The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-06-03
HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS WIN
HEART OF SHEET STEEL
BY WALTER HARPER.

am the electric car that passes the
Birmingham High school building out on
the North Birmingham line just before
o'clock every morning.
l have pleasant experience about that
time that makes me cheerful and good
+ .natured for the remainder OF the day.
During the days run l have some pretty
tough experiences and many hard jolts
but after my experience of the morning
| am able to endure most anything and
can usually pursue the course of the day
with a warm heart and CHEEKY song
Did you ever notice how I can sing?
When l first leave the car barn early
In the morning 1 am usually cold and
stiff and feel rusty in the joints. My
motorman and conductor are sleepy and
tired and don't talk very nice to me or
to the. early passengers, and then. too,
the pN angers who go out and come In
for the first few trips are usually cross,
in a hurry and generally disagreeable.
They are. as a rule, laborng men who
have hard tasks during the day and are
tired and out of chord with the world
generally. They sometimes drag them
selves reluctantly to their labors and are
not good companions with the prospects
of long hard day before them.
But / try to forget the troubles of
others and get some comfort out of the
spiced atmosphere of the early morning
and the fragrance of heather and field wet
with the morning dews. The air Is deli
cious just before the rising of the sun.
The hills are beautiful just before the
world drops off her nighte and dons the
sober robes of a new day But just as
| am, stepping my soul in the freshness
and beauty of the surroundings, my mo-
torman, who has but little of the appre-
citation of these things in his heart, jerks
the controller wide open and | am given
such a wrench that my sides are almost
broken and it gives me a headache for
the rest of the day, but I can't blame the
motorman much. He has had to stop for
a wayside passenger who should have
slept in the car overnight and been aboard
ready for the trip i'm the morning or who
should have walked down the line three
blocks where the car Is compelled to
stop every morning for other passengers.
1t is lot of trouble to stop and start
the car, and just for one passenger, too.
Many things conspire to make my life
miserable during the day After | have
delivered about all the wage-worl<lng peo-
pie at the big plants and carried home
those who labor in the night [ begin to
pick up the business and professional
men on the way to their daily occupa-
lions.
If anything they are a more disagree
able set than the hard working people,
They are nervous and irritable, and al
most run me crazy. I am miserably UNI
easy all the time they are aboard. They
five in an atmosphere of nervous frenzy,
and they carry its reflection In their
drawn faces. SO distinct ds this, ! will
call it insanity that I am influenced by
1t, and get so nervous that I feel like
exploding.
Now the stenographers get aboard In
groups. They never come by ones. They
have thousand secrets, and they tell
them all to me and my tin-helmeted Off
GERS They are sweet things-oh so de-
licious. but some how | feel better when
they are off and gone. somehow they
keep me uneasy, for fear they will give
away a secret that is really secret.
| love to look at their sweet faces and
hear the music of their rich voices. but
my head soon gets dizzy and, I declare
believe I would go crazy If they stayed
on half a day.
Then comes the pompous matron on
her way to town for a shopping exped-
ton. They give my head another turn,
and give me the latest scandals in high
i life Why Is 1t that high life loves
scandal so we'll? ] am going to ask the
dispatcher on this line the very next time
he gets aboard. I have been suspicious
for several weeks that he is high life
man, and 7 believe he will tell me all
! about It, il I ask him
| But am about to forget what I was
| going to tell you, and that is strange too,
| III, text frrI NaY-i.
, ence have during the day; but ! guess
| ] am like folks and have more TO say
/ about my troubles than the good things,
| ! am going to ask Uncle George Harris
, why it is that people talk more about