The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-10
ATHENS BOYS FULL OF SOLD|ER'S LIFE
 
ake to Woods When Called to
 Actual Duty
STREETS ARE IMPROVED
Harvey McEIweII Suffers Painful Ac- cident Near Athens-Is Thrown From Log Wagon and Skull
 Is Crushed By Log.

l Athens August 9.-Company of this place, a part of the Third regiment of the Alabama state guard, was ordered from the encampment at Chickamauga to Birmingham for 30 days service. The order came like a thunder clap out of a clear sky, as the boys had not expected it and they were all ready for the homecoming. The boys were all green" and were not accustome to the hard life of soldier and the 10 days encampment had about ex hausted their military spirit.
 The quartermaster sergeant was sent to Athens to gather up the remaining members of the company who had been excused from duty at the encampment, but they took to the woods and he could find but few of them. The mem bers of the company made a good showing at the park, but the majority of them have sufficient soldier life for the remainder of their days.
 The county has been having a fine season the past week and the outlook for corn and cotton has been much im- proved. Some sections of the county had not had rain for weeks and the prospect was most discouraging, but the rains the past few days have great ly revived the dropping spirits of the planters in the drouth ridden districts and the outlook now is more than satis- factory.
 Several thousand dollars has been spent here the past few weeks by the citizens of Athens In laying beauti- full concrete pavements in front of their homes and business buildings and the entire court square has been given a 12-foot concrete pavement that leads to the depot on two streets and the i'm provement is most wonderful. The city council has just given an order for 2000 yards of crushed stone with which to build up the square. When these improvements are completed the city will have a handsome appearance.
 Harvey McElwee, a prosperous and prominent young farmer living some miles south of Athens, met with fear
 
 in a fatal accident yesterday afternoon 10 miles west of Athens, near the river bottoms. He was engaged in hauling logs and was riding on the top of a large load when his wagon wheel dropped into rut and he was thrown off. The top log followed him, rolling over his body, breaking a leg near the q ierl JI cl,i Ia Cly, attending physician took out neartI six inches of the crushed skull and he found that the bone had cut the mem branes of the brain and the gray matter was oozing out
 McElwee is a very fine specimen of physical manhood and never lost con sciousness only when under the in fiuence of an opiate while the opera tion was going on, and came out from under the operation well. But. owing to his crushed condition it is not be- lieved that he will recover. He sus- tained several other bad bruises both external and internal and these are thought sufficient to kill him even if the others mentioned did not.
 The Tthes ball team has been playing a series of games with the Russellville team this week, finish ing Saturday by handsome majority. The team meets Elkton, Tenn, nine Mon day and Tuesday and they are said to be the equal of any amateur team in the south. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday the Athens team will meet the Lynnville team on the Lynnville dia- mond, and there Is going to be some thing doing when they come together Athens is now a fine aggregation.
 The cantaloupe crop which promised fine yield in this section has almost been a blight. In some instances where it seemed fine returns would be made q crate to the acre is about all that can be counted on. Some few have mad a hit but the crop altogether is IAtA e.