The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1917-07-26
MEN, WOMEN
AND THINGS


the country, has been stirred by the
draft
Business has gone along as usual the
movies have kept moving. vaudeville hai
taken no rest, street cars and trains
have run, the churches were open or
Sunday-but way down beneath the sur
face of things there has been a deer
feeling that something portentious was
taking place.
1 went down to Pelham, where about
100 young people were gathered, carrying
the papers with me. A larger part OF
the crowd was made up of girls, only q
half dozen or more young men being
ers Everybody wanted to see the lists.
Mothers were anxious about their sons,
young women about their husbands or
brothers and many maidens about their
sweethears. 1t was an eager, anxious
throng.
On the train there was a subdued kind
of feeling. Passengers had their heads
deep in their papers. Every now and
then there was whispering between some
father and mother. 1 went into the
smoker and the men, for the most part,
were silent The trainmen were talking
in groups. Anyone could see that some
thing unusual was in the air.
have talked with motormen, conduc-
tors. brakemen, clerks in stores, offices
and banks, with young lawyers, doctors,
with poor men and with men of wealth
and social position 1 have tried to speak
with all kinds and conditions of peoples.
l have talked with fathers and moth
ers, with husbands and wives The war
for the first time is coming home to us.
We bought bonds and subscribed to the
Red Cross. but now we are asked to give
our boys. and there Is naturally an I'M
dercurrent of sadness.
Every now and then some of my
friends come back from camp, Drowned
and hardened, with clear eyes, firm step
and soldierly bearing, and 1 know that
the training has put new manhood into
his every fibre, that his physical and
moral being has been strengthened, be-
cause he has had to think less Of self
and more of service.
I take Bert Throckmorton as an illus
tration. I remember him as a little boy
N, kiTfq ~
md dined with the Realtors. He has al
ways been manly man. They gave
him a great reception, for was he not
their president who was doing his bit
or his country? When called upon for
| speech he stood up and in a modest,
Straightforward way told of the officers
raining camp at Fort McPherson-the
Tally life, the grind, the work, the
study. He paid a tribute to the men
IN his street, and closed by saying the
nan who kneels and prays before retiring
s not subjected to horse play, for as {.
natter CT fact there are many praying
men among the men. Coming as it did
from Bert 1 was greatly impressed, for
he has nothing Of the poser about him.
He is just the high type that Birming-
ham can grow and that Birmingham is
giving to Uncle Sam.
DR.. E. NJ. Poteat, president of F'urman
has recently spoken at 1T
Meyers, FIT. Mcpherson and FIT. Ogle-
-horpe under the auspices of the Y. M
:. A. and he says he was struck by the
seriousness of both officers
and men. He saw no foolishness. Every
Body seemed to realize that the task
was great and required thought and
work. That it was big job, but they
we're going to do it without fuss or
furry
In talking with some whose names
have been drawn l find that quite few
dread to think of going to a foreign
to fight. They are not at all
rebellious but just say they had rather
fight on American soil. while many 9TH
ers are eager to go to France, and look
unon it as a great adventure, and are
Iull OF what .tney are gong TO 90 when
they get to Paris and the fun they are
going to have with the French soldiers.
Ard the way the men who dread to go
abroad feel is the way that nearly all
the fathers and mothers feel about it.
Somehow many cannot bear the idea of
their sons being killed in foreign land
It's a perfectly natural feeling and does
them credit and the person who doubts
hslr patriotism and questions their 10y
atty is doing them a great wrong.
I have read much, thought much, and
talked much and written much about
the war, and I know in my heart Of
hearts that I am good American, and
yet somehow just because my boys are
not old enough to go and because I am
too old, my heart goes out in deepest
love to the mothers and fathers who are
called upon to give their boys and
have little sympathy for those who critl-
else them If they vince at the sacrifice
they are making.
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