The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-25
CITY SEIZED BY PROSPEROUS MOB OF CELEBRATIONS Police Did Not Try to Check the Fun Saturday
 Night YOUNG WOMAN
 WAS THE LEADER Horns, Bells Firecrackers, Blank Re- volvers and Every Form of Noise Maker Used in Celebration
 of Christ's Birth

To cope against the young men and women of Birmingham who on Saturday night with firecracker and tin horn, were
 bent on celebrating the anniversary of the birth of Christ, the police force was help less.
 Birmingham has never surrendered more completely to rabble. Never be- fore have saturnalians pranced with more abandon over the sidewalks and streets than on Saturday night. Never has the inelorious din of horn and COW bell reached such tremendous proportions. To pass with ease and comfort along the sidewalks of the city, to prope1 a
 street car along it's accustomed passage
 way, to drive an automobile over the
 pavements of Birmingham was almost as impossible as is a description of the rab- ble which possessed the city and a tabu-
 lation of the innumerable actions of that | rabble.
 | The ''moblet' formed just as the shades of night tumbled down. A fine sprinkle was falling. The fog was almost as inn | penetrable as that which nightly settles over the dismal brow of old London. The situation was conducive to plot, scheme and demonstration.
 | Almost simultaneously, in various DOT tions of the city, horns blew. There was | little of the harmonious intermingling of
 melodious notes. The noise was sharp, grating, rancorous, recalling the grinding of wheels on car tracks or the agonized
 grooming of rusty hinges. One felt almost impelled to abandon hope.
 Then the COW bells tangled harshly. Shouts arose on the air, and then with
 thousand reverberating noises a cannon cracker exploded in the heart of the city.
 The celebrants pranced about in the tenn porary glow of the explosion as so many friends rejoicing over the acquisition of
 another soul for torture.
 Police Silent
 No policeman interfered. Boys must be boys," the bluecoats evidently thought. fo. a few craned their necks in the direc- ton of the detonation and turtle like drew | them back again.
 , And the mob as unleashed dogs keen on
 the scent of prey, surged across the streets of Birmingham, completely check ing all progress. Just then an automo-
 bile came into sight. A sharp cry greeted the object Of future fun. Instantly about the wheels the mob surged. The chauffeur in front of his burden of little girls en route to a Christmas celebration was helpless Had he pressed forward a score of limbs would have been crushed against the belgian blocks.
 From First avenue and Nineteenth street the mob led the automobile to
 Twentieth street. thence to Third avenue, thence again to Ninteenth street. thence to First avenue, the original starting
 point.
 Here the little girls were bidden adieu and permitted to complete their journey.
 A few cannon crackers exploded under the machine, and the horns and bells | which had been the harsh accompaniment to the enforced path of the car, set up with such clamor as must have filled
 the heavens at the time of the falling of the angels.
 l At midnight the mob divided itself into
 half a dozen frantic marching clubs, each
 moving in different directions. Every
 member of the mob carried horn to | his lips and bell to jangle between his
 fingers. The sight presented was com parable to nothing save the terrible frolics
 of wild Apaches of Paris.
 | At the time of division the mob was | bod No policeman had attempted the evidently futile task of checking the
 progress of the celebrants. and they were
 determined to stop at nothing. The ex- posion of firecrackers became more reg
 ular throughout the heart of the city, and the jarring confusion of sound com mingled with the shock of exploding pow
 der conjured up picture of a bloody | field of battle on which by execution of shrieking shell. the destiny of the world
 was undergoing settlement.
 Great Crowd
 | Tn the meantime the sidewalks were 1 filled to overf1owing. And half the people
 who stood within the bound of semi dignity footed the Christmas horns and
 made merry otherwise with shout and
 laughter The spirit of wild and un-
 precedented Christmas was in the air.. and throughout the night that spirit S l force remained in exalted command. | In the innumerable mob of Bacchana- | Hans there was but one conspicuous fig
 ure It was the figure of woman. | She led like a modern Joan of Arc, | laughing at times, shouting again, ex-
 pressing through her horn a clarion note
 of command or waving the instrument in :, designating direction
 | ba girl. aVi6nnt1xr a ahOiit 1S
 years of age. No foot was more nimble | than hers. She raced along impelled by
 the subtle spirit of the season, and never seemed to flag. Occasionally she rushed
 back to the ranks and forcefully pulled
 laggard into line Her name could not
 be learned. But she did not desist from
 the sport until an early morning hour. | As a result of the widest froic of years
 no list of injuries has been prepared.