The age-herald., 1900-08-27
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE

Astrologer Raphaels prophecies for Tues day, August 2S, 1900
 "Be very careful.
 Beware of law, changes and quarrelling. and keep thy business well in hand "A child born this day will be quick in temper, but not fortunate; it will sue ceed best in employ. If female trouble in marriage" Perhaps it was Lowell who put upon the tongue of the sea words of indifference con- corning the many generations of men which had faded from its shores, and to dwell upon the plea that wind and sea are rough playmates," writes slave of the graphite pencil from Blount Springs "To all who study it, the sea seems a sentient thing, for ever indifferent in its sublime repose or it's subiimer anger. No matter how fre- quently one may defy the sea, the sea re- | mains cold and indifferent. So with the | mountains, loved of so many tribes of the men, The mountains, like the sea, have mystery man shall explore.
 The ferns love the mountain, | '"fhe mosses the moor: ..The ferns are the rich, 5-, " The mosses the poor sSS | something or this mystery ana lnuiIIer- ence of the mountains impressed a weary man last nightfall as he saw lovers come down from the heights, and the thought occurred again this morning as he per- | ceived them set out over the selfsame course. The mountain has been the scene | of that sort of thing for many generations l of lovers. The grandmas of these maidens of the misty mountain top heard sixty years l ago much the same as was heard last nishtfall and this morning. and heard 1t from the grandfathers of the lovers who are fresh and foolish on this August Sum- day of 1900. Little was the substantial re- suit then; little has come of that sort of thing in any of the succeeding years; little will ever come"
 " 'Blount seems to inspire loving said beautiful woman this morning, herself one of the loved of today and of the yester- year. There is something here In the at mosphere which draws man and woman to- gether-Are you going up the mountain?' she said not inconsistently. An, the noun tain when years were younger! Great oak apart from the winding path; youth en- thusiastic at the feet of maiden adorable; passionate protestations and entreaties, and I she, swearing she'd ne'er consent, actually neer consented; yet hah-well, no matter, l joy in the tree top, and the mountain reel
 I ing. Joy! Down the mountain side at night
 l fall, as loitered last nights lovers. Joy!
 l Ard when the stars were high and the
 beetles of the midnight were drowsily tell
 | ing their own tales in Ieafy places-Joy! Same mountain there still: same wind | ing path same old oak apart; same man, l loving much the same; same woman? ask l of the winds that far around with frag- l ments strewed the sea- Joy! Same old
 | story-same old every sort of old thing. l Always the way at Blount Women never
 | marry the men whom they bid to join them
 l here Men never give them such extra l ordinarily strong chances. That is to say
 | hardly ever.
 Years ago-none of your business how
 l many years-a man came here to see a
 woman whom he had long adored. Some
 | of you know them both. She wished him
 l to come; he wished to come Both of them
 l 1unatics; he, lunaticer. He had been wild
 l about her for three days,-or maybe three | months; or, incomprehensible possibility, l three years. It was three something She l hadn't come across as she might have
 done but he hung on desperately. Asked her repeatedly to wed him. No. She
 | would let him play lover within reasonable bounds, quietly: little privileges of one
 1 sort or another, in the usual somewhat l yumyumy way common to sweethearts | But she would never say she'd wed him. l The more stoutly she refused the more | fervently he prayed He came to BIount l at her bidding-she was always making l him do something foolish. They went up on the mountain in the fullness of their | joy. He gushed. he prayed, he did lots of ] things, even rhymed-thus:
 I went up the mountain
 And give my horn a blow:
 Think heard my true love saw 0 yonder comes my beaui
 And yet in the face of that she made | up her mind to come across shore huff. His three-'s devotion, his poetry. his rhyme, his whole lot of things fetched her
 at last. There where iocund day had stood upon the misty mountain top and kissed the earth to beauteous wakefulness from dreams divine; where the glorious skv seemed to bend lowest in benediction: tbere where the birds rioted in their iov and where redbugs deted on generations of men and women who had kissed each oth- | CT In devotion more or less fond-there she came across, and so suddenly that he | coulder died. Without any sort of upus,,al warning she granted his yearning prayer and gleed gleefully
 | T am going to marry you, you dear | old sinnern
 :" The devil you arcH he shouted as he
 |. bounded as if shot from a catapult
 | Tt was all over It often is all over, ! particularly with redbugs
 "Blount has played a greater part in the
 | social and political life of Alabama than
 any other one locality within the bounds | of the State, not excepting Tuscaloosa or
 Montgomery. Tuscaloosa is ever the col 1 lege town-most beautiful of all towns and | the happiest-but always schooIboyish and
 | schoolgirlish: very adorable qualities. but
 | not practical. Montgomery is always the