The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-18

avoid hitting the boy. I saw the boy was
 going to get run over and I yelled at
 him just in time. As 1t was. the car
 brushed him. and he tried to prevent fall ing by catching hold of the car. and was partly dragged to the middle of the street
 before he could turn loose the car and
 stay on his feet. And don't you know, that driver never even slowed his car. but
 continued on at his same speed.
 Later I was standing at the corner of Third and Nineteenth, when two men in
 a fve-passenger car turned the corner
 just as lady and little child started
 across. The lady and child had reached
 the first car line. The driver of the ma
 chine saw her at least 8 feet ahead. He
 saw she was not looking. but he made
 no effort to avoid hitting her, nor did he
 signal his approach. The lady just did
 manage to jerk the child back and get out Of the way herself. The front wheel of
 the car brushed and soied her skirt. | turned to a gentleman standing near me and asked if he saw that. He said yes
 and if that fellow had hit her I would have jumped in that car and given him a genteel thrashing. l said yes, and you would have had help if any was needed Later I walked up to First avenue and Twentieth street. by the Empire building As started across the street little ne- gro girl carrying a handsome little gol- den haired boy was just in front of me when fellow came around the corner at a 10-mile clip and barely missed knock ing her down with that child in her arms. He only avoided running over them by suddenly heading his car into the walk across the street And then had
 the nerve to yell at her. Why don't you look out
 After all had seen. I couldn't keep still
 any longer. so I made about two jumps,
 covering about eight feet at jump--and
 yelled at him, "Why In the Sam hill don't
 you look out"
 In each of these cases If had been an
 officer l would have arrested these fel-
 lows and done my best to convict them
 for reckless driving. And I think the off
 eers ought to pay some attention to these
 near accidents. and where they see that
 there was no attempt on the part of the drivers of machines to avoid hurting pe- destrians, they should arrest them. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.'
 By the way, everyone of these men driv- ing these cars that I speak of looked like
 the owners of the car. They were not irresponsible hired drivers.
 The officers can do a lot of good If
 they would keep their eyes open. and even if they don't make an arrest they
 can give these reckless fellows zoos lecture. All of which would help, and they would let them know they were be- ing watched.
 All this talk when some one gets run over and killed or seriously injured. that 1t was just one of these unavoidable ac- cidents' is all bosh. Not one-tenth of per cent of them are unavoidable. If all drivers of machines will look out for the other fellow, instead of them expecting the other fellow to look out for them, there would be practically no accidents Instead of that they dash around corners across streets, along the streets, where children are playing, expecting everybody to look out, stand still or get hit and then cry out 1t was one of those "unavoid-
 able accidents;' possibly shed few tears and express their regrets and then for get it.
 Listen. all you drivers. Make it a rule