The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-10
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

l have celebrated the Glorious Fourth
 of July in many ways in the past years,
 but as lad we diG not naEe much of
 it in Eufaula, and therefore it was q
 of July in many ways in the past years.
 while going to the public schools in St.
 Louis that it was sure enough ho!i-
 day.
 I got the shock of my life when I was
 awakened by the bursting of firecrack-
 CTS, the looming of cannon, and the
 shriek of whistles l didn't know what
 was the matter. 1 thought somebody hao set the calendar forward and put Christ mas in dos days, for it was lnconceiva-
 ble to believe that fireworks could ee exploded at any time save on the 25th day of December.
 I expressed my surprise to a friend who was kind enough to take me in tow to go down to one of the fire stations
 where the firemen were to have a real pyroteclnie display that would make a Pain exhibition look tame. Any way, that is the way it impressed me, for 1 had never seen so many rockets in the air, so many fancy wheels whirling and
 emitting varicolored lights, so many cannon crackers being exploded. It sim ply overwhelmed me and when the de-
 partment had to respond to half dozen calls my joy was complete.
 I was really grieved to find out that the westerners were making more of the Fourth or July than they did of Christ mas. l asked my older friend and spon-
 sor the reason. and he sprung the old joke, which Was new to me, by answer ing that he supposed it was because they
 thought more of George Washington, the Father of His Country, than they did of the Carpenter of Nazareth. The joke is bit irrey erent, but it showed me how
 out of place was the way in which we in the south celebrated Christmas as a fes- tival rather than as a holy day. Another Fourth of July l will never | forget. It was when 1 was living in New York. Now, he 1t remembered tha; WIlllt ldliliitdlS IS dpuSGu TOT iuditN | things, it always makes much of oul
 great American holiday and features il, by having read the Declaration of Inde- pendence and the delivering of patriotic addresses. l got up early and made up my mind to put in one day with what the politicians are pleased to call the common people, It was on my pro- gramms 70 devote the morning to Tam , many Hall and the afternoon to Concy Island, and at night dine at the Black Cat
 1 I was young lawyer and Colonel Taliaferro. with whom I was associated in the Hawes trial, and one of the most eloquent speakers I have ever heard, was living in New York and was dowI 1 for fifreen-minute speech I have for gotten who was to be the chief orator, 1 fof he never got look-in after the gal lant colonel got the floor. for he swept l the audience like a whirlwind, and {. | Tammany crowd gets what it wants, and they wantea him to go on, and he did. and scored a great hit. of which I was justly proud.
 | The old-timers in Birmingham will re. member the picturesque appearance ni 1 the famous advocate who had a part n ] nearly all ot the great criminal trials m the late eighties. and who gave the cor ! porations much to thns< apou, Tor ne always got big damages. Colonel Talia- ferro was possibly bit under six feet six. His hair was long and white and
 fell gracefull: on his shoulders. He wen;