The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-10

last 20 years. Handsomer homes, larger
 hotels and broader park acrage, skyscrap-
 CT office buildings and elegant clubhouses
 have gone up. Automobiles and chauI-
 feurs have taken the place of one-horse
 gigs horse cars and steam dummies for
 airing by the wealthy. Even the govern
 ment building during this period has been
 added to. New cities have grown up
 in the bosom of Jones valley. Ensley has
 come into existence. There are several
 times more judges to preside over the
 growing courts and clerks are becoming
 richer year in and year out by reason oi
 fees It is said that the sherin makes
 more money than the President or the United States, A man may become inde- pendent with one term as probate Juose' There is 10 times the business there was 20 years ago-nay, 50 to 100 times the business-10 times more lawyers and vast increase in the army of nugants 1 The courthouse steps have been worn thln
 by the constant stepping of feet. Men, who were wont to wind up the clock, have been gathered to their fathers. Solicitor after solicitor has held sway ana soiie
 of them, too, are no more.
 Hearing and reading so much about the
 possible construction of new and moo- ern courthouse, asked an old resident or Birmingham few days ago if we are really and truly going to have new and perfectly good building. He replied
 that it would undoubtedly come about. said. ''Tell me something of the history Of the old building and it's occupants. They have always seemed to me fixed auan- tity for I cannot remember the time when many of them were not the housekeepers l there."
 "The courthouse has not changed, ne | said, and continued reminiscently Ut Is the same dear old pile of brick that Gen George l.. Thomas, MT. Hickman ana three other staid commissioners dedicated | to the public in place of modest frame building in 1889. It was said or General | Thomas in his day that the courthouse was his hobby, that he almost thought ne owned it. General Thomas is dead. for- mer Solicitor James Hawkins, who con I ducted the celebrated Dick Hawes case ! wherein the Rev Frank Willis Barnett ! then A. beardless barrister, appeared Tor the defense and made his maiden speech'
 
 old Elyton, which gave him birth. MT | James H. Little, his successor In onice' ! was the man who prosecuted huseno l Ryers and sent him to the gallows. lie 1! also is gone to mingle with the aust ol ] his fathers, It was during the regime or Mir Little that Lee c. Bradley, then l fresh from the Southern university at /, Greensboro, and with nothing but his sheepsxin. was made assistant and hrst 1 began to show the older lawyers that A new light had come into the legal arena. That Bradley now stands at the 1 very head of the Birmingham bar and
 is wealthy. Ills brother. John. succeeded his own father in the courthouse, and mas never been anywhere else that he cared l to go to except Bradley's camp up at | Morris.
 "George B. Tarrant was reared In tho 1 courthouse, and made out his own license | as clerk in the probate office. pr. Ferx 1 Tarrant served several years in the pro- , bate office before he concluded first to practice dentistry and next to deal in real l estate and make money. Judge Stiles | son-in-law of Judge M. T. Porter, spent years in the probate office as chief clerk l and one term as judge. He was the idol | of the old veterans and country folk, l for there never was a time when Judge Stiles either as clerk or judge, was too busy to explain the intricacies of the law to them It is said that that Is a Stiles asset yet"
 Judge Greene. too, is still there' IS he i not?''
 "Oh. yes" said he. "It was up on the l second floor that Samuel E. Greene made | a. matchless reputation as criminal | judge. No man has yet stepped into his shoes to thoroughly filling capacity. It was on this floor 20 years ago that Col. E. T. Talaferro, now of New York, held 1uries hanging upon the eloquence of his | silver tongue and the magnetism of his | 1.-the frame and leonine locks Here | from time immemorial Judge B. M. Allen | has used the law to save negroes from the ] Big Rock Jail.' It was up here that | Joe Griffin, the negro, was tried so often | for murder, and so often found crazy | and sent to Tuscaloosa. Tuscaloosa did not want him. and he was for years a | battledore and shuttlecock between the court and the asylum until one night dur | ing pr. Morrow's administration he bored | a hole in the top of his cell and let him | self and five other murderers escape never | to be captured.
 Frank Hewitt has grown gray up at I the courthouse. He served long ap- prenticeship before getting his present nice job. and Giant Miller did the Stiles | handshake act in the city court for 15 years before he thought of making the race for county treasurer. Samuel Blake has grown from & guitar playing and | singing lad to 8 candidate for a lucrative office, and Samuel Cowin graduated from this court to the railroad world. Jimmy Hawkins was almost born in the court house so long has he been there. He has been clerk for John Bradley and oil in spector, and now he is big enough and popular enough to want to be circuit court clerk And Walter Howard, too. Who remembers when he was not up there? Fergus Mccarthy and John Car penter have gone, the latter dead, the other at Ensley, but Walter is there still and wants to stay there, only in higher capacity.
 Joseph s. Smith, too," continued he, .the sheriff of the Hawes riots. is get ting to be kind of an old man, and his former chief deputy, T. S. Smith, wears white mustaohe and his hair Is the same pr. George M. Morrow made money as a sheriff and continues to make 1t in coal mines and other things. It was Dr.