The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-13
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

) cannot be computed by merely noting the calendar.
 , And who is this young hero? A husky lad who is as modest as a girl, yet as
 brave as the bravest. It's none other than Lieutenant Milsom, one of the ! speakers sent here by the national serv- } ice section of the United States shipping board to bring a message to the men who work while the soldiers fight.
 |. missed him at the lunch of the repre-
 ser tatives of all employers of labor in
 the Birmingham district at the TutwiIer
 on Wednesday, where he spoke, but had
 the pleasure of meeting him Thursday
 and of hearing him make stirring talk
 before the Rainbow division.
 I saw him first in the lobby of the
 Tutwiler Little Josephine Bailey had
 him in tow. It seems he was standing up looking very soldierly and the lovely little 3-year-old miss got up Irritation
 with him by giving him salute.
 l When came upon them they were fast
 ehums. He had carried her down in the
 florists shop and bought rose, which
 he had pinned on her bosom. He had
 carried her into the drug store and given
 her a drink and bought her some chew ing gum. It was a pretty sight to see her leading him around as she proudly l held his hand.
 ' Now it was the gallant Irish in him which was making him fall for a diminu- tive southern belle. I said he was a cosmopolite. He was born in dear old Saskatchewan, fought in France, and is now in America on speaking tour, and incidentally winning the hearts of trust ing little girls like Jeff Bailey's pet and pride, Josephine.
 l Now I do not care to know much about young mans history if a stray | dog will rub his nose against his leg, or | child will trust him. Take it from me, dogs and children have a spirit of divina- ] tion when it comes to reading the char acter in a face which puts to shame the pretenses of all the palmists. Now a look into Lieutenant Milsom's face is enough to make city detective forget that there is any such thing in the world | as crook. It is such an honest, open corntenance, that it somehow rehabili- 1 tates a cynics belief in mankind | When he got up to speak, I said to my 1 self, Well, he is good to look at, any Jx,,+ l,o ner of speech was as winsome as his countenance, and he soon had his crowd eating out of his hand and begging for more. Some feat, for be 1t understood the bunch who was listening to him had been fed to a surfet on war oratory. But his was different. It had a pep of it's own and was easy to digest, and a taste that made one hungry for more. 1 It was hard to look into the smiling I eyes of the young chap before me and realize that he had been gassed in the drive on Calais in 1915; that he was member of the famous Canadian regi- ment which was almost wiped out of existence, and that during the battle of the Somme, fighting as a private, was called up by the general commanding and try and was subsequently wounded and invalided home.
 l This gives him the right to talk about the front and to hold his audiences spell bound as he tells simply, yet with the poetic fervor Of the inhabitants of the Emerald Isle, of the things he has seen
 with his own eyes, and of the bonhommie | of the men who stand in muck, and yet go joyously lover the top" and out in l a shower of shot and shell to drive the German hordes back toward the Rhine
 and save France and the rest of the
 allies.
 J How our hearts burned within us as he l told of one of his friends being wounded 1 in No Mans Land and how three men
 who went to his rescue were shot down. and how ever the murderous Huns fired on the Red Cross stretcher bearers. kill
 ing them both as the poor wounded boy fell to the earth. and how, after weary
 hours, dark came and he was finally l brought III ana sent to a IlelQ hospital, where one army surgeon in one night hac attended to more than 100 wounded men. | Then came the tale of his visit to see the lad. How he went into the hospital i to be told that the dying soldier had begged as his last request that he be carried out and placed under a shell-torn 1 treo to be reminded Of the beech grove back home. He wanted to be able to I look up into the sky and dream Of his home where the ravages of war had not i dev aStated the land. He told of how he | went out and stood by his comrade, whose brave soul had winged it's flight | hes yenward.
 There was no seeking after dramatic effect, but I noted that his hands were gripped and that his fingers twisted as ha was recalling the scene, and had a great desire to do German bodily harm for the evil which his race had done to the friend of the man who was telling about it No wonder that he has been able to put iron into the blood of nearly 5c0,c0o people who have heard him talk since he has been in this country.
  He has teamed with such notables as former President Taft, Enrico Caruso John Mccormick, Sidney Drew, Mary Pickford and Gypsy Smith; but the thing