The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-02
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

A news-butcher at 6o I was on a train the other day. and what was my surprise to find an old man acting as Dutch" sss
 It was early in the morning and as only a few passengers were aboard I followed him back into the smoking car, and saw him put down his basket and go over by an open window and sit down. I went and sat by him, for somehow I sensed he was lonesome and just bit disheartened, and I wanted to try and cheer him up a bit. I bought some fruit and candies just to get in touch with him so that I could start a conversation.
 Fruit and candy are poor substitutes for tobacco when you want to get into the confidence of a man and have him pour out his heart to you. I have never smoked but there are times when I al most wished that I could. Inveigh against 1t as much as you please, somehow it's mighty sociable
 And then lots of times have had train- men to show me little courtesies who would be offended at tip but who would gladly have accepted cigar if offered as one smoker to another. Yes. cigar is q friendly basis.
 hear some reformer say that the same 1t was one of the evil effects of saloons, but July the first having passed, why bring up subject that is unpleasant to many thirsty soul in this bone dry state?
 But I am about to go up in smoke or get submerged in the drink question and forget my old neglected friend, for I hope he feels that I tried to be friendly. I just naturally like people. There is not bit of pose in It. I got it from my father, who was the friendliest of men. The old man was beaten in lifes game, and he had been a sport and played it high, and travelled far and wide, and seen great cities and adventure as q pioneer into great wilernesses, and now he was 8 human derelict, and he knew it, and made no effort to hide it.
 It wasn't long before he was babbling was rolled out, and he was living it over again. We passed railroad camp, and a bare shack reminded him of the days he had put in happily in the great Can- adian northwest with big game and In- dians, and daring white men.
 He had been at the birth of cities in the west He had never stayed to see them grow beyond the hamlet stage. Bit ten by the travel bug. he was always on the go.
 Yes, he stopped once long enough to marry, and two bairns came to hold him fast. Then the wife died, and the children went to live with relatives. Now, they are grown and he Is alone.
 I never let him open the door far enough to find out why he was left stranded in his old age. and put to it to earn his living in such an unusual way. But I did let him talk about much else For 40 years he had been a teleg rapher. He had begun it when a lad ,ofs,12 years in Philadelphia, and when the sending of a message by wire was a crude and difficult affair.
 He had worked on nearly every railroad system in America and when pushed aside had sat at desks from time to time in the two great rival companies, and later still gotten commercial work.
 
 He had at last hit bottom-eyesight bad, hands trembly, mind sluggish, body weak. No one would give him employment. Like a squeezed lemon he had been thrown aside.
 Oh, yes; he had made the weary rounds looking for work Everybody wanted to be kind but no one could use him. He didn't blame them The truth was he realized that his days as a telegraph operator were numbered, and so with shaky hand he who in the prime of his power had been an A. P. man. wrote "S0' and walked out into the night.
 
 This is but sketch of what he told me. Some of it was too intimate to be set down, but put it to his credit that when a friend took him to his home to give him bed and board he wouldn't have it but slipped away and got boys job.
 
 I went back into the coach and soon was deep in a book. I looked up and coming down the aisle was the pathetic figure of an old man bowed with age carrying a basket and timidly offering his wares.
 There is a tragedy of childhood, my heart goes out in sympathy to every help less waif but sometimes I fear we un- thinkingly forget those who, having passed into their second childhood. need our love and care.
 It's been days ago I met and talked to the man without home, to the man with the misfit job, and somehow I can't get him off my mind. Here is hoping that he may find better place and spend the balance of his dasy in comfort
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 KAISER's .INvESTMENTS.