The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-01
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

II AND ] AlNOSS
 Someone said it couldn't be done, but somebody came along and did 1t.
 
 This Is the story of man who, before thousands of people, almost against the witness of their own eyes, convinced them that scaling a skyscraper was for nim about as easy as boy climbing an apple tree when the fruit is ripe. Longfellow immortalized.
 "A youth, who bore mid snow and ice, A banner with the strange device
 Excelsior!r
 And died climbing.
 IT the human fly needs any other name he Is the real Excelsior lad and has right to claim 1t in spite of the fact that the state of New York has adopted it as motto. He makes his living climb ing higher, ever higher
 And now that he Is going to deliver a lew snort lectures at the Bijou telling the secret of his ability to climb, I would modestly suggest that the front row or a few boxes be set aside for social climbers" as some of them have a hard time in getting into the high attitudes where Birmingham's four hundred dwell.
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 Did you ever see a fly on the wall7
 
 Tuesday about noon. Of course you never went to see the man climb the Empire building, or if you did 1t was on the time worn dodge that gave you a chance to go to circus-the kids went just crazy to sec the animals. That's alright, I'll forgive you, for I went myself
 The fly is right persistent little worker. Linnaeus, the celebrated Swe- dish naturalist saw one of the flies which attack cattle follow a reindeer drawing a sled an entire day The fly flew almost continuously by it's side watching for the moment when it might introduce one of its eggs beneath the skin. I have seen horseflies follow a horse for miles
 Ambition is right good thing in spite of Wolsey's advice ,in which he said:
 cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition. By that, sin. fell the angels; how can man then, the image of his Maker, hope to win by it?" We tell our boys to be ambitious, but I fear their ambition to emulate Harry Gardiner's feat is going to get some of them into trouble. After every rope walking act in circus some daring lad gets fall and a broken leg Qimbl.
 friend of mine said to me: This morning when I started downtown I looked across the street and there was my 6-year-old boy trying to climb up the side of an apartment house.. | wonder how many other boys have tried to do the Gardiner stunt
 l have seen steeplejacks, and some of their feats were daring. I have fre- ney sweeps covered with soot and won- dered at their ability to climb in and out of winding chimneys, but Tuesdays per- formance was in class by itself as a hair raiser.
 Will free show in Birmingham draw a crowd? Those who tried on Tuesday to get through the area for several blocks around the Empire building will answer in the affirmative. Street traffic was practically blocked to pedestrians, auto- mobiles and street wars. Business was practically suspended for two hours.
 
 I was visiting in Atlanta several years ago. A friend of mine. a dog fancier, whose speciality ran to bulldogs, kept pair of fighters at his home. One day the hot water pipes got out of order and his mother telephoned for a plumber. He came unanneunced, going to the back gate. She heard a yell and rushed out into the back yard, and on top of the roof was D very scared man. How in the world did you get up there?" she asked. 'I dunno,' said the man from his perch. "If anybody had told me I could climb up the side of a house I would have said he was crazy. But Madame, when them two bulldogs came round the corner grinning and winking at one another, Just had to get on the roof" And he wouldn't come down until the dogs were chained.
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