The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-01-22
In His Death Birmingham Loses
a Sterling Citizen
IN EVERY SENSE A TRUE MAN
Chancellor Passes PalnIessIy Away.
Funeral at 3 O'Clock This Afternoon.
Bar Assn and City Officials Will
Attend-Llfe Lived WorthiIy.

ing figure In social, legal and political
circles In the state, died of heart disease,
superinduced by an attack of pneumonia,
at 1885 o'clock yesterday morning in the
Davis infirmary
By persons acquainted with Judge Alt
man 1t was known that the chancellor
had been in frail health for more than
year, but, beguiled by his genial dis
position and buoyed by his rigorous de-
votion to duty, his friends little thought
that the white horses were coming so
rapidly to his door. Members of his fam
lily and his intimate associates had, in
deed, been gravely apprehensive of his
condition for several years. They I'M
derstood that his mental activity and his
intense interest in professional and pub
lie affairs had long ago severely taxed
his strength and exposed him to the
possibility of heart failure at any time.
With bls election as chancellor last year,
however, 1t was thought that his i'm
paired health would improve, and that
he would be permitted to discharge unin-
terruptedly the duties of the office he
was admirably qualified to fill.
These expectations were, however, dis
appointed. With characteristic energy
Judge Altman, the moment he qualified as
Chancellor, addressed himself to his new
duties. In his Judgment the position re-
quired the best qualities alike of head
and heart that he possessed, and in spite
of the warnings of friends and physicians
he gave himself royalty to the work of
his office. The effort, conscientious as
was everything he did, FASTENED the end.
His health continued to fail him until
at length last Monday he was taken to
the Davis infrmary for treatment There
he was given every attention that medical
skill or the keen solicitude of devoted
friends could provide. It was evident,
however, that all efforts to save his life
were unavailing. He grew gradually
weaker, and yesterday morning, sur
rounded by his kinspeople and a few I'M
failing griends, his brave spirit passed
from the life transient through death to
the life everlasting. The chancellor's wife
Mrs. Cora Loclhard Altman, his son,
John W., and his daughters. Miss Ida
and Miss Addie Bea, comforted his dying
hours.
Funeral ! his AFTERNOON.
The funeral of Judge Altman will be
held at o'clock this afternoon from
the Altman residence. No. 25O1 Avenue II.
The burial will take place at Oak Hill
cemetery.
Mayor Drennen announced last night
that the Mayor and Board of Aldermen
would meet at the city hall at o'clock
and attend the funeral in body.
The jefferson County Bar association
will meet at o'clock this afternoon in
the circuit court room and proceed thence
in body to the dead chancellor's resi-
dence. The bar association has appointed
these honorary pail bearers for the fu-
neral:
| w. c. Ward, H. A. Sharp. A. G. Smith.
James Weatherly. A. y. Lane, Alex Lon
| don and Judges A. A. Coleman, Charles
A. Sem, Charles w. Ferguson, Dan A.
Greene, Samuel L. Weaver and Samuel
E. Greene.
The active bearers at the funeral will
| be William E. Fort, Frank S. White,
| George Huddleston, Vassar Allen, Sterling
A. Wood, Jesse a. Stallings, John W..
| Tomlinson, John Mcqueen, Robert II.
| Thach and Robert ]. Lowe.
A Highly Valued Citizen.
When 1t became known yesterday that
| Judge Altman was no more, the feeling
throughout Birmingham was strong that
the community had lost one of its most
| highly valued citizens-one whose life had
| finely illustrated the injunction of Soc
rates: "Play the man." In the almost
score of years he had lived here the dead
| chancellor's face and figure had become
| a most dear object 10 the eyes and hearts
| of almost all the people. By his fellow
members in the profession of law he was
| beloved as well as admired. By persons
| who had had occa sion from time to time
| to consult his superior wisdom he was
remembered as a practitioner. able and
| adroit, and as a gentleman upon whose
public and private life rested not even
| the shadow of a stain. In his death the
great mass of the population felt even
though they did not yet quite understand
| that there had passed away fellow-citi-
zen of theirs who had given his life roy
| ally to the enrichment of the COM
munity.
Fashioned After a Noble Mold.
| John j. Altman was fashioned in a mold
that suggested an earlier regime-a social
| and political order in which the great
virtues, supplemented by the graces Of
| Christian life, gave impulse and direc-
| ton to human conduct. An Alabamian
| by BIRTH his lineage stretched back to
| the South Carolina family Of his NAME
and from the Palmetto state to the simple,
thrifty, God-fearing. liberty-loving Teu-
| tonic stock that gave strength and stabil-
| ity to the northern principalities of what
| is now the German empire. In feature
physique and movement In thought,
| manner and speech, and more than all
| else, in conduct, he was a representative
| Of a great deal that is highest and best
| in the Teutonic race.
Early Life.
Judge Altman was born fifty-three years
| ago In Sumter county. His father was
planter newly arrived in the state from
South Carolina, where John J. Altman
WIS born. His mother was a daughter of
John Hit, a prominent citizen of Ala
bama sixty years ego. The son passed his
boyhood on the plantation, and. like
many another farmer boy was trained
to the pillow. He attended the schools Of
the neighborhood and at the age OF 16
years began to teach in order to earn
money with which he might continue