The age-herald., 1900-03-26
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE

| JOnnSbonS romance ID f1dNe anu 1o
 Hold,p and she does her work most ad-
 mirably In the Montgomery Advertiser of
 Sunday there Is an appreciative and praise
 worthy review of Miss Johnstons book | signed by Cecilo Craik The paper shows
 close study. good judgment, literary acu-
 men, and style in writing that is clever,
 concise, and pursuasive. Nothing regarding | Miss Johnston's book more thoughtful
 or more deserving, of frank commendation than Cecile Craik's criticism has come this | way. Everybody is familiar with DisraelPs | dietun that tho critics are those persons | "who have failed in literature and the | arts" That may have been true when | "Lothair" defied criticism; but is far from fact nowadays. The fair young critic of I Montgomery, who is almost the equal or | the best of reviewers, has not yet com- | pleted her studies: and quite likely if she | ever gave society a thought she was re-
 minded of Byrons two vast hordes, the | bored and the bores." She is a student, | and a scholar as well. albeit she is a child | in years. When she was but little more | than past her twelfth year, she gave her | teachers at school no little trouble because
 of the rapdity with which she advanced | in her studies. She was nearly always a | class to herself. And her vacations have | been devoted for several years to the pur- | suit of special studies. Her capacity for | acquiring knowledge is extraordinary. Miss | Cecile Craik is the youngest of the four
 daughters of MT. G. W. Craik and Mrs.
 Craik Hedgehurst. Montgomery. The sev-
 eral members of the family are unusually
 accomplished in various directions. Espec- | ial ad 0f inf A.
 tion regarding literature and art. They are | clever. Mr Craik, a man of rare culture,
 has written most entertainingly of some | journeys afoot in Shaloespeare's country,
 and in Devonshire, beautiful garden of | England Miss Cecile Craik has previously
 written for the public prints. Assuredly she | will cultivate her skill in that direction. |
 | "As to attorneys fees, regarding which
 the Age Herald has recently printed excel l lent stories the prevailing custom is for l lawyer and his client to agree to a contract | covering specified work said an eminent | member of the bar" Of course there are
 differing circumstances in the practice. and contracts as to fees in many instances de- pend upon the personality and position of | clients and lawyers alike. While signed
 contracts prevent disputes, it is advisable
 sometimes for a lawyer to leave his client | to voluntarily fix the fee. On one occasion
 my partner and I spent some little time | discussing the point as to whether we should charge $50 or s75 for certain work, | the amount of the fee being left to us to
 name. We finally "nom'd 1t back'' to our 1 client; and we asked him to pay us what | ever sum he thought our services worth. I for yUa ad
 him for several years, and heinvariably | decided upon the amount to be paid us. He | was very liberal, and first and last, paid | us many hundreds of dollars There was
 one case we took on the basis of @ signed | contract for $500 fee. We refreshed | minds we'll on the law points involved. but l when court assembled the case was thrown out We were paid our $500; but if there | hadn't been a signed contract our pay | wouldn't have exceeded $20, in all probabil- | ity. Eut upon the whole, am of opinion
 that lawyers seldom get the best of it in | general practice"
 It was reported last night that flocks of l wild geese had been seen several days aga passing over this district flying northward on their semi-annual migration. For gem
 
 south to the north has been regarded positive proof that spring time had come to all the northern gentle Armies, Just as the southward flight of geese in the au- | tumn demonstrated that frost had com- menced to redden the noses of those same | maidens. But permitting that to go for what it is or may have been worth the | geese which winged their flight northward a week or two ago were evidently as silly l as a goose, or as crazy as a loon, or what | ever else may be said about them. The | weather on the other side of the Ohio has | been intensely cold very recently, and na- ture's store of food for wild geese is bur | jed under snow and ice. The v-shaped for | nation of flock of wild geese on the wing l migrating is known to all persons, and the 1 "koalk!'' "zonk!' of the old grey gander | commanding-in he flies at the head | of his two long files of followers stretching | out behind him, are cries familiar to all | dwellers outside of noisy cities. The geese | are known to fly many hundreds of miles | without resting.
 Some men in the Morris lobby were dis | cussng the race question. One of the par | ty, man who looms large in the public | eye, told this story: Some years after Ap- pomattox I was spending a time with rela- | tives at their country place in Virginia. | They were proud of Virginia and proud oe | their race. That is thoroughly character | istic of F. F. V.'s generally. One day short | ly after my arrival at the home of my rel | atives a letter was received from a son oe | the house who was an officer in the French | army of occupation in Algiers. He wrote | that he had just married an African wo-
 man, and that, having obtained leave of | absence from his command he intended proceeding forthwith to Virginia on a visit 1 home. His mother and other members of | the family were bitterly resentful and in- | dignant, and declared that the soldier | should never put his foot on the place | again. few days afterward another let
 ter was received, stating that the happy l couple would arrive at the nearest railway J station at certain hour on a certain day.