know a blame thing of what the war was about, but they feft that they might get chance to see what the next county looked like and 'jined.
 "eWei, sir, when they presented then- selves for enrolment every mothers, son of lem was asI barefooted as a goose. The recruiting sergeant didn't mind, and the whole red-necked layout was bundled aboard train and shipped to Mobile.
 "'When they unloaded there the first tLAng the officers in command did was to put pair of U, 8. A. brogans on each man.
 "'Were they ticl1led, Squire?" asked listener.
 "'Tickledl Why, every last one of 'em laid down when the cowhides were laced on, theiu trotters. Yes,, sir;3 they laid down and howled. They thought their feet we're tied and couidrt walk!' ;" LIFE, INSURANCE PROMPTNBSS New York Letter in the Pittsburg Dis
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