The age-herald., 1900-07-25
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE

Astrologer Raphaers prophecies for this day, Wednesday, July 25, 1900:
 "Very uncertain
 Beware of speculations, and avoid them; do not travel: thy business will require much attention.
 "A child born on this day win have a quiet life, although much will depend upon the hour of it's birth"
 Bake; brew; hire maid servants; go a-fishing."
 Astrologer Raphaers prophecies for Thursday, July 26, 1900:
 Avoid superiors, but push thy business
 Success will attend thy endeavors, and thy business will increase"
 "The young will court"
 "A child born on this day will be fortu- nate in business, and will meet many friends and much success"
 
 More marriages constitute the most pressing demand of the times, and unless greater numbers of young women and men "get together at the altar. the complaint will become one for the serious considera- tion of the state, which inevitably VIII take full charge of such domestic affairs, even to regulating the colors of hair and eyes to be blended, the number of babies to be permitted, the money income neces- sary, and so on. In France already the in sufficient number of marriages and births is regarded as a grave problem of social economy, hence political economy also. Since France became nationally Goddess, marriages have decreased and illegitmacy has increased.
 Marriage in England has been enceur- aged in every possible way by the present Queen during her sixty-three years reign. She set a good example by marrying in her twenty-first year, and bearing nine children before she was forty And she caused a present to be sent to every child in her kingdom who was born on the same day as her first son and heir, the Prince of Wales For nearly sixty years her ma jesty has presented three guineas (sl5l2) to every mother of triplets; thus materially encouraging that which is so vitaily essen- tial to the maintainence of the British em- pire. But the good and beloved Queens good intentions are somewhat frustrated by the conduct of one of her most illustr1ous statesmen and ministers Arthur James Balfour, who is fifty-two years old today; having been born July 25, 1s48. MT. Bal four has never married, and, far as known, never had a sweetheart after he reached manhood; differing in that partic- ular from his famous colleague, the Duke of Devonshire, who waited till he was six ty years old, for his sweetheart's husband to die, before getting married. Singularly enough, MT. Balfours name has never been connected with that of any woman in the sense of lover. He was, and is very fond of Margot Remnant, who married Henry Herbert Asquith: but his regard was in- tellectual not amorous Miss Tennant, As quith, Balfour and Lord Roseberry were ''The Souls,' famous in the society and in tellectual life of England. All of them won fame, though the general outside world did not know of Miss Tennant until she became Mrs. Asauith. son and a daughter have come into her life, and word comes that the most brilliant young woman in Eng land is also one of the happiest mothers: double conditions unusual in real life.
 MT. Balfour's mother was the sister of the Marquis of Salisbury. So the nephew Is the leader of the uncle's cabinet in gov erning the British Empire. Fifty-two is a young age in English politics. Yet MT Balfonr has been a member of Parliament longer than John Tyler Morgan has been a United States Senator.
 It Is the custom in this country to turn good men out of office whenever they prove that they are worthy In England the people act differently. Gladstone was member of Parliament sixty-three years. with one interruption of but few months. The late Charles Villiers entered Parlia ment at 27. and was a member uninter- ruptedly for sixty-six years. Yet there were some dozens of Alabamians who after he had been a Senator for only twen- ty-four years.
 Raise the drawbridge and let the port cullis fall!' may be a ringing command from Alabama sheriffs familiar to their deputies in. the near future. Having in view the desperate reeklessness of mur- derous mobs, and their ever-increasing lust for the blood of chained and defenseless prisoners of the state, the General As sembly of Alabama will be asked, it is un- derstood to enact a law requiring every county jail in the state to be surrounded by moat twenty feet deep and forty feet wide, and crossed in one place only, and that by a drawbridge; thus revivfng the custom of the feudal ages adhered to for the protection of the defenseless So when the Alabama sheriff of the future perceives a valiant band of hundred brave heroes coming to murder covering coward chained in a cell, the head peace officer will give the command to up with the drawbridge and down with the portcullis, otherwise the triple-barred door. Against such defense the Madison County method of burning tar and feathers, and otherwise trying to render helpless or murder the sherAf, will be vain. The heroes will have to sit on the outside of the moat and chaw terbacker. cuss, brag, and shoot their guns at little birds and other things equally de- fenseless.
 "The state hasn't got the moral right to tie in steel cage any man whom the state is incapable of defending against all law less attack!' is what every iaw-abiding