The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-09-03
MEN, WOMEN < AND THINGS


 pression that he began business with a shoe string" but made 4 fortune.
 man may be careless in the selection of his vocation. In fact, it is the way most men settle down for life; but no one should take Tp an avocation without giv- ing it due thought. A hobby is a serious matter ard, like marriage, should not be
 entered upon lightly, but soberly in the fear of God and man."
 1 Now, am not going to inveigh against l ones hobbies, for I am something of rider myself and keep one or more hobby horses hitched at home or at my office. You may sit at cards, chess or checkers. | You may play ball, tennis or golf. To me, | however, they are poor substitutes for | hunting and fishing, yet I believe in them.
 1 I mean by this that I have never cared overrhuch for indoor games, and conse. quently never excelled at them. I do like ball, tennis and golf and, in my younger days, mace good at the two first, but ! never became proficient in the last. The older I get the less I care for games al which you sit and play.
 At bes. ball. tennis and golf are artifi- cial sports. and therefore substitutes for | the real ones of hunting and fishing. Now. I have hunted much and fished in many rivers, ponds, lakes and the sea. There ;c which are linked up with these two forms of amusement that one misses even in other manly games which are played in the open.
 I do not sympathize with those who in- weigh against the brutality of killing game, unless it is done in a reckless way, for which no true sportsman would stand for. I think boy who has been deprived of the joy of rod and gun has lost one of the greatest pleasures that come into the life of any red-blooded, healthy lad. It puts hin next to nature in a manner which will follow him all the days before him.
 I got to thinking along this line the other day when pr. Lokey picked me up and told me that his son Hicks" was off on a trip with his gun. He told me how he had promised him that when he reached the age of 12 he | as going to pre- sent him with a shotgun, and that he had kept his word, and that his boy was get ting great pleasure out of it. -> 
 1 From the bottom of my heart am sorry l for the average city boy who is depend ] ent upon or fed up with dances, card par i ties, theatres, the movies, and other higa- | ly spiced and unnatural forms of enter- 1 tainment like children's parties, where I they romp and play with abandon, bur have little Iatience where they come TO- gether and ape their mammas and papas and play like little ladies and gentlemen. Every boy and girl should be able 70 which they were permitted to live theIr 1 own yo'iny lives without the artificia. and hot house forcing process to develop then into what God never intended them to be- imitation grownups who are bored unless they are mimicking the indoor a- 1 antics of their elders I confess that l side with the l 'newsies'" who used to make so much i fun of the perfectly tailored Little Loru Fauntleroys who rode down in carriages and walked the streets with the indolea. air of boulevardieres. And I always l gloried in the spunk of any of the boys who had rative grit sufficient to break away from parental supervision and run | with the gang" after they had proved ! their right by taking and administering | lickings
 | Yes, this war is going to save many a boy from being brought up in the shei- l tered life I heard of case already at work. A boy who had been mammals pet"-and what tragedy this is for any oungster-reached his majority and was drafted He had been indulged in every way, clinging to his mothers apron strings until Uncle Sam got him by tho seat of his pants and put him through a course in camp that put some manhood and backbone in him and gave him self respect.
 War is an evil in many ways but there are worse evils. I dare say some of the, educational leaders who rose up ana de- I manded that military training should be banishei from our state schools are rather ashamed of the sorry part they had in its banishment It was the fad of the hour amongst the peace propagaa- dist. l heard one manly graduate of the university at an alumni dinner tell how he was ring leader in fighting to be rid of the uniform and discipline, only to find in later life it was the very thing which he had most needed. One cause of the softness of so many of our young men when this war broke out was that they had not been compelled to go through any drill, but were per mitted to take athletics in a half hearted manner. I reckon some of the reform. CTS who howied against the playing of baseball and football at our colleges will sing hit low in the future It was the l American's love for these two manly games which fitted thousands of youths 1 to endure the test of the training camps,
 
 | Just as it was days spent in the woods and fields with dog and gun which have made our American soldiers along with