The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-14
UNUSUAL RECORD
 OF OLD TEACHER Prof. Sheppard Lives in House in Which He Was Born EIGHTY-TWO YEARS OLD Has Taught Many of the Prominent Men of Alabama and Others
 Who Have Made Good in
 Other States
EIGHTY-TWO YEARS OLD
BY WALTER HARPER

In a modest little old-fashioned home down on Holmes street in Huntsville I found one of the most interesting and best known characters in Ala bama.
 | Many of the greatest men of the state and some of the leaders in pub lie and financial affairs of the nation have, during the past century, sat at fountains of his wisdom and philos- ophy.
 Prof. c. o. Sheppard was a teach
 CT of the old school of learning He
 taught when boys not only had to learn
 to spell but they taught the signifi- canoe of letters and the derivation of
 words, when morality was a part of
 the curriculum of every school and the withe was the schoolmaster's sceptre. Professor Sheppard taught men and
 women who have died with old age and have, some of tn em, been buried for years, He discontinued teaching about year ago. He admits that he Is S2 years old. You would take him to be man of SO, though his hair and long, flowing beard, as soft as silk. are as black as the wing of raven.
 He met me at the door and I start ed to ask him to see his father when he announced himself as Professor Sheppard. the man I sought. He Is not sensitive of his age, but is rather proud of it. He can swing an ax as dextrously as a man of 30 or 40 years younger and can set out potato slips for hours without feel ing a pang of backache. Some of you proba bly, know the close kinship of setting out potato slips and backache. It Is the most back-break- ing business in the world. Professor Sheppard can hear as well as I can and I can hear anything but a call for fall millinery. The profess sor has never married and, therefore, has never been subjected to that Her culean test.
 | That fact may, however, account for his tenacious disinclination to try the
 stream that runs still and deep at the
 foot of the incline.
 | His eyesight Is perfect. This may be
 accounted for in the fact that during
 his schoolmaster days he saved his
 natural eyes while he used those in
 the back of his head. Every school boy
 knows that the teacher has two sets
 of eyes.
 Professor Sheppard enjoys another
 distinction that but few even of his
 age can claim
 | He Is living in the house in which
 he was born S2 years ago. He has never lived anywhere else | He was born nine years after the state of Alabama was organized and admitted into the union not more than seven blocks from his home. granite boulder marks the spot at the corner of Franklin and Gates streets where the first state constitu- | tional convention was held, where Viii liam Wyatt Bibb was elected and sworn in as the first governor and where the first state assembly was held. Professor Sheppard has seen hund- reds of Alabama's great men come and go. Some of their pictures adorn the walls of his home. Notable among them Is that of the late Senator John T Morgan.
 When I asked Professor Sheppard to name some of the prominent men of Alabama whom he had taught and prob ably thrashed he replied; Most all of them that have amounted to anything" and he smiled broadly as he stroked his long black beard
 CT have taIpbt many r,ap ov, women that have made good in the world not only in Alabama but in the nation, 1t is impossible for me to name | them. Many of them have died with old age.
 'I can, however name few million aires who are now powers in New York financial circles. One of these was the meanest and most unpromising pupil ever had. l tell you, you just can't tell how boy is going to turn out. Some of my pupils have gone to Con- gress, some to the legislature, and | am afraid that some of them ended up in the penitentiary But hope it was no fault of mine"
 Professor Sheppards recollections of men and events in the development of the state are very vivid and full of interest. He has always been a close student of men and what he terms the psychology of the public mind" He declares that while the world is developing at wonderful rate in ma teria1 things it is retrograding moral ly. We are not as good, as charitable or refined as we used to be; but there, I should not complain. I have lived too long. should have passed out with that era of simplicity that was best suited to my tastes and moral estimate of things.
 Why have I lived and retained my mental and physical strength so long? That is simple. It is the natural result of the natural conservation of all our forces. I got my idea from the great Sandow. The body should never give out before the mind. One is as strong as the other but both require healthy exercise.
 When most men reach the age of SO they give way to ina ginary feeble ness and soon the limbs become feeble may still remain strong and alert for many years. It Is because we usually exercise the mind longer than the body.
 'I do some manual labor and get out of doors every day. l am as stout today as I was 30 years ago. In-