The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-29

lN hasned In the newspapers teiiins 0 the people of Birmingham. that "The woman's exchange would be dis continued.
 Consternation. astonishment, regret. surprise were only few of the emotions that everybody felt when they read the announcement. And as one very inter- ested person said to me.
 Why, I couldn't believe my own eyes when I read it. I would sooner have ac- credited the statement that the First Methodist church had discontinued serv- ices or the Tutwiler hotel gone out of business or the First National bank had closed it's doors It can't be true for what on earth will Birmingham do with out the Woman's exchange and, dear Miss Jennie Walters who for 21 years with her sweet. gracious cordiality and gentle. kind, welcome has made the lonely old bachelors. the homeless old widowers and the youngsters about town feel that the Womans exchange was their home as well as hers? Why. what will become of them?''
 The remark came from one woman but it acclaimed the sentiment of thousands and thousands of interested patrons of the Womans exchange, and warm per sonal friends of the lovely woman who has been indeed and in fact the Woman s exchange, permeating the place with her sweet, refined personality, her genuine ness and her womaniness. and her unsel- fish desire to do something for somebody else to help them "on the way
 No woman in Birmingham is better known today than Miss Jennie Walters none more beloved.
 In mentioning the Womans exchange. one instinctively thinks of Miss Jenne;" she Is so radiant, her kindness so appeal ins-- and her splendid, capable manage ment of the place so unquestioned, that 1t is impossible to dissociate her with the that the board of managers deemed it best that the Woman's exchange be dscon- tinued on account of the strenuous, and disastrous unprecedented money situation the question that came to evdry heart was:
 What will Birmingham do without the Womans exchange?"
 And what Is the answer?
 Yesterday afternoon I went in to see
 
 as she has been for the past 21 years, busy with her duties about the ex- change-long after the lunch hour was over, when the place was deserted, except for those whose duties require their serv- ices.
 Seated at her desk. in the familiar way that l always recall seeing her there, working over her books and wondering how she can manage to help this con signer or that by disposing of some dainty bit of handiworl still unsold she glanced up and bade me come in
 I've come to ask you what this means about the Womans exchange closing?" l said, driving quickly to the point
 Miss Jennes" eyes filled with tears, which she quickly brushed away. and then said in her gentle way, her voice 'trem- bling with emotion:
 Just what the announcement said. The board of managers, and I want to say that the ladies composing that board are the sweetest, the best and the kindest l have ever known, came to the conclu- sion after long deliberation that it, was best. The terrible financial conditions oe- casioned by the war and other things has caused them to reach this decision, and 1t was just as difficult for them to face it as it was for me to accept it. In fact, when the voice over the phone announced to me the ultmatum I simply said: I can't talk about it.: just give me time to think to get myself together Then the terrible truth dawned upon me. W hy, child, do you know what 1t means to me? Everything. The Woman's exchange has been my home for 21 years; 1t is all the home I've had; my friends have assembled