The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-03-23
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS
have found out Frank G. Carpenters

veteran newspaper men have wondered at and tried to analyze how he gets by year after year with his syndicated mat ter.
 It's been pointed out time and again that he is not scholarly, scientific or literary man. But folks read his stuff. It's the boy in him His threescore years haven't been able to dim his sense of wonder. He goes through the world open-eyed and what he sees he can make others see.
 He writes for the man in the street, and just because of this the man in the study also finds a freshness and charm in his letters
 When anyone can make Henry Gray skip the news page on Sunday and dive into a story on seals, he is going some, and yet that is what Carpenter recently did He seemed to be amused and grati- fled at Henry's confession.
 
 Tuesday. we were in one of the big of flee buildings to call on the president of one of the great corporations. The man who sets on guard at desk on the outside asked for our cards and business When he learned that one of us was Frank c. Carpenter, he said: why, MT. Carpenter, I'm so glad to meet you; for years I've been reading all you write" Tn fact,' said he, I'm afraid you have made me quit reading my Bible as much as I ought to, for I save your letters to read every Sunday afternoon"
 Just then Pat Linnehan came by and said: MT. Carpenter, I'm one of your steady readers" Burt Jacobs spoke up and said: Me too." Nearly every one who met him made similar remarks.
 
 Here is his secret: He has seen the world and still thinks it beautiful. He has seen life and finds it interesting. He knows men, women and things and be- cause of this he can tell about the things he sees in 8 way to captivate men and 
 women.
 When I called at the Tutwiler to meet him I imagined I was going to meet man who knew everything and would be I got the surprise of my life. He was absolutely without pretense, and as ea- ger to get out to see Birmingham as if it was the first city he had ever seen. Have you got a small boy? If so, perhaps you think he can ask more ques- ticns than anybody in the world. Maybe so, but if you want to be disillusioned, just act few days as Carpenters guide and you will think your son is lacking iI curiosity.
 Curious? Why he's got the whole female creat ton beat a block He has confirmed my contention that it's the male animal that's got a, corner on curiosity.
 They say curiosity killed a cat and if a cat has nine lives, why is my friend Carpenter permitted to live? for he is more curious than a backyard full of fe- lines.
 No boy on his first picnic ever set out lighter or more joyous than did the globe trotter when we started for the steel plant. It was to be his great ad- venture.
 
 He had just had long talk with George Gordon Crawford. and been shown the marvellous profile maps of the Birming- ham district and heard it's wealth set forth by a master mind. He had just dropped in to see Frank Crockard, the master builder.
 And so when MT. Crawford asked MT. Grain. his secretary, to take us over the plants of the Tennessee company, he was just bubbling over with enthusiasm.
 
 Henry Gray was waiting for us down. stairs with his car, and we sped on to Ensley, past Redwood park, the fair grounds and Vulcan and were soon at the company's office.
 Here MT. Matthias, the general superin- tendent, met us and for three hours he piloted the party through the great in- dustries which Carpenter had come miles to see. The Tennessee company's plants at Ensley are wonderful, and the great correspondent wasn't slow to say that the scale on which they were operating was truly marvellous.
 A dainty luncheon was served to the party in the private dining room of the company at the steel plant It came as tired and hungry after the walk through the various plants.
 The different industries were a constant source of wonder to the man who was supposed to have been everywhere and to have seen everything. His eyes danced and questions flew thick and fast as MT. vices in the industrial world. The stacks at the Ensley furnaces re- minded him of great pipe organ sending forth the music of the vast machinery which was performing a miracle by taking ore and getting it ready to serve man kind
 The reason you can't help reading the fact that the can take dry facts and