The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-11
CHICKENS ARE PART OF FINE SCENERY ON SAND MOUNTAIN Bill Sikes Writes of Trip From Attalla to Hobbs
 Island FARMERS CANNOT HELP MAKING MONEY Some of the Finest Scenery in World Is Found in This Prosperous
 Section of North
 Alabama

1 find some merit in seeing America first.
 l doubt if there is finer scenery anywhere
 in the world than one encounters in mak-
 ing the trip from Attalla to Hobbs Island | and return.
 l Coming up the mountain side out of At
 talla, everything was a blaze of green,
 and after reaching the summit of the
 mountain one encounters the prettiest
 farming country in Alabama, where na- ! tive white farmers are tickling the earth with a hoe and making two blades of grass grow where but one grew before, and in way ignoring the willy politician | whose plaintive song is heard abroad ID | the land that the farmers are too busy | to talk much" Finding people in that | condition gives the average gentleman who would fain serve the public tempor- ary heart failure. But they have the can- didates up here, as we have them at | home, and every blessed one of them IS confident that "he is bound to win. Poor, | gullible souls, how they do sip at the | fountain which after election proves, in many cases, to have been filled with sa't water sufficiently strong to float their | barges as they travel up that Salt river upon whose bosom all d1sappolnteo can- | didates must ride
 But Johnnie Burnett, so his friends say, won't sail up that river, but will go back | to that city where he can take sal down to Mount Vernon and there con- l template the grandeur of the man who l chopped the cherry tree. It Is astonlshlng 1 how a little bit of a man like Burnett IS | physically can get such hold on these
 mountain folks, but ever warm-hearted, | the mountaineer stands by his frlends
 and does not appear inclined to swap
 horses while crossing the stream
 PLENTY OF CHICKENS
 l Up around Albertville one sees chick ems enough to supply Birmingham TOT many a day. They actually advertise that they ship the chickens in carload lots Some enterprising fellow from Col linsville was advertising that his car would go out on a certain day and TOT every body to bring their chickens In to him, so that they could catch the car and get the benefit accruing from carload lot shipments Talk about your alfalfa down around Eutaw, why, these fellows up here have Mr. Penny beat mile, for all they have to do is to hustle around and get some grain planted and grow | ing for the poultry to graze on While their good wives look after the 'biddies" gather up the eggs and prepare them for market
 And the apple and peach trees they 7 water to pass through here at any sea-
 son of the year. In the winter, or fall rather big, fat luscious apples hang from the limbs; in the summer, the peaches take the place of apples-just think what it means to live in a country where you can have fried chicken any day without having any thought of your ! pocketbook and where eggs are fresh all the time.
 Just about all the drummers in the country have been up in this country selling everything under the sun from paint to powder for Ia senoras" face. Some millinery man has been up her and sold hats enough to supply these good l ladies for a year. And the style these people put on; they have their automo- piles, and I even saw a fellow today whose Ford had liveried chauffeur at the wheel The height of social aspra- ton for some of them seems to be to get in the Press club at Birmingham. I saw 1 a gentleman today with a Cadillac who was a member of the Press club, who l was mighty fine fellow who knew Ed and others of the newspaper fraternity l who made the rounds during the last memorable gubernatorial campaign. SOME HISTORIC PLACES
 l When you get on the boat at Gum J | get a glimpse of that grand scenery
 that I hope Miss Willie and Miss Beth l Allen can see sometime. Along this | river high up on a bluff the D. A. k.
 have tablet which marks the spot ! where Andrew Jackson crossed the
 river on his memorable march to New Oreleans where "Old Hickory" licked
 the British and from which port the body of Pack enham, the British gen. 1 eral, was sent home in cask of rum. l The old ferry where Jackson crossed 1 is still there It is still in use, and
 nearby carved in the solid rock is the | tablet which tells to all who pass that here was where noble American trav-
 eled to the defense of his country. The whole thing was peculiarly interesting to me because my grandmother used tc
 visit at the Hermitage, as she and Mrs Jackson were friends.
 But I saw another thing today thai made my heart sad. It was an old mountaineer who could not read. His forebears were with Jackson. He him self had been with Forrest He came home with everything lost in that sac cause; had to struggle to keep the vol, from the door. and never had a chance
 to learn the mysteries of the alphabet II thought about how my good Baptis
 friends out on South Highlands get SC
 enthused over some missionary telling
 about the great need TOT schools il , China" where children are sometimes , paid a penny a day to attend school
 while right here in Alabama we hay,
 our own flesh and blood, native bori
 Americans. who have had no opportu
 nifty to get what we so generously pas
 on to some Chinaman that we ow,
 nothing. I reckon I am good bit O
 a "Hardshell' Baptist for I am strict
 lily for taking care of our own peopl,
 first.
 FINE TRIP ON BOAT
 The Nashville. Chattanooga and St
 Louis runs a splendid dining service or
 the boat now, and while you pass alons
 enjoying the beautiful scenery, the pleas
 ant company, and the delightful ride yo,
 can partake of good food well prepared by a German whose heart seems true t,
 the fatherland judging by little inciden , that occurred. I had a copy of maga zine which carried picture of thu , Kaiser, and knowing the young fellow was German I showed him the pictur, [ and asked him who the man was. H, ! immediately drew himself up and in , military way said, that is the Kaiser, and afterwards said 'I would not mint
 to have that book' It is wonderful hoy that love of home holds to the German l people; how they regard their ruler a. ? the one peerless leader. No wonder they
 can fight: no wonder they achieve vic
 tories that seem super-human. But ro