The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-07-23

energy unceasing, his ability as a writer
most attractive
Like Stanley, he had no money Too
poor to keep his wife and small children
In the city, he procured beard for them
at Marion. whittier he went to them
every Saturday night, on i railroad pass.
He had no type, press or other outfit. He
possessed nothing essential to the pub
cation of a newspaper, bit ability to
write editorials, and energy and tact to
procure business for it, His office was
cut off corner upstairs, above Robert
sons drug store. His desk was a dry
goods box. nailed to the wall. When
visitors called, and many came. they sat
on his bed, which was a narrow couch in
the office, or stood. as he stood, to receive
| them cheerfully, gladly, with the grace OF
a knight Grant. A yirile, earnest, effec-
tive force in the redemption of Alabama,
became the Southern Argus.
Willis Brewer, a youth who had ridden
with the cavalry four years. came TO
| Hayneville, set up a weekly, The Exami-
| ner, that rose to full pressure with the
| most vigorous of its contemporaries
| William Wallace Screws. Thomas j.
| Jones, Willis Brewer. Robert Mckee,
, Ryland Randolph, Frank c. Randolph,
| w. c. Oats, John w A. Sanford, Rufus
King Boyd, Robert A. McClelland, w. J.
Sanford, James Taylor Jones. Joseph F.
Johnston, Holtzclaw, Kolb were examples
of the type of men who. from the outset
of the conditions or menaces held the
public mind and heart true to the south
ern ideal regardless of consequences near
or remote.
| To reopen the schools became the cry of
all. The necessity of turning the thoughts
OF the youth from the pervading friction
of village garrisons and the Freedman 9
bureau with the men of the community
| was the motive. The troops. white or
| black. were vulgar, licentous, idle and
an intolerable nuisance to decent society
| Prof Henry Tutwiler had never closed
| his high school for youths at Greene
| Springs. He gave now special attention
to it. The Southern university. a Metho-
dist institution at Greensboro, had been
| open for two years on account of the
attractions of the army for the faculty
and the students. That source of educa-
ton was reopened promptly. A prosper
Gus female high school had been, for
years before the war in opera ton at
| Demopois, the building owned and the
| school controlled by a board CT trustees.
The building was now condemned by the
military for an army hospital. The
trustees appealed to Governor Parsons in
vain to obtain its release. The governor
| endorsed the petitions. hut when it
reached finally the general commanding
the district. be refused on the ground
4
| for his use.
| Many youths who had relinuuished COL
| lege to join the army now returned to
! their books. One I will name Mortimer
II. Jordan. of Jefferson county. He left
| the University of Alabama to enlist in
the ranks. Wien the army dissolved he
found himself outgrown all his citizens
coats. He cut the brass buttons off his
gray uniform. put 1t on and went to
medical college in Cincinnati For many
years he lived to be a practitioner in
| Birmingham without rival This mar
rative cannot afford to omit examples like
his. and yet serve its purpose.
| We have seen the south was bereft
or all currency when the Confederacy
fell and that the fragment of Congress
at Washington soon burned many hum
dreds of millions of federal notes
All this occurred while the indus
tries or the south were rrostrate The
banks were long out of business The
ten millions invested In manufactures
was dead capital. Farm wagons were
worn out, farm implements lost in the
building of army fortiications or worn
out. Farm animals had gone TO the
war or ceased to be Of service bitches
were closed, and no tools to open them
The 743 miles of railroad track needed
new rails and new locomotive engines.
The many steamers on the rivers need
ed new machinery.
What next? When the Confederate
armies surrendered op certain terms
! Alabama was not irreparably crippled
lby the war Her paroled soldiers IN
der the stipuations of their surrender
I would have come home to find great
\ abundance of assets to have restored
] every industry. The precipitate
| emancipation of slaves would not have
| checked the industry of cotton grow
ling a minute If the terms of surrender
| OF the Confederate armies had been
I faithfully lived up to by the con-
querors.
4 l will illustrate: A neighbor of mine
stored $50 bales of cotton under shelter
on his plantation. Fifty bales of this
he had subscribed to the Confederate
cotton loan No matter about the con-
tention of the United States. that the
/ confederacy was not in law COM
petent contractor Let that question
! go. The government claimed the as
sets of the Confederacy. The military
at Demopolis sent wagons to the plan
tation. No objection was raised by the
planter to the seizure of the so bales
He yet had the Confederate cotton
bonds that he had accepted for that
particular cotton.
II With the wagons came an agent OF
the Bureau, with printed form of con-
tract In his pocket and Instructions to