The age-herald., 1900-12-29

CtA aASodil OA OAhhStOhN "eS then S6.
 Had 1t not been for that old mans fa- tuity and his blind bigotry, and lack of courage. there would have been no Boer war. as we know of it with all it's terrible loss of life and monstrous iniauities. By cry grave of this awful war ds vain protest against Gladstone's folly of long ago in making personal plaything of the imperial power vested in him as the active head of Great Britain. He listened to the seductive words of a few meddlesome per sons and a few political blackguards. and threw an empire away!'
 "The Bungtown Bugle, which will be an eight-page weekly newspaper, published and edited at Jasper, Ala, by H. c. West, hs to be something new early in the New Year." said the slave of the graphite pen cl and companion of the briar?root pipe.
 My friend West sends me his prospectus as a Christmas card, and it is most enter taining reading, being clever and sparkling. He says that the Bugle will not be alto gether a volunteer, and he doesn't desire to freeze anybody out but he is going to pub fish legitimate live newspaper in one of the best towns in the world, and its 'chdef mission shall be the advancement of public interests,' upon which it win rely for sup port.
 For more than ten years have fiddled away the fruits of my toll, playing upon the stage of life two acts-feast and familne,' saith my brother West. have been either in the midst of fine old time or in devil of a tight I believe place all my financial embarrassment and aT my unfulflled prom
 -.x.f,a cod dle them on the devil of intemperanee He is himself printer and he says:
 "' Printers of many years experience who have travelled ard worked all over the world have paid my work high compli- ments and advised me to fay down the stick and rule and take up the pen for hvli- hood. As a rule printers are not given to hattery They are competent judges of ht- erature and merit. As judge of the juice or pen products, printer, in my opinion, ranks with the chief
 Most of us who toll with the graphite pencil will subscribe very heartily to my brother Vests tribute to the printers men, tai insight and judgement. My own toll has been long, and net in all instances unre- warded, and in all the years of my news paper labor I have valued most of all the printers opinion of my work. If the man of the types approves, care not who may find fault, for all-around the printer Is the most competent critic of newspaper WTlt- ing. If had an editorial staff with men on trial I'd find out what the printers thought of such men. Many vain space killer would be the better if he knew what the printers thought of him. Meantime, here's great good luck to the Bupgtown Bugle!'
 ''The lawlessness and rowdyism of Christ mas eve cost the merchants of Birming- ham 0 very great sum of money" said d prominent shoe merchant yesterday "Our trade was destroyed, for the time being, our sales being very much under our or dinary Saturday evening sales. A big broken mirror in our store is witness of the DOW CT of @ fire cracker fired in our front door. It was scandalous, outrage ous."
 ''If a loaded cannon had been planted to command our front door, and men at 1t to fire, it could not have more effectually destroyed our trade than did the rowdyism and rufflanism which began to assume Its most dangerous form shortly after o'clock Christmas eye and which continued until midnight" said one of the largest cloth ing merchants of Birmingham. What would have been the best of all our years trade was cut down to a few dollars. One of our customers started with his wife down to our store early in the evening to spend $30 in presents for the servants, but at Avenue F they encountered the bowling mob of disorderly people, and in fear they returned home. Other merchants in our vicinity suffered as badly. And claims publicly made for private purposes that we had calm and quiet Christmas eve, are answered by the indignation of the mer- chants, who are thoroughly aroused. The uncontrolled lawlessness has robbed the merchants of Birmingham of a large vol ume of trade"
 'The charge publicly made that women on the streets after 1 o'clock in the after noon were mostly irresponsible negro women, and some white women whose husbands didn't receive their pay sooner is an outrageous reflection upon hundreds of the purest and best women in Birming- ham who were out shopping and for inno- cent purposes" said another business man. Mary ladies personally known to me to be of the best people were in our store after 10 o'clock at night, but they came, in many instances to escape the fury and riot of the street, and were too excited to do much trading. Other mer- chants suffered in similar way. One of the largest and busiest drug stores in the town had to, hear, close its doors at the busiest hour because somebody fired a cannon fire cracker inside the place. It is a shame and outrage, disgrace that such things could be. but it~is even a greater shame and outrage upon the merchants of Birmingham to claim that nothing was the matter and that their business was not interferred with; on this point the mer- chants are very sore"
 BRITISH COAL FIELDS. From the Youths Companion.