The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-09-14
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Politics is getting a bit waspish ir Birmingham.
 wasps are very innocent, however until stirred up and then they will sting Even politicians will bite if you stir then up sufficiently.
 The sting of the social wasp is very severe, but the wasps themselves are moi dangerous until disturbed, as is the case with some candidates whose names it is unnecessary to mention just here and at this time.
 I was surprised to learn that the yellow jacket Is classed among the social wasps Now, somebody has stirred up hornet s nest in Birmingham politics by introduce ing the question of religion.
 have heard 1t said all my life that you can't mix politics and religion, but evidently some officeseekers are prepar- ing brew for us that bites like an adder or stings like a wasp. There may be political death in the pot for some office- seeker.
 Students of the classics will recall The Wasps," 8 comedy by Aris- tophanes, produced in B. c. 422 at Athens It's satire is aimed, however not at bick- ering or waspish politicians, but against the proneness of citizens to go to law.
 
 If the municipal fight gets much warmer and the political advertising Is not more closely censored there Is talk of libel suits if campaign committees keep handling the names of certain well-known persons. This, however, will be but to bring Aristophanes up to date and re- vive our love of the ancients.
 But when I sat down to write nothing was further from my mind than politics. I had just come in from village church. The business of the association was drag ging. and. looking out of she window just across the road, a negro perched on a mower was cutting grass.
 
 1ulo tho scene tncTe came A sSuuuen eA- citement, the patient mule began to kick, and the negro fell off the seat backward and began to roll on the ground and then jumped to his feet and beat 1t behind a tree while the mule walked to the fence and began quietly to graze. knew some- thing had happened, but was still in the dark as to just what The negro disap- peared around the house. but soon re- turned and at his heels followed a puppy, and then things began to happen lively am sorry to confess by this time had lost all interest In the meeting on tho inside of the church, but was tremen- dously taken up with what was going on on the outside. The negros attack with the fork was futile, for he was fighting that species of wasps known as vespa Germanica, better known to us as yellow jackets.
 The puppy was of the woolly species and looked more like a sheep than 8 dog. He stood his ground remarkably well until yelp let me know that the in- sect Bosohes had scored a hit or sting line for the front porch. where his mis- tress was franucaliy calling him. He gave every evidence that his canine feel ings were hurt and ruffled by such Prus- sian treatment.
 Then the war was on in earnest. Sam bo had abandoned all idea of jabbing the wasps who carry their sting from the tip of their abdomen in a hand to-hand contest. saw he had lost all heart for bayonet work and that he was going to tackle the insects with 8 scientific Ger man name by using a German mode of warfare. divined his purpose when he quit using his fork as a bayonet and began to gather & load of hay upon 1t and pitch it oyer the nest. When he struck match on the seat of his trous- CTS I knew that he was going to carry the war into Africa and, like the Ger mans. had reverted to barbarism.
 .
 Sitting quietly in little church, I saw the horrors of war in miniature played out before my eyes. The hornets en- trenched in their dug-outs were to be smoked out or burned in their under ground home. As the smoke began to roll and the flames to leap, out they piied. and I couldn't help thinking of the awful scenes being daily enacted somewhere in France, where men instead of hornets were trapped and smoked out and killed as they ran.
 It was fun, however, to watch the darkey dodge as he pitched fork after fork of hay. over the entrance to the yell low Jackets nest and when one lit on his back to hear him holler and watch his antics beat negoD minstrel show all to pieces. He never even surmised the pleasure he was giving me. I am afraid lost what the preacher was saying. but do you blame me for innocentiy looking out of the window and then keep on looking when negro, mule, and pup were pulling off a sure enough three-ring circus?
 cAu,slEzLnSHd4aauGelz. P. s.: It is easier to stir up a hornets nest than it is to kill all of the hor- nets. Those who do it run the risk of getting stung.