The age-herald., 1901-11-23
Wallace Screws, Mother.

Wallace Screws Mother.
 "Whosoever hath not known Mrs. Screws of Clayton, the eighty-fourth anniver- sary of whose birth took place on the 18th of November, has failed to know one of the noblest old mothers of all Ala bama," said man who in his youth was privileged to sit at the feet of this one of the best of all good women.
 Mrs. Screws is the mother of Hon. Williams Wallace Screws, the Confeder- ate veteran and veteran editor of the Montgomery Advertiser; of Hon. Benja- min H. Screws, Confederate veteran and veteran legislator of Montgomery county. and Mrs. Williams. the brilliant wife of former Congressman Jere N. Williams of Clayton, with whom this gracious lady of the long years makes her home. One of Mrs. Screws granddaughters. by the way, Is Mrs. Wilkerson, the beautiful and gifted wife of Dr. w. M Wilkerson, one of the leading physicians of Mont gomery and brother of Judge Wilkerson of the Birmingham City Court, who is welded to her who was Miss Lena Som erville, one of the fairest and lovliest of all the fair and lovely Montgomerians In truth, there is a great deal of the society and political history of Alabama that hedges about the beautifully old and sweetly gracious lady of Clayton!
 When l first knew Mrs Screws, who has just passed her four-score and fourth anniversary, I was boy flying my kites 4o 4l,o -frs servant of her distinguished son. Wal lace, as she tenderly called him then and so calls him still-the Wallace who was then as now the editor of the Mont gomery Advertiser. I loved him then as I have loved him these good twenty years, and as a multitude of men and women have longer known and longer loved him-there never lived a man more loveable-and in those days I enjoyed something of his affection, confidence and comradesnip. The good mother was good to me, because. as I assumed, she knew of my personal devotion to Wal lace. She is a little woman, with white hair and steel-gray eyes. and the firmest and most laughter-loving lips in the world. Whenever I saw her in those old days of my ktc-fying, she suggested to me the phrase I read somewhere some when, Most men love little women, and little women love most men, I gave to her abundantly, royalty. boys devotion to beauty in gray hairs. if she knew of my profound admiration for herself she gave no sign, save only as she gave efx t1 asl humanity, sympathy, notherliness. Happy was I in the privilege of sitting at her feet and listening to her wisdom She is one of the wisest anu sweetest women have ever known.
 "So she is come to fourscore and four. this noble old mother of Clayton. There never beat in the world a nobler, wom- anlier. braver. sweeter heart If all the world were filled by such women as she. earth a paradise would be. To know her is to know Charity in the Scriptural sense. and for any man to know her is for him to be the beller man. If may paraphrase Lowell to Holmes, she Is four and eighty years young
 This sweet and beautiful little old Southern mother can never grow old. Her heart is for ever young-young in love, good deeds, charity in it's wider sense, humanity. gentleness, sweetness, light. Moreover, and transcendant of these virtues. is the all-covering and all- glorifying sense that she, this young-old mother of strong men and beautiful women, is a pious woman. That is the lead of all virtues
 This much is spoken of Grandmother Screws by one she has forgot in the changeful years but who has for her an abiding affection, even as he has for an- other old woman who Is long gone to the other life we all of us are taught to seek"