The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-12-28

Sessions he attracted public attention by
making onslaughts on poolrooms. There
was something novel and forceful IN his
attitude. The records of his exploits be-
came good reading, and the public was
amused just as 1t would be by reading
of the antics of bull in a china shop.
He became the fusion nominee for district
attorney, and was elected by a great ma
jority. Those who elected him believed
that he would be in the future the pros
ecutIng attorney for the city but they
have discovered that he enjoys melo-
drama more than he does the mere prac-
tice of law. The tickle public is more
than weary of the melodramatic district
attorney Nothing has helped to increase
this feeling of WEAKNESS as much as his
determination to drag individuals before
the grand jury and cause them to give
testimony upon which that body can find
indictments against the gamblers. Mr..
Jerome is an official that makes. no dis
elimination between the application of
sthe law to the rich and to the poor. His
motto is, apparently: Let him whom
the cap fits wear It," He sees no differ
ence between the petty gambler and the
gambling banker. The poor when pressed
to obey the law demur so feebly that
they are scarcely heard, but 1t is not so
with the rich. Mr.. Jerome apparently be-
lieves that 1t is as much a vice to gamble
whether the player is a rich man or
poor man. A certain set of wealthy men
about town do not agree with Jerome,
and these are the men who largely con-
Ait. -
last fall showed very distinctly that the
people of New York city are tired of re-
form. The very people who would OPP
pose the poolroom and the policy game as
resorts injurious to persons of small
means aggregate to themselves the right
to squander thousands at faro and rou-
lette. Mr.. Jeromes attitude has done
much to retard decent government in the
city. No man can rightly say that he
has not acted properly; but whether he
has acted wisely or not can be ques-
toned. Singularly enough Mr. Jerome's
unpopularity is greater in his own social
circles than elsewhere in the city. Those
who condemn him most are men who
have been his social companions for
years, and these are to be found in the
best strata of social life. The result Of
Mr.. Jeromes actions to suppress gam
bling in the city will probably be plat
form and cry for an open town.
The legal work done in the matter of
merging several great financial corpora
tions largely controlled by the Mutual
Life Insurance Company and the Equita-
BILE Life Assurance Society, and incorpo-
rating them as the Western National
Bank of the United States, was accom-
plished by the firm of Alexander & Colby.
fazl IF hind iOuolvfpo O.
as it does, many millions of dollars
brings to a law firm considerable in the
way of honors and attracted enormous
attention. The senior partner is Henry
NJ. Alexander, the son Of James w.
Alexander, president of the Equitable. In
the history Of the great insurance socl-
ETY. inseparably connected with it, and
with it's ramifcauons there have been
for forty years two families, those of
Hyde and Alexander. Indeed, If there
had been no Henry B. Hyde there would
have been no Equitable, and again If
there had been no Alexanders Hyde's
efforts would have been futile. The Equi-
table was due to the genius, energy and
ability of Henry B. Hyde on the one hand
and the social and financial influences OF
the Alexanders on the other. When Hyde
left the Mutual Life he was a mere boy,
but boy with ambitions. He was a
Sunday school teacher in the Sunday
school of the First Presbyterian church,
of which the pastor was William Alex
ander, the grandfather of the young law
yer Henry M. Alexander Through the in
huence of the Rev Mr. Alexander, young
Hyde obtained of the rich Pensioners
sufficient subscriptions to the capital Of
his insurance company to incorporate it,
and Senator Alexander of New Jersey be-
came its first president. On the death Of
Henry b. Hyde. James w. Alexander be-
came president. 1t Is not difficult to dis
cover how Henry M Alexander became
the counsel in the merger of insurance
interests. Mr.. Alexander is well under
40 years of age, and like all the Alexan-
ders is a graduate of Princeton. He has
been practicing law for many years and
won his spurs at the bar several years
ago. The Alexanders are men of charm
ing manners, naturally diplomatic, and
take a special pride in doing well all they
undertake. Their success in the various
walks of life has been accomplished by
patient tireless industry, thoroughness
answering integrity. and marked ability
The brownstone building on the corner
of Twenty-first street and Fifth avenue,
for so many years the home of the Union
Club has been vacated. 1t will be RACED
to make way for a skyscraper office
structure. The new club house is on the
east side of Fifth avenue at Fifty-fourtn
street In keeping with it's social pre-
tentions as the leading social organiza-
tion of it's kind in this city. the Union
Club has kept pace with the shifting of
the fashionable center. The cites of It's
early homes south of the recently vacated
Fifth avenue corner are now occupied by
light manufacturing concerns and the
Twenty-first street house surrounded by
towering office buildings. During the last
twenty years the entire city has been
transformed. and nothing more practical
ly illustrates the many and varied
changes as we'll as the shifting of the
home of the Union Club. Not only has 1t
been forced to change it's residence, but
its membership. At one time the Union
was not cosmopolitan club, but an out
and out New York institution. The men,
bers were not only New Workers. but
came from fathers who had been more
or less prominent in the Industrial or So
cial life of the city. 1t is not so today.
Among its members are men who have
only recently established foothold in the
city and who are more conspicuous for
wealth than for breeding. But, in this
It is not unlike the most representative
society of the city, which is made up of
those who prove their eligibility by the
length of their list of securities. The
Union Club of today is no longer the
representative institution that 1t was
twenty years ago.
Another parsonage who came in on the
reform wave was the Hon. Jacob A. Can