The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-17

the egg-statns on his chin
 And still some people wonder why the American is lacking in courtesy. When this gormandising contest is over the boss quarrels with the head bookkeeper, the head bookkeeper with the assistant bookkeeper, the assistant bookkeeper with the office boy and the office boy takes 1t out in kicking the cat.
 The quick lunch counter" Is. never theless an American institution of the sort that has come to stay. The way life is lived in the big cities. the way business Is done. 1t is case Of the quick lunch counter or so hungry. There Is no time, no place for the old village custom of going home to din ner" in the middle of the day.
 And when these establishments are found any and everywhere as they are found here, In Birmingham, 1t is convincing proof of hustle, of much business and of strenuous prosperity. And when they reflect and typify the life of Birmingham they tell the story of the strenuous, violent city, which is essentially modern and strenuous.
 Birmingham. in its population, is mosaic. tassellated. picturesque and at rare times and places tawdry. It is neither a Northern nor Southern city. It is American city like Chicago or Pittsburg, a cosmopolitan place where race meets race and one influences the other, in the fight for success and for money.
 It is in truth the Chicago of the South, a congress of races, as 1t were. It is a place where Fortune and Oppor- tunity have taken up their abode and where the strong and the vigorous swho come to assiduously sue for their favors crowd and push each other about. The suitors are of no one caste, no one class, no one race. The favors are for all who may sue suc- cessfully and persistently. No race. color, previous condition. or circum- stance Is barred.
 Twin Streams of Wealth.
 The ancient hills about pour forth twin streams of wealth, black and brown. A city's commerce second to hardly any under Southern skies. rises from 1t like the rain clouds that come out from the ocean and, like the clouds this commerce lets fall its dew and rain upon the heads of the just and the unjust. The invitation Is Let all who are ambitious and strenuous come and partake of the waters freely" Jew and Gentlie, Northerner and Southerner, foreigner and American, | white and black. strive shoulder to shoulder in the common aim and the common endeavor. The town is DlOueTn AUlSTtCa anu MiutdLuT6 d l mosaic in races. a theatre of activity, a field of opportunity for all and an arena for strife and speed. In this city of manufacturers of commerce and | of prosperity, the clements of modern American life are gathered, are assem- bled together like the big telescope catches the outlines and demarkations i Of the far off planet and throws them upon the narrow surface of the re- l Hector.
 | It is not Southern, but the Southern influence predominates. It Is no, Northern, but'the impetus of the North. erners, push and directness makes itsell felt. It is more than any Southern | city, at least, the young mans town | One comes to know this when he walk. the streets. The faces he sees art young faces. The young man is ir the majority--he Is perhaps in such { town as this in the ascendency. Th' | older man is not overfond of change And Birmingham Is not old enough ye to have its own old men. In q, citJ where time itself is young. the men ar' young.
 The young man is the agent o change. He likes the discretion, thu cooler counsel of the man of moderr years, but he can plunge into the cur rent of new things with more of con | nuenC6 anu dbSuEdHCC tHdh tHC ludA l who has done things in an old way ant | been guided by customs of older days. - So one finds hero the young mar numerous. prosperous and self-asser l tive, perhaps too self-assertive. He Il | in the big banks, in the great stores up among the cliff dwellers in the hug, | office buildings. He is agent. superin tendent, cashier. bookkeeper. clerk lawyer, doctor, dentist and what not l nl hAro tf thAN | are not so numerous, as in the mor' | sedate communities. They are here and as fin other places they have al eye on the safety valve and hant | on the throttle, for sometimes the pact may be too rapid, the speed too danger ous. Youthful enthusiasm is fn' inspiration to do things, but it Is no the softest thing & in the w0T,d, T;t.,,.x
 But still one gets in Birmingham ai his predominant impression, the i'm pression of youthful vitality.
 In the steady streams of humanit! that surge continually itl would seen along Twentieth and Twenty-flrs Street and along First and Second Ave nues the observant visitor sees tn young man In the majority. He see him about the big hotels, keen eyed no l as to dress and watchful. He recog nizes him, often as from the north. | score of little things differentiates tn | northern man young or old. from tn southern And the northern accent f perhaps oftener heard here than in an. southern city.
 There is such an astonishing numbe | of avenues of industry open here t. inc young man. There seems to be n, lack of things a man may do If he ha the knack Tn a thousand ways maj has the chance to make money. Tn | older lines of occupations fin South
 ern city seem multiplied here ten-fold
 When one considers the office build
 ines whose window signs proclaim s
 many different businesses, so man, djfYerent professions. so many differen | agencies and corporations, he begin | to see one of the big office buildings a
 ten stories full of opportunities. | The skilled, intelligent and well-pait
 workingman is another impressiv
 branch of Birmingham's ethnology an'
 soctology. The intelligent laborinl
 man has largely built the greatnes
 and prosperity of the Magic City. H.
 has delyed in the bosom of the eartl
 and lifted the buried treasures int
 the sun light. He has taken then
 and worked them over into articles O
 commerce. It is he who has manned
 inc machinery that has borne forward
 the hopes and fortunes of the Bir
 min gham district.
 He too, wears the air of satisfied in
 dependence. He, too Is numerous Il | the crowd and one sees him in crowd | awaiting the cars for his home in tn
 suburbs or the mining and manufac
 turing suburb just out of Birmingham | where is his daily work. The assure 1 air of independence is not to be mis