The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-06-01

To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 In accordance with a promise I made
 you while at the reunior. I write you of my impressions of your city and her
 citizens. Coming into the city for the
 first time, 1 said to myself, there has
 been much printers ink and hot air
 wasted on this ragged robin sort of
 mining town but what kaleidoscopic
 change greeted my eyes two days later!
 On Wednesday, piloted by my old-time
 Gainesville pastor and friend the Rev.
 Thomas T. Hay, l visited the steel mill
 ar Ensley. There l saw an ingot of steel ] weighing 2O00 pounds glowing, glimmer- ing. hieaming hot, grasped by giant jaws
 and swung with the ease mother
 swings her infant from it's cradle to her
 arms and as gently and tenderly move
 it into the wide stretched, remorseless
 threat of the many times indurated pri-
 mary roller.
 Looking outward it seemed that the
 everlasting surrounding mountain range
 was lending its primal and present force
 to the hands of man. Matching in a more glorious, tenderer way was the
 friendly ministering of her fine women
 and the soft touch of her children's
 hands and balmy breezes from the noun tain tops.
 Roller after roller took in turn the glowing ingot and squeezed and zneaded and turned and crushed and flattened 1t until yet glowing and squirning like huge red serpent it took its last shape, that of rail for our iron roads, We met here principally the laboring men, but they were alive. alert, strong men, Americans, and after seeing what
 they could do, how they could change stubborn natural products into things used by man, alike for his luxuries and
 necessities and turning to go you took them by the hands to thank them for
 their kindness, you felt that you had been in the presence of men.
 Favored Birmingham, the souths greatest material asset. and her busiest hive of manly effortl Birmingham, the great black diamond, the master stone Tn the south's industrial bracelet gar nlshed by Anniston on one side and Gadsden on the other. She is indeed a thing Of beauty, a joy forever, whose loVeliness increases 1t will never fade into nothingness. Of the 300 grant but | three to. make new Thermopylae, and We have been granted them; Birming- ham, Columbus and Atlanta So that lEdustrially speaking, we have the pass and we will hold it forever.
 After the old vets parade, that es- timable little woman, Mrs. Jemison, took my wife and self in her elegant car for spin around the residence section in- cludlng the Country club and Ridge Crest where her husband is building
 an aerie for her, and the Jemson eaglets. Electric lights send their dancing rays rom the hilltops to meet and kiss those on the fInnials of the skyscrapers in the valley below and those pouring down the mountain slopes meet in loving en- brace those of the city streets
 She has her tall buildings, her paved streets, electric lights, waterworks, vast audltoriums, churches, schools and char liable institutions of the first class, all nestled in the beautiful valley, and wear ing on her proudly poised head a coronet
 of treasure laden hills such as the wide
 world does not surpass.
 The residence portion of the city is
 veritable paradise and I think when
 St. Peter casts his eyes earthward he