The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-08-16
BY .. Q. HALE.

BY s. Q. HALE.
 John Powell, for his entertainmen at recess, would mount. by way of thu beifry, to the roof of the school build s One Ss,.d,y. day the roof ssusns ,nts fis, after the alarm had been .given JohI tearing off anu csstins. with grea rapidity. the burning shinglss to tn, q. single handed. had extinguished tn, flames. Professor Morris had a booi in which he registered "black marks against the "unfortunates" John hat a page in that book. Accidentally ol incidentally he had gotten 1t brett, we'll filled.
 After the boys had reassemblsi or the evening of the fire. Mir. Morris stated that owing to the heroic con duct of John Powell in exttnguishin1 the flames. thereby saving the build. ing from destruction. he would erase all black marks against him-whicf he then did in the presence of all tho scholars. John always insisted thai This page was duly refi1led. had never seen a house afire and. during the excitement attendant upon thii one, 1 danced around Mir. Morris and asked if the world was going to burn up" It does seem too absurd that 
 Church was going to burn the world up. Years later. in distant town. by strange coincidence, I attended school in another Universalist Church. Sus- pended in It's belfry was the same old bell whose ringing used to summons me ito books in the oli church upon the hill. "Chuff' wyman seemed such great big. big. boy. I well recall the day he was bidding goodbye to Eo fn afa arfir m for Tuscaloosa.
 The big boys had crowded around and were shaking hands. I asked where he was going and was told to rcol- lege." I didn't know what or where to college was, but L thought from the excitement, that he was to be promoted in some way. He has been to college To. these many years. One noon, just as the boys. with loud shouts. were rushing out of the school-room. a drunken man. pn horseback, happened to be passing. The man. I suppose thought the boys were yelling at him. He halted and accepted the challenge Mir Morris. who was passing on his way to dinner, said to the man: "Don't mind them. they are only boys" He replied: I'm only a boy myself. I'm only one. year old" I had never seen a drunken man and 1 accepted his statement seriously though 1t puzzle me no little. The boys understood. at once, that they had found a rare bird and they were delighted with the find Without any preliminaries the fun be- gan. The man followed, by the boys. would ride to the top of the hill in front of Dr. Lipscomb's female semi nary. wheel his horse and come charg- ing down upon them. They would meet the onslaught with showers of iirt and small sticks. There was mo- body hurt--nobody mad. The sixteen year-old boy and the "one-year-old'' boy were having a good time together. The six -year-old boy was frightened nearly to death. My brother lei me within the enclosure to the Knox resi- dence and left me in the care of ser want who was in charge of little Bob- by Knox. I sat down upon the ground anu felt perfectly safe. I didn't think number "one" could make his stud vault the fence. The mare seemed much interested in the street perform ance. She knew the names of the boys and would comment to herself upon their doings. At one time. she said: "Yonder comes Gordon Bunkley. be bound for him!' Gordon was a very handsome, manly boy--a leader in all sports. He was now returning from dinner and was hurrying to the scene of action.
 The street show lasted throughout the two hours of noon recess. The police must have been taking a nap or absent on an excursion. Today num- her "one" would find himself in the lock-up before he had gotten half through with the first act of his theatricals. Times have changed since AT.
 Ches and Ben Taylor. Jimmy Me Taylor Gilmer, their nephew. John Scott, Bose Campbell. Ali La ~Prade Tom Vickers, Jim and Ali Hutchinson and my brother and myself, all rode horseback and when they were all as- semblej, I do not suppose that such a number of ponies, before or since were ever congregated within the enclosure to the old church.
 One neon my brother and Jim Hut crimson had a fight on the side walk near the corner of the Colclough lot The boys were pretty evenly matched and fought like young tigers. The other boys circled around, forming a wall that excluded the combatants from my view. couldn't tell how the battle was going. I danced around the wall, wild with fright Ali danced around the wall-wild with fury. try ing to break through to Jim's assist ance. Charley Ball. noticing Ais ob- ject caught and held him until the fight had ended. At recess, that after noon, when went to my bucket to get my lunch, Charley, who went home to dinner and, consequently. had nc lunch. said to me: you ought to give me "a biscuit. You know, I held Ali today"
 I realized fully the obligations was under to Charley for services ren lered and l readily divided my lunch with him. In fact. I would have given him a dozen biscuits had I possessed them
 A rain-cloud was gathering when school was dismissed that evening My brother hurriedly saddled his pony homme we were overtaken by Jim with Ali behind him. The rain was beginning to fall. Jim had an umbrel- la. My brother had nome. Jim halted and extending his umbrella toward my brother, said: "Joe. you take my umbrella, I can ride faster than you can and won't get wet before I get home" Hostilities were never re- sumei
 MT. Hutchinson removed to Greens boro, Ala, with his family, as l recall
 in 1S48. He had four sons. Jim, Ali Joe and Ed. During the war Jim served as aide to General R. E. Rodes saw Jim on horseback dashing over the field of Gettysburg, carrying dis patches from that general. I thought of his boyhood battle. Ali enlisted In an Alabama regiment and was dis abled from wounds received in battle Jim fell the 18th of May at Spottsyl- vania. Joe, Jr., his fathers pride. was killed in battle. Ed. mere youth. en-