The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-12
DORA IS DIFFERENT FROM ALL THE REST Little Town Is FearfuIIy and
 Wonderfully Made SOME UNIQUE PHILOSOPHY Jake Lavender, Who Used to Live in Birmingham, Tells Why He Had
 to Leave and Prefers
 the Hills.
SOME UNIQUE PHILOSOPHY
BY WALTER HARPER.

Dora. July n.-(Speclal. .)-They called this place Horse Creek until the accidental visitor began to call it the Horse Laugh" and then they changed the name to Dora
 Now you can't laugh. She is lady. and you must behave yourself. It Is claimed by some that the Frisco railroad is re- sponsble for the changing of the name. It Is said that it takes so much more time to write the name Horse Creek and con sumes so much more ink that the man. agement, under the general plan of re- trenchment included the shortening of this name to save expense.
 There is another theory. Perhaps you have noticed the disposition on the part of railroads to supply their towns and sta- tions as well as Pullman cars with female names? It Is either a fad or a malady. There Is Dora, Bessie, Geraldine, Gipsy, Ada, Alameda, Alberta, Alexandria, Po- cahontas, Eden, Alice, Alma, Alpha, AL meria, Angel, Beatrice Belle Ellen, Ber- tha, Castoria, Daisy, Painted Rock, Bes- semer and Talkville.
 Thirteenth Wonder.
  gested a feminine name is the thirteenth wonder of the world. It Is the most fear fully built town in Alabama. The main part of the city lies like a sinuous thread along the bottom of a dizzy canyon. Mountains rise high on all sides The sun rises about noon and sets just after breakfast The parents and village school teachers sometimes carry the chill dren to the top of the mountain to show them that the world extends beyond the crest and that there is really more sky than appears from the town.
 But the Creator made nothing in vain. In the folds of these mountains he depos- tied great banks, roll upon roll, of the carboniferous substance that was one day to make the Birmingham district famous, rich and powerful.
 Rich in Coal.
 Dora is perhaps one of the richest and busiest coal mining towns in the state. More than 5000 tons are mined here every day when business is normal. Seven of the strongest coal mining companies in the state operate mines in the Horse Creek section, the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron, the Pratt Consolidated Coal and Iron the Walker County Coal company, the Red Star Coal company, the Black Diamond Coal company, the Burnwell Coal company and the Commercial Coal Mining company.
 The population of Dora Is given as 25O0, but since more than half of the people spend most of the time under the ground 1t is not certain that the census taker has ever found them all.
 Grimes Is Mayor.
 Dora has a good town government with w. R Grimes as mayor Prof. T. J.. York is principal of the public school. He has Just been reelected for the next term. Dora has a large and credtable school building, and the attendance is very large. The people are progressive, refined to a marked degree and take pride in all public institutions. There are several churches in thriving condition. Most of the fraternal orders have strong local or ganizations.
 There are number of progressive mer- chants who do large business. The Dora Banking and Trust company, which was organized a little more than a year ago, is doing prosperous banking business in the town and over this section of Walker county. H. W. Crawford of Jas per is president of the bank and c. l. Jones is cashier. A dividend of per cent has been distributed every quarter since the bank opened Besides this lib- eral surplus has been set aside.
 This is said to be one of the largest ton mage producing points on the Frisco rail- road between Birmingham and Memphis.
 Jake Lavender.
 By the way, l met Jake Lavender at Dora. He had come into town from his country home across the mountains to buy plug of "store tobacco and quar- ter's worth of sugar. Jake is philoso pher. That is why he left Birmingham and went back to the dear old home in the hills"
 T wouldn't live in Birmingham again if you gave me 10 squares and threw In the Empire building to boot" said Jake as he tied broken link in trace chain with hickory withe.
 why, whats the matter with Birming- ham. Jake?"
 well my first and foremost reason is that 1t takes too much to live there. You fellows have been talking a lot about the high cost of living, but none of you have ever touched the real cause for it. IloT6 IS a T6dSOu dIlu II ID dS pidil dS Iilc nose on your face when you look at 1t right.
 Dreadful Disease.
 Birmingham is suffering from an acute attack of the enlargement of the aristo- cratus glandus homo laboritis. My family became infected. as all families in Bir- mingham do, and had to leave In self defense. There is no known remedy but the felon's prison, the playhouse or the everlasting hills.
 "I will explain what mean. The poor est laborlng man in the Birmingham dis trict thinks he Is called upon to live up to the standard set by the richest family on Highland avenue. He may In truth, be just as good, but he thinks he must show 1t in the clothes he wears and the fine cut roast on his table. I think the labor ing man should have as good food and as good clothes as the banker or the mer- chant, but he should not be a fool about 1t. He should remember that the banker and the merchant wore homespun jeans and feasted on ash cake before he made his mark in the world.
 Service Demands.