The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-02-11
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John Hawkins. representative from cremloosa County, is awakened from A sound sleep to write his weekly let- ter to his old friend. and itis possible
 his train of faculties were not Tn Ah un -befuddIed condition. However, the exclamation of conditions and events given by the coastwise member IS aoout as clear, perhaps. as any that couio pc given. ,o ,oo7 Dear Old Bill-
 Ii is just an accident that permits you to receive this epistle. Tonient was just so lone-lorn, like Mrs. 1uIi, midge, and so tired of the way all things had conspired to happen tnat after I had cruised up and down DeA ter Avenue until pretty late l ialo lo and crawled in my bunk. Well l haoN manned for couple of hours, as l reck~ oned if when I was walked by the most awful screeches and screams anu shrfeks that ever tarped the tynpaha of my auricular organs I have hearu looms cry out of the fog riSht uhder the bows. but this uluation was more weird-like and a heap louder. Atter inc first call ! recognized that 1t was human voice shattering the calm of the stilly night and I jumped out or my bunk and rushed on deck to discover what was the matter.
 .IIelp, Heln. Bob, Come quick! Help me-they are taking it away!
 ran to find that it was newspa- per reported who had the canin next eo mine with a nightmare. When had shaken him into his normal vacuitY or intellect he said he had dreamed tRat each onc of his teeth was street car pass and that Governor Conner had nm down and was pulling them all out at once. and he wanted President Mel or the Analgamated Newspapers Union to help him. Well. Bill. I do not be- Iieve in dreams very much, for man that has growed by the sea-but I got 1t straight tonight that the anti-street car pass bill is already cleared for the port of approval and dropping down the Bay with fair tide and breeze ab- aft. That young fellow took on so ! was downright sorry for him though as he said his book was nearly out anyway"
 Now that I am up I might as well go on As I said. I am so worn out with things I do not know what to do next. and I hardly know what to tell you first
 suppose child labor is the first thing to tell of There was fierce iohstering on that issue with oratori- cal pvrotechnics that were great some of them was just plain sky-rockets and crackers and others were perfect ly beautiful "set pieces" birds of para disc and the boat on the bay and show CT boquets of real fire and such. The man of the model mill convinced me that child labor law as proposed by the other side was drastic and absolutely sure to close down half the mills in Alabama. Then member of society with long name proved beyond per adventure that a continuance of the present law would make us all pigmies and dwarfs and mere minatures-not cclored either--of our present selves.
 was just sick at heart over the con- fusion and the gloomy outlook until real speaker you could have heard half a knot got up and gave me a dose of old time Black Belt oratory. the kind that Pepper used to make The Lit tile Johnnies and the Little Sues was the dram he gave us. washed down with the living waters of liberty which gushed from the rock of freedom when our forefathers, every one a Moses, smote it with the rod of patriotism; and then he wiped out trickling mouths with the Stars and Stripes, and told us to be good boys and not forget the her. sounded so good and natural I began to get hungry and wonder when the barbecue would be ready.
 You never were in the Legislature so you might think that something was settled with all that pow-wow. But it wasn't; the committee just took the two bills-there are always two for everything-under advisement and then the House and the Senate will talk and pass something and the Governor will sign Or turn down the gubernatorial thumb and the gladiators will go at each other again.
 I got up and proposed that the cotton mill business be run by local option like the liquor traffic and like politics used to be. and some son of a seo-cock laughed as if he had made a joke. I don't see why; you want a drink and no child labor. I want any kind of la- bor can get and nary a dram; local option gives us both what we want especially if we have the beat as a unit You sec the cotton mill and milltown around 1t would be just about the whole beat and the mill-owners and the mill-operatives could fight it out. Still I don want to get you mixed up
 in if, it is bad enough on an old par liamentarian like me
 The child labor and local option bills would have been enough for most of us but they had to ring in Mardi Gras. Max Hamburger and Sid Lyons and Hoffman and all that bunch invited us down and We are to be their guests all
 the time we are there, no matter whether we are ating or drinking or sleeping or watching the soaks on the floats or just laying around the ship ping and hearing the longshoremcn tell yarns about how high the water 1 went in the storm and how many blocks they had to swim to get to and from their work of bailing out the fountain in Bienvillc Square to keep the gold fish from corrodinS in the salt water.
 Bill, We are all countryment l sup pose; we couldn say yes or no imme- diately and have done with it. as the Bard says; we had to hem and naw and say we were so busy and were expect ed home and they would keep dinner waiting on us and we didn have on 1 our Sunday suits. and we believed we would go but it did look rough on the | other folks at home that couldn go.