The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-27


IT'S kid" Jackson, the dope artist.
He is doomed to bear the visible, grin
ming skeleton of a lost opportunity. His
mortal malady, unlike the leper's, cannot
be concealed beneath his clothing. Hts
sicklied countenance distinctly cries, 'Un-
clean. unclean"
Let go all that concerns a cause and
effect. 1t matters not whether the first
fatal step was prompted by lost love,
a foolish curiosity, or a fevered body
racked with horrid pain. 1t concerns
primarily that the step was taken. Let
go. for the moment, that which caused
the step, and the effect.
1t is probably good that the yesterday
Is gone. For it were hardly fair to COM
pare the feted baritone, AL Fields clever
est minstrel man of that period, to the
confirmed ''fend" of today. 1t were UNI
kind to point the critical finger at that
hollow cheek, and moralize on the
healthy glow a summer back. 1t were
crueler that an operation to compare the
creak emanating from between purpled
lips TO the rich melody of another period.
For the creak is death; the melody ths
expression of life.
This is not a story pleasing to the sem
timentalist nor the lascivous romanelst
A tract is not intended on which to base
philosophic observation and deduction
nor theme for preachment. The yes
terday is sealed. Tomorrow is obscured
kid jackson, the subject; Brming-
ham, the place; the time, today. The sub
feet is tangible 1t can be seen normal
or studied under the spell of a fantastic
Imagination. He Is one of US; human
being, though fallen.
He can be found on the "bowery'.
Perhaps tonight he sings to a rapscallion
gathering of a dive saloon, to turn the
earned penny into the greedy nav of the
apothecary. Perhaps. later he will wend
his maddened, brainless course through
the crowds Of Birmingham, drawing the
gaze of the curious, and the snobbisb
smoker of the brutal Perhaps. still later
tonight the feeble, Pickering hope, L
partial Precipitation for his misery, Will
shrek from his garnet bed leaving be-
hind the tell-tale skeleton that has re-
peated his story elsewhere.
Know, then, in kid" Jackson a con-
firmed dope fiend, but one towards
whom some spirit extends still a feeble
hope, Know in KID Jackson a forlorn
knight of the "hypo,' with blistered
spoon for a union card. Learn from his
Interview that the effect OF cocaine DIFF
fers from all others, and that it is not
delightful, as the ignorant have imagin-
ed. Learn that the feeble, apologize
city ordinance regulating the sale of CO.
game is fagrantly disregarded and tfat
three bold druggists of Birmingham re.
cognize even the "open sesame of the
dope fend. The kid was talkative
last night.
And seated at the restaurant counter,
pver which he was satisfying a ravenous
appetite, something partially visible
seemed to hover over the cruelty dwarfed
figure of the fiend, something that would
have filed in, Strengthened up, and touch
ed with a brush of health the pale, wan
cheek. This substance partially visible
described him as one more sinned against
than SHINING. and cried aloud that IA
lures plan in the framing of the boy
had been wantonly blasted. His forehead
Is high and broad. His nose is long,
though straight. His jaw protrudes
though weakens as you look as
does the chin. His lips are thin and
sensitive. AS a whole, the expression
would be good were it not so meek. II
seems homogeneous that his eye is the
eye of a man, and its understanding that
of a child.
But when this partially visible sub
stance, conjured up doubtlessfy by SYM
pathetic imagination. pales away, there
remains the fiend with all his we'll stamp
ed characteristics. There is the wander
ing, walling watery eye. The hollow
cheek, pale and wan, tells the story
unaided The twitching, nerveless lip