The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-06-01
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

This is to be the story about the great.
 est fellow in the world" l never met him until Friday, although I had been
 hearing constantly about him ever since
 became member of the Rotary club.
 Great excitement ran through Rotarian circles when 1t was announced that | Frank Mulhoiland was coming to Bir-
 mingnam. I thought Joe Rosenberger,
 Bob Ewing and Sol Jacobs would throw
 a fit. Even Uncle Ed Andrews was aglow with pleasurable anticipation.
 
 Gee, It must be great to be able to
 create such furor by the sheer force 1 of personality. The minute I got my
 eyes cn the x-InternationaI Rotary
 president, I scored him as a somebody"
 Yes, sir, l put him down in my little
 note book as Frank Mulholland. per- 1 sonality. plus"
 It's the funniest thing in the world, hut every Rotarian asked to give me line on the distinguished visitor gave me a
 plying look as much as to say. Shame on you for not knowing the greatest fel-
 low in the world until at last I got peeved.
 I said that what you all say may be true, bu. as yet having failed to come l under his hypnotic spell, and to ward against it so that I can let the public
 in on it, will some of you come out of your trance long enough to quit handing me the parrot phrase. "4e is the greatest
 fellow in the world" and state few facts about his past life.
 Now, I know I am going 10 be chal- l lenged by the statement that was unable to get out of any Rotarian any 1 intelligiblc outline of his career, further 1 than that he was the greatest fellow l in the world" It was just up to me to | take their statement on faith and act ac. cordingly
 1 Losing all hope of getting any details from any of my Rotarian brothers, | fell back on the newspaper mans best | friend, the old red volume, Who's Who |
 compiers would have the greatest Get low in tho world" listed, and sure enough on page ITO I got some data. |
 Item one. He is lawyer, and this IS why the Birmingham Bar association had him as their guest at their luncheon
 in the Civic association. It was here l %.se power of his oratory and the charm of his manner and was being prepared to join the Rotary chorus, He is the great est fellow in the world"
 l Now. I am here to tell you that any | fellow who can arouse interest at a
 meeting of the Birmingham bar and make them run over the hour set for ad- 1 journment has a right to be cIassed as l "spellbinder,' for when the clock struck l ?, instead of everybody getting up, as | they did when I addressed them few l weeks back, there were loud cries of 1 Go on! Go onI'
 1 I thought Val Nesbits introduction l had queered him for the moment for Val referred to him as having been the chief counsel in two of the most famous cases which have been tried in America l in the rast few years. But tho ready and genial Frank started laugh by saying, T hope my lawyer friends will not judge me by my record in the Danbury Hat case, and the Mooney trial for I lost them both"
 l Mulholland has pleasant face to look upon, voice that carries well, a man. ner that is natural, and matter that is worth while. Any one having these four things can get by even on the chautauqua circuit, W here Frank is at present star- ring, not because he is bitten by the l lecture bug, because he saw chance to serve his country by telling the wonder full things he has recently seen abroad, and thereoy arouse the people to get into the war whole-heartedly and as quickly as possible
 I do not think any speaker who has spoken in Birmingham has made us sec the final part that America must play in | the air so graphically and forcibly as did Mulholland, who had studied the question at first hand and learned just how important it was for us to hurry up our aircraft programme if we wanted to put the Kaiser out of business in the shortest possible way with the least loss of life
 His tribute to what he had seen of the Red Cross work on the field made all present happy over the thought that Bir- mingham had so far oversubscrfbed it's allotment. He brought out with telling effect that the Germans were stealing the boys of the conquered countries and Tear ing therl for future soldiers The pa thetic tale of the mother whose 6-year-old boy was taken from her side made tears come to many eyes.
 at the Tutwiler and saw him at his best, surrounded by men of his own kind who had been indoctrinated with the Ro tartan idea that "He profits most who serves best" It was here that I suc- cumbed fully to his witchery and was willing to set him down as "the greatest fellow in the world"
 But as you who read this may not have been one of those present, I will