The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-30

Theodore Roosevelt in the January Out
 look.
 .THE next place I stopped at was the
 house of an elderly lady, with a
 \ grown-up son and daughter. The house was as comfortable as possible, clean and we'll kept, pictures on the walls, a nice porch; and a candy shop, of which the son took charge. just adjoining. This was indeed an American family of old stock The members at first refused to believe who I was and the son remarked to my companion: Some of the men tried to tell me that man was the ex- President but I told them they couldn't josh me, even if he did look some like him. I guess he's a factory inspector; that's what he is" Much to my amuse- ment, in this household I found that my views were far more radical and, to use the terminology of the day, ''progres- sive,' than theirs. In fact, in their views on trades unions, individual bargaining, capital and labor, and the like, they were at least as conservative as some of my good friends of the capitalist class whom regard as reactionary and who regard me as a revolutionist. My hostess was the widow of a soldier who had fought
 in the Civil war and their son was a member of the Junior Order of American
 Mechanics, and he spoke very warmly of what the lodge did in the way of car ing for its members who suffered from misfortune and the way it frowned upon the drink habit The only complaint of the life which they made was that the neighbors gossiped altogether too much
 not fault peculiar to any one social stratum.
 My hostess was connected with a church
 and member of one of the church or ganzations for social and charitable
 work; but she spoke very strongly about the fact that the clergymen did not un- derstand the need of the young men and young girls for healthful amusement. She
 said it was quite useless in such com
 munity as that In which they lived to expect that young people would not like to dance and have fun, or that the young men would stay idle all Sunday with out any amusement or occupation. She
 said that 1t would be an excellent thing if amusement rooms or halls could be provided, by preference connected with the churches, where no liquor would be sold and from which the young people would have to come home before mid night but where they could dance and enjoy themselves. She also said that the candy store was always open on Sunday and that it was kind of club for the young men round about, who could come there and sit and talk and so be kept from worse places to which they would assuredly go if they could go nowhere else. Being of good, thrifty stock, she also added that Sunday was one. of the
 best days for selling things, anyhow. There were number of men in the store, among them miner just off his shift and as black as the coal he had been mining. He was obviously an i'm telligent man and a good citizen; and we at once plunged sympathetically into
 discussion of municipal problems and the difficulty of doing what ought to be done and at the same time avoiding the
 spending of money that ought not to be spent. He told me that the Poles In the town Che was himself of Polish parent aee) had a new picnic ground where they could dance and have a good time; and he was happy to say that the young generation, born on American soil, were drinking much less than their fathers had drunk Like the others, he spoke of the need of amusement, but, rather curiously, he had never taken any in- terest in baseball which seemed to be
 somewhat of an obsession with many of the boys and young men. l told him
 that I thought baseball was as good as
 any other healthful, vigorous amusement,
 that the first requisite was to have an
 amusement that would amuse. that if the
 boys liked it, it was just the game they
 should be encouraged to play when they
 had leisure.
 | In the half hours talk with the miners in this candy store the thing that im- pressed itself on me. as always. was the fact that here in America, at any rate,