The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-10
S225,OOO LOSS IN
 MACON, GA, FIRE
BIG DRY GOODS HOUSE OF BUR- DEN SMITH DESTROYED IN BLAZE OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN. PARTLY INSURED.

PARTLY INSURED. | Macon, Ga, December Sire broke out at o'clock tonight in the large retail dry goods establishment of Burden Smith X Co.,. completely destroying the immense stock and building, which fronts | on three streets. The builung and stock were completely destroyed, entailing a loss of $225,000 and the estimated insurance is about Sl25.OOO.
 The origin of the fire is not known, though it was discovered on the lower floor of the building and soon envoloped every department. The establishment en- | ployed 135 persons, as an immense stock of holiday goods had been opened. | At Il o'clock the fire is under control, and further damage will be averted.
 
 resent their actions until it became evil dent that they were likely to damage American interests.
 | Mrs Storer insisted to me often that | their change of creed had proved deadly | blow to her husbands career, and that ] they were suffering for conscience sake | 1 accepted this statement as true, and | | I ought to do what could to help them, and be as patient as possible with them.
 "Under President Mckinley Mr. Storer was made minister first to Belgium and ! then to Spain. About the time of my accession to the vice presidency 1 wrote, l at President McKinley's request to MT. and Mrs. Storer that the President de- sired me to say that MT. Storer was ulti- mately to be made ambassador. MT. | greatly interested in securing the promotion of Archbishop 1 Ireland to be cardinal
 Admires Archbishop. | had. and have sincere respect and admiration for Archbishop Ireland, re- i speet and admiration which I have often publicly expressed The letter from me ! to MT and Mrs. Storer quoted in MT. 1 Storer's pamphlet gives, with precision | my views both upon Archbishop Ire land and upon the possibility or pro- priety of my taking in his behalf the steps which the Storers asked, and can | add nothing to what these letters them selves show. When they first wrote to me on the subject l was governor or | New York. Not being president myself, | and not having thought out with clear ness the exact situation, l asked Presi- | dent Mckinley whether he could properly | do anything to help Archbishop lreland' l He responded that it was not a matter l with which he could, with propriety, in- terfere, although he expressed himseis as having the same high opinion of the | archbishop that 1 had. l had further conversation with the President on the l subject either just before or just after my election as vice president, i'll which he stated what he felt was the proper position. a position with which l abso- | lutely agreed.
 l I,;e in my lpt | fer to Mrs Storer of November g, 1900, | quoted by MT. Storer in his pamphlet, | I stated with absolute clearness my posi- l ton, and why it was out Of the question | for the President to try to get any | archbishop made cardinal; and all the let | ters quoted by MT. Storer as having been | subsequently written by me to him. or | his wife, take precisely the same posi- ton.
 Explains Position.
 ! 'T explained repeatedly that my friend | ship and admiration for Archbishop Ire | land (which is like my friendship and dd- | miration for Bishop Laurence of the Epls- copal church, and Cranston of the Meth 1 odist church, like my friendship and ad- miration for many elergymen of many nominations-Baptists. Lutherans, Con- | eregationalists, Presbyterians and others), would make me pleased to see any good fortune attend him or any churchman | like him of any creed; but that I could not interfere for his promotion, or indeed 1 in any way in the ecclesiastical affairs of any church. This was also the position l I took in all private conversations, and | the assertion that in any private con- | versation I took an opposite position from | that which I was thus repeatedly ex- pressing in writing is not only an un- l truth. but an absurd untruth for would | of course. not say privately to any one the opposite to what I was repeatedly | writing to that same person.
 l "Mr Storer asserts that he and Mrs. | Storer and various other people, after con- yersations with me, put down memoranda as to what they remembered l had said | If such action was taken it was, of course, l simply dishonorable. No one of them ever l showed me- or would have ventured to show me any such memoranda. and it is nonsense to expect to bind me by mem I orandum the existence of which was con cealed from me.
 "The Storers were my guests at the | time when, as they assert they made these memoranda of private conversation with me. As a matter of fact the state i ments they allege me to have made were not made. save insofar as what they allege me to have said agreed with what. 1 before and after, I wrote them.
 Mrs. storer Wrote Freely.
 Mrs. Storer wrote me with great free l dom and IL sometimes WAS ulfflculL 10 | quite know how to answer her Both | she and MT. Storer continually made at tacks upon all sorts of people, especially 1 dignitaries of her own church. At one | time she wrote me with great bitterness against the protestant missionaries who | were being sent to the Philippines. at l the same time requesting me to champion Archbishop Ireland because he had been | loyal to the United States during the war with Spain, which she asserted was not as to another Catholic archbishop whom she named. While was always re- | luctant to write In a way that would hurt | the feelings of either of the Storers, on this occasion I thought it necessary to write just what my position was, and accordingly replied as follows
 Letter to Mrs. Storer.
 l /" May F. 1900.
 My Dear Mrs Storer-Your letter ef inc 4th has just come to hand. also that of the 9th am very-very fond of you, l and that is the reason your letters put