The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-12-24

7 Is almost cruel at this cheerful sea-
son Of the year to inform the small
boy Of Birmingham that there is no
hope Of a circus coming to town for an
other twelve months. The city council
has failed to lower the license tax on
circuses and circus paradez, so that our
bereaved and circusless condition will be
prolonged until the board of aldermen
again passes judgment on the prohibitive
ordinance year hence. Just now when
Santa Claus is imminent the small boy
of Birmingham is apt to underestimate
the woe that awaits him next summer,
but after the holidays have passed away
and when the first tokens of approaching
spring appear his heart will be filed with
sadness, sadness that will be shared
equally by the small girl and In a covert
way by great many people who are sup
posed to have outgrown the circus age
For another twelve months the roar Of
the hungry lion in his den, the screech
of the calliope and the blare of the red
coated brass band vending It's way down
the street at the head of a glittering ar
ray Of Egyptian princesses, courtly
knights and resplendant ladies seated IN
on prancing steeds and Immediately fol-
lowed by train of bespangled wagons,
huge pachyderms, awkward camels and
strange beasts OF the Jungle. will be de-
MED us. The vista is sad, doubly sad hut
when the small boy of today arrives at
the aldermanic state there will he q
revolution and a circus once a month If
not oftener In Birmingham.
The dispatch which appeared in ves-
terdays papers and related the untimely
end of a woman who tried 20 use a "one-
FOUNDER" rapid fire gun cartridge for a
tack hammer is sad, but 1t is a strik-
ing illustration of the manner in which
a woman thinks. Philosophers have
known all the time that woman was
capable of using anything from a skillet
to the heel of slipper for a hammer
but few dreamed that she would ever
adopt gun cartridge for such a purpose
OF course the affair is deolorable but the
moral Is certainly plain enough for the
female mind to grasp without the aid
OF a logic machine" Gun cartridges
that are loaded should not be used to
drive lacks. The best instrument ever de-
vised for driving tacks is the tack ham
mer.
An interesting tale of love and the
sere and yellow leaf has come to light in
Indiana. Ephraim Bickle, aged rs years
sued Mrs. susannah Altland, aged 70
years, for $1,000 damages. alleging that
the fair and tickle Susannah agreed to
wed him but baked at the scratch. Now
Susannah did not deny the soft impeach-
ment neither did she HE to the courts
there to decide the case In bitter strife.
Fan from 1t. She adopted the only safe
and sane plan In such a contingency
She wrote out check for 800 and pre-
scented 1t to her detected lover as a COM
promise. Ephraim, being himself a man
OF much good common sense, accepted the
check, called off the suit and left the
false Susannah to enjoy the caresses of
another man, whom she married before
the damage suit was instituted Mrs.
Altland says that the change was worth
the money, for she likes the new man
much better than Ephraim. While the af-
fair was no doubt humiliating to Eph-
rain 1t is not every man 70 years old who