The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-21
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

l r tickled to death at the way people are responding to my invitation to come in and get acquainted and see me in my busy corner on the ground floor by the door.
 1 I'm never too busy to meet anyone who cares enough to drop in to see me. I have always liked to meet people want any reader of The Age-Herald to feel free to come in and sit for awhile in this editors easy chair"
 But young lady who was too timid to pay me a personal visit was good enough to write me breezy letter. It's strange how few people are good letter writers. The French have always exoelled in the epistolary art. The young woman who veins, for the letter was chatty and original.
 Some while back The Age-Herald made special campaign and put the paper into the hands of a large number of the pub lie school teachers in Jefferson county, majority of whom are women.
 
 The letter that pleased me so was from a schoolma'n. Here is the way she 1 opened; Dear Mr. Barnett: Please ac- | knowledge an introduction by correspon- dence. Considering your invitation to drop in, I'm taking advantage and writ ing instead" I am happy to take cor respondence course in friendlness.
 
 | Here is another paragraph out of the letter: Your articles on Men, Women and Things are most interesting, and l probably letter from a teacher will sug- gest a topic on Things (from Proctor's point of view). After my pet papers in spelling and arithmetic are corrected at night I dive into The Age-Herald edi- | torials. You may ina zine the enthusiasm | with which I make the change There I is little originality that can be introduced | in a set of papers from set of children who are supposed to set and do the ] work in about the same order" It cer- tainly pleases me to know that my homely column relieves the tedium of an overworked teacher
 | In correcting the exercises in spelling 1 she found some funny errors. Speaking l of errors, reminds me that friend of mine, an official in one of the railroads, told me he had great trouble with one of the men under him. I asked what was 1 his failing: Making errors," said he. why, he is the most cratic fellow that ever worked for me-" No, it wasn't Hugh Latimer, Whit Collier or Captain McGregor. For fear the heads in the railroad offices may be "kidded," I'll say for the bunch now here that my friend was transferred from Birmingham several years back.
  Here are some errors made by her pu- pills in orthography-one wrote "prays" for praise. He must have been the son of a minister. Another had put down "a rit mer ticl<'' for arithmetic Another, whose father evidently is poker player, got off this He got into the spelling game by writing "sat in" for satin. If none of you have ever misspelled word you can laugh at the kids who failed
 
 She further said: q had the children write letters to the principal. One boy wrote that he liked school very much and especially was he fond of his big books; the geography was his favorite because he could eat candy behind it and his teacher couldn't see him. CVery con- fiding in the head man, it seems)." 
 I'm certainly glad that at last the state by writing: We teachers are all smiling broadly now, for last Saturday we re- ceived raise in salary. I say all, mean ing those receiving under 8 certain stip- ulated amount There was rather a sat iisfying feeling to be under that amount, just to feel the thrill of rising.' All who ever joyed over an increase in their pay envelope will sympathize with the ebulli | ton of this hard-worked and underpaid | teacher.
 I "On the question, Why has Birming | ham grown so large?' one answer was that There are so many folks, and so much to do. Another whose point of view is evidently different from most folks was in brief. More houses, build | ings going up, people coming. better roads. and stuff come down. What he meant by stuff and the come down, I don't know"
 1 Sure, I'm puffed up over her letter. Do iyou blame me, when in closing she said: ] Let me thank you for the pleasure get out of your editorials. The Age Herald was already tip-top paper, but since your connection with it has shown great improvement"
 1 After all this is a pretty good old world when busy, tired, conscientious | teacher finds time and has the willing ness to write such letter to a newspa l per man in order to brighten his day and tighten his load.
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