The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-02
.COTTON-CLAD ARMY OF FARMERS WILL
 PARADE STREETS Advance Guard From Fay- ette and Walker Arrived
 Yesterday HIKE ABANDONED
 ACCOUNT OF RAIN Cotton, Leader of Movement, Tells How Rainwater Forced His Marchers to Board the
 Train for Birmingham

CT conditions to deS1st. when they ar rive in Birmingham this morning at o'clock.
 Plans for an elaborate reception of the farmers have been perfected by the Jefferson County Buy-a- Bale of- Cotton club. the Business Mems league and other civic organizations. The affair will be handled for the Chamber of Commerce through the Buy-a-Bale club while the following committee has been appointed from the Business Mems league: Oscar Turner. chairman; George A. Blinn, Louis Pizitz, John w. O'Neill. J. Frank Rushton and J. D. Rosenberger.
 The farmers will assemble this morn- ing at o'clock at Pratt City and all farmers of Jefferson county who live in that vicinity are urged to join them there for the march to Birmingham Jefferson county farmers who are not near enough to Pratt City to be in the party are invited to attend the meet ing at the Chamber of Commerce at 1030 o'clock. And not only are Jeff ferson county farmers urged to join the parade. but all other farmers and DtSAhCSo titH WI dic hciC lOi thS fair. Birmingham business men are especially urged to be in the parade.
 Begin March at 8 O'Clock
 The party will begin the march to probably about 8 o'clock, arriving at 10 o'clock. They will be taken in charge by officers of the Buy-a-B Bale club and will be conducted fa ha ba ,la, 0f f.a,,,, httfI where there will be a big meeting and from where the parade will start.
 There will be few informal speeches by officers of the Buy-a- Bale club and badges will be distributed. The badges will read Buy a Bale of Cotton and Go to the Fair. Chamber of Commerce, Birmingham" As a sup elementary badge each man who takes part in the parade will be given a boil of cotton which he will wear on the lapel of his coat.
 The parade will be headed by band and then will come big truck loaded with 20 or 25 bales of cotton. Then will come the jeans s-dressed farmers and behind them the farmers from Jeff ferson county and other counties of the state. Then the members of the Buy al Bale club and the Birmingham business men. After parading the downtown streets and visiting each office the farmers will go to the State Fair
 Advance Guard Arrives
 The advance guard of the farmers from Fayette and Walker counties ar rived in Birmingham yesterday. They brought news that weather conditions were so bad that the idea of walking the entire distance to Birmingham had been abandoned. They took the train at Jasper after waiting in vain for the sky to clear. A number of the farm CTS came in yesterday morning ana the trains last night from Fayette and Walker had many more aboard. Ihe main body, however, will not arrive until this morning at o'clock over the Frisco.
 The farmers made picturesque figures yesterday about the streets of Birming- ham and their dress attracted much at tention Not that there was anything about it; they wore blue overaiis, a jumper and a cotton hat With req bandanna handkerchief about the neck They bore evidence of the wet weather Wnlcn they Hau Pdsseu, pH@ their spirits were undampened.
 Among those who arrived Thursday were: Victor Ellis, Ebert Moore and John Ary, Bankston; Silas Berry, Fayette; A. T. I<zzre, Slough; T. A. Simpson, Berry; Wilson Woods, Berry; T. A. Honeycutt, Corona; Glenn kizzire Fayette; B. G. Woods. Bankston; J. w. Fowler, Bankston; John Newton, Fay cite, and J. A. Branyon, Fayette.
 
 Cotton Arrives
 Yesterday afternoon George B. Cotton, who proposed and actively advocated the march to Birmingham, reached the city and immediately went into conference with Chamber of Commerce officials in regard to the plans for the reception of the farmers. The arrangements made ! were entirely satisfactory, and he will be with other civic officials at Pratt City this morning. He talked Interestingly of his walk and spoke feelingly of the weather which the hikers had encoun- tered.
 .sWe certainly had some fierce weather" said MT. Cotton. "We started from Berry Wednesday morning about 9:30 o'clock And had not been on the road an hour be- fore it began to rain; 1t has been raining almost continuously since. We made good time the first hour, walking a it- tie over five miles. The boys didn't seem to mind the rain much, and we trudged along cheerfully enough to an old camp meeting tune to which we had put the fol- lowing words Oh, who will come and go with me. am bound for old Birming- ham?'
 For a bit we were all right and walked fast to Keep warm. But it rained harder every minute, and before long we were in the midst of a deluge. Just be- fore we got to Corona we had quite a time with big trestle known as No. on the Southern railway. The trestle bridges a big ravine and is 9S feete high Some of the boys walked it. but in the rain it looked too slippery for me, and accom- panied by several others, we went down the safe route. The boys who walked the however, had no trouble in get ting across.
 Decided to Take Train
 ."When We got to Corona we decided that as there was no sign of a let-up in the rain that we had better take a train to Jasper and while arousing enthusiasm wait for better weather Just a few minutes before the train came the rain let up, but as the roads were in bad fix we piled on and left for Jasper. When we got off at Parish to change trains 1t promptly started up again, and so it went the entire time we were not under shel- ter. After waiting in Jasper for 1t to clear up we finally decided that it would be bet ter to go on to Birmingham by rail and meet at Pratt City. as we had planned for the march into the city.
 'I expect large number of farmers from Fayette and Walker counties to come in that we had not expected. as