The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-06-28
THE MAGPK
A PLAY IN TWO ACTS


 Time: A few days after Act l.
 Scene fs--The Same
 Enter Governor and Fort.
 Gcvernor-Fort, since our last in- feresting conversation. in which did most of the talking. have visited my busy City of Birmingham where the real estate Barons sell land by the foot, might almost say, by the inch. Fort, and where met and welcomed the old veterans.
 Fort-My Liege. I heard that during the reunion. Your Lord High Sheriff of Jefferson saw one of the old soldiers taking drink, and am pained to add. out of a bottle.
 Governor-By the Eternal! This shall stop! Write out proclamation convenink the Legislature in special session I will have my railroad at torneys prepare a bill which will 'sstick" and effectualiy put a stopper in every bottle in this smoky city. claim no credit for the passage of the prohibition law but the law is asit Is. and must be obeyed
 Fort-My Liege! On the arrest of the old soldier. 1t was discovered by Your Lord High Sheriff that 1t was mineral water he had brought with him from home and not any fluid which make men lose their reason. He was just afraid of the Birmingham water.
 Governor-Well. Fort, let the special session proclamation alone for the present. Fort while I was up there I made a speech of welcome to the veterans. which was published in the newspapers. Probably you have heard some comments upon it.
 Fort--Yes. My Liege. I heard some comments. and I presume you have also. You have no doubt read the speech since 1t appeared in print.
 Qovernor-Oh! no. no, no. I am glad. Fort, there is no power to compel me to read one of my speeches. You re- member that when Mark Twain was ordered to read some of his own writ ings, he fell on the neck of the judge and wept. don't want to read my speeches. Fort. and what Is more to the point I won't do 1t. In making my speech, I felt like a Monarch. well coming large army of worn but val iant subjects to his broad domains. told them if any one dare lay rut1less hand upon them, send for Me. But, Fort. the part of that speech in which took most pride. and which I thought very fne, if not sublime and pathetic, was the closing paragraph. in which gnid. T will burden you with q message of love. as each of you cross over the river and meet the dauntless stephen D. Lee, tell him that we love him still in
 
 this particular passage In my speech on which you heard the comments.
 Fort-It was. My Liege. I heard one of the old veterans from North Ala barna say that as one would have to go to "the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns to deliver the message, he, individually, would prefer you acting as your own messenger, and that you seemed all at once to have become quite liberal in appointing messengers without first as- certaining if the appointees voted for you.
 Enter Wallace:
 Wa1lace--Governori The sound waves of the atmosphere have so vibrated on the tympanum of my auditory appara- tus that the impression has been re- ceived by my brain that you claimed credit for. or arrogated to your indi- vtdual personality, the enactment. now upon the statute books, known as 'The Bird Law"
 Governor--I certainly do. It Is one of the few good laws passed by the last Legislature. and as I had to ap- prove 1t for 1t to become a law, why should not have the credit?
 Wallace-Ah, but Governor, 1t is the brain which conceives, rather than tho hand which executes. to which credit Is due. I beg, respectfully. egotisti- cally and explicitly, to call to your at- ton the aAct, approved Feb. g, 1899, which, unaided and alone, I had the Legislature to pass, and in which all the feathered kingdom. wh osIe names l could gather from books. from the titmouse to the nighthawk, is protect ed. I refer you again and again to this Act, for 1t was the beginning of the protection of birds in Alabama, and am the one who did it. Look at this Act. Governor, and you will see that in 1t I have protected. along with other birds. the downy woodpecker. hairy woodpecker, pilcatel woodpecker, red beIlied woodpecker, and red-headed woodpecker. I defy the Aubudon So- cfety to furnish the name of a wood becker which I cannot have protected.
 Governor-BUt you will recall that from the provisions of the Act. fifty nine of the sIxty-six counties of the State were excepted.
 Wallace-Suppose they weres and what of 1t? That information is strict ly fossillferous. All great movements which the world has witnessed have been of slow growth. Look at the law now. It embraces the whole State and will any one dare assert that the birds do no owe their protection to me? Why. Governor, the whole feathered tribe so understand 1t. During the last can vass, the partridge from the grass in fhe fields called out, John Wallace. John Wallace" The whippoorwill. from his secure place in the groves, enltvened the night with. John Wallace ig a-runnin'; John Wallace is a-run- nin," while chanticieer, called rooster bv the vulgar, awakened the "god of day." not with "cock -a-doodle-do," but with John Wallace protects me; John Wallace protects me"
 Covernor-WelI, I have seen the time early in the morning, after long days