The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-08
STRANGE MAN CALLS ON MAYOR DRENNEN He Wants the Mayor to Make
 Himself Immortal OUTLINES UNIQUE PLAN Mayor Drennen Listens, Quotes Shakespeare and Says He'll Think
 1t over--5ook of "confes.
 sions" Possible.

Is there Rousseau-De Quincy streak in W. Melville Drennen?
 Will His Honor, the Mayor, drop Blount Springs and the mercantile business and go into the profession of literature when he quits the Mayors office?
 The world has been regaled with Jean Jacques "Confessions," with the "Con- fessions of An Opium Eater with the Confessions of a Worldly Woman and with Heaven only knows what other confessions"
 Is this formidable list-the bibliography of "confessions'- be supplemented with a narrative concerning W. Melville Dren- nen's inner life?
 It was persistently rumored at the city hall yesterday that the Mayor is going into the "eonfession" busness that he's going to write a book and that the book will be entitled "The Mistakes of Mayor or ". Melville Drennen's Confessions"
 B. A Pepperman, the Mayors secretary said yesterday afternoon that he didn't know anything about it."
 Pep" is like other private secretaries Private secretaries are like drug clerks they remember nothing and forget nothing.
 It is a generally accepted theory that if private secretaries should divulge all they know the sum total of human knowledge would be vastly augmented. It is the fixed conviction of everyone in the city hall that if Pep" should tell one-tenth of what he knows he would increase i'm measurabIy the store of human ex- perience.
 But Pep is like the congressman who was caught with the goods on-"dumb, silent, speeches., mute and not saying a word"
 That, however, is as Klplng says, "an- other story"
 The question of the hour is-will the Mayor "confess?" The question belongs to the Banquos ghost category.
 It bobhed up yesterday morning in tie Mayors office.
 While his honor was busily engaged with his mail a man with a slightly asce- tic countenanee appeared on the thres- hold.
 Would the Mayor give him few mo- ments? The Mayor would do so with pleasure. Whatever the Mayor does is done with pleasure"
 Whereat the ascetic-faced man began to spiel"
 "Mister Mayor" said he, in a precise sort of way. T have come to see you on a delicate errand. It Is an eminently per- sonal matter, Mister Mayor-personal to you, sir; and so personal, sir, that | hesitate to say what I have in mind"
 Mayor Drennen told the ascetic-looking man with the precise manner of speech that in the bright lexicon of youth, mid dle-age or senility there was no such word as hesitate" and bade him forth with to proceed.
 ''As Bill says" added the Mayor If it were done when ts done, then 'twere well 1t were done quickly"
 Reassured by this suggestion the Ascet- l ic One went on. briskly:
 Mister Mayor, I have a plan-a plar that will immortalize you"
 "Immortalize mel" repeated the May or somewhat suspectingly.
 'Immortalize me? Well, how do you know I'm ready to start in the lmmor. tallzing business?''
 All men-and especially all great mer long for immortality" said the stran l ger.
 The Mayor leaned back in his tilted chair, clamped his hands on the back oi his head, let his feet dangle at parade rest and fixed his quizzical port wine eyes on the stranger.
 "Im listening, sir" said the Mayor. impresslvely. "I will tell you my plan | It was suggested to me last Sunday whil, I was attending divine service. You recal the words of the prayer? We have dont 1 the things we ought not to have don't and we have left undone those thing. health in us.'
 The Mayor nodded his head in assent
 Well, my dear sir, we are all human Everyone is guilty of sins of commission and of sins of omission Even mayors are thus guilty. You MT. Mayor l dar' say, are no exception to the rule.'
 A stee-lilxe glint came into the Mayor! eye-the expression which when seen b, Alderman Hedt makes that gentleman look to his laurels,
 Now, I suggest, Mir Mayor, that yo, write a book-and in that book take thu ueople into your confidence. Tell then frankly all the things you've done tha yon ought not to have done as Mayor l and all the things you've left undone tha