The age-herald., 1900-07-10
hats" on the Board of Aldermen ito kill such a wicked and selfish movement"

hats" on the Board of Aldermen Ito kill such wicked and selfish movement" Grows Facetious, Does MT. Greer | Birmingham, July 9, 1900. | Editor Age-erald:
 As the citizens are invited to disclose 1 their views on the fence question, l have | this to say:
 "The gentleman who advocates the trans formation of fenced-up Birmingham into a lawn city or flower conservatory has in his minds eye cities that many of us know of | where one can walk or ride for miles and not see as much one fence. Those are l well regulated towns where the interest of 1 the most humble citizen Is the interest of the most high To make a paradise or flower garden out of smoky Birmingham many reforms must be made and many ob- stacles must be overcome. There are ordinances not only In Birmingham but | other cities that are too restricting, that are violated time and again; that will be violated so long as they exist For in stance take unfeneed Birmingham. Where (using a slang phrase), man must take on enough goods" to last him from Saturday night till Monday morning he forgets his car, his family and, in fact, he forgets everything else.
 We all know that grass Is Beautiful and a tempting pillow for the weary wayfarer. You arise early Sunday morning. go out on I you find one or two products of an lair tight city ordinance stretched out upon your beautiful flower garden. The first thing you do is to call an officer, arrest the unwelcome intruder: the next would be to hire carpenter, and Monday evening your sweet Williams and Johnny -jump-ups would be enclosed with a pretty fence painted green.
 Tn my part of the city the owners of stock hire men to care for their cows, and never heard of them driving the herd upon the Highlands or First avenue to graze. We know how the value of property would be enhanced. To illustrate: MT. smith and wife spend two or three months adorning their yard with grass and flowers; MT. Jones comes along and is struck with the beauty of the property; he goes to MT. Brown, the landlord and proposes to pay more rent than Smith, which he Is better able to do. Did 1t ever occur to you that MT. Smith would be given his passport and ordered to emigrate at the end of the month? l know of such cases, and when I mention Smith, Jones and Brown I am not artculating through my 'headgear'
 Time is too precious to waste on some- thing that would not meet the approval Of per cent. of the people, Furthermore, 1t is about time we were moving the stock ade again, which will take us all summer to distribute among the various wards in the city.
 "A movement is on foot at present to raise a popular subscription to purchase two or three steam launches to ply between Fourteenth and Eighteenth streets where there is a slight defect in the sewerage system, and where after shower it looks like Chattanooga food and further where 1t takes all the goats and hogs we own to consume the garbage and slush thrown into this lake bed from other parts or the city after the water has receded The boats would answer three-fold pur- pose. First, they would beautify the broad e%panse of water; second, visitors could take the boat between the above named streets and would not have to climb on top Of the trolley cars to keep their feet from Settlng wet; third, it would encourage our city fathers to get a quagmire tWo-step on them. This one issue would prolong the lives of some of our citizens ten or twenty years, and in a short while the 'Birming- nam fever would be thing of the past
 There are other issues that are more numerous than beads on a Sioux chiefs moccasin and of more interest to the citi- Zens than an over-production of kindling wood. Buy your wood from the wood yard friends, and let your unsightly fences stand their ground until we dispose of the water, gas, sewerage, stockade electric lighting plant and the crematory questions. Let us do one thing and do it well, then take up another, and in a few years we Will have the grandest city in the world Let us hear from Selma. Very respectfully yours,