The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-04-25
MEN, WOMEN
AND THINGS

have been writing about actors
, doctors lawyers, preachers, bankers
, statesmen and army men, but now
lam going to write bit about modest
Ilayman who is a mighty force Tor
righteousness in Alabama.
Monday there came into our midst
\ a little man. so far as physique is con-
lcerned. n man unlike Senator J. ham
Lewis. who makes you turn around TO
get another look at him, but in over
looking him you well have missed the
chance of seeing mighty fine fello"'
And who is this unobtrusive man
who numbers his friends throughout
the state by the thousands? 1t is none
other than Leon C. Palmer, general
secretary of the Alabama sunday
School association, with headquarters
in Montgomery, a born organizer ana
manipulation of men in the best sense
of the word.
Now. while my friend Palmer never
tseeks the spot light for himself and
is truly modest man, he is what We
newspaper men call "a hound for pub
licity" for the work he represents
And he gets away with it because we
all know that his heart is in his joo
and that it is Sunday schools and not
himself that he wants put on the news
page.
/ compliment myself by thinking it's
| rather hard for any one to put one
I over me in the religious paper I edit
4 but just to show you the ability OF
| Palmer as a Sunday school advance
| agent, in spite of the fact that the
| Alabama Baptist was running two full
pages, the one for home and the 9TH
err for foreign missions, he walks in
and gets full illustrated page for his
state convention. I take off my hat to
him for getting me to fall for it,
| A friend of mine who knew Senator
j. Hamilton Lewis in the old Savannah
days when he was a stenographer and
a struggling young lawyer, spoke of
him as u born secretary. He said it as
a compliment. It's no disgrace to be
stenographer. Be it known that Pres
ident Wilson to this day uses short
hand and does not feel that he
| is too great to sit down and dig out
his wonderful phrases OIL a type
writer.
| I take great pleasure in thinking of
Woodrow Wilson, the greatest demo-
crat in the world, and vet with more
real power than any king, and the man
who is going to give the Kaiser his
knockout blow as being not above
tracing the mystic signs of shorthand
with his own right hand or punching
| the keys with his own we'll trained
| fingers 1t gives me a fellow feeling
! for him, for I am now digging out ms
living by playing on Miss Remington.
! / am Of the opinion that the world
1 has never yet realized it's obligation
| to the men who do secretarial work.
Few are conscious of the tremendous
amount of planning and labor which
has been put behind the meetings
which. they. attend before they were
possible. 1 am so often behind the
scenes that have an idea of the
weary waits, the heartbreaks in filing
out a programme, and the nerve mat
ter used up in supplying the places Of
| those who at the last minute failed 10
| show up.
| Leon C. Palmer is what I call a
| glorified secretary in that he does his
work quietly and patiently without
fuss or friction but gets things done
decently and in order and on time.
Now, when a secretary can have this
truthfully said about him he is en-
| titled to wear halo, for the Lord
knows we have suffered enough from
| the loudlunged, publicity loving kind
erings
! I can't prove it, and I quote from
memory, and l have the poorest verbal
memory of any man have ever
known. for while ashamed to publicly
own it, yet l can't say the Lords
Prayer twice the same way without
| examining up on it, and whenever I
| am invited to preach at city church.
and particularly in one not of my own
denomination, the first thing ask is,
do you repeat the Lords Prayer at the
| opening?" for If they do have to learn
| it anew just before entering the pull
pit.
! Well, before l got to wandering |
started out to say that Shakespeare,
| the immortal bard of Avon who
knew everything and the weaknesses
| of men. evidently had the average
twentieth century secretary in mind
when he said, Man, proud man,
dressed in little brief authority plays
such fantastic tricks before high
heaven as to make the angels weep"
may have taken great liberty with
the text, but I have tried to give the
idea. William had 'em sized up right.
| that is If have the right to think
that in looking down the ages he was
thinking of some secretaries whom
have seen strut across the stage
But back to. Palmer. have known
| him for IS years. for this is the num-
Der of years he has given to the work
in connection with the Alabama Stats
Sunday School association. For eight