The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-09-28
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

an old saying that chickens Will come to roost'
 Now. I was born in the center of the great chicken fighting territory on the Chattahoochee river, for Eufaula is sur rounded by Georgetown, Fort Gaines, Abbevile and Clayton. in q country where the littlest boy knew a sure enough him.
 I can remember when we boys used to steal the roosteps out of our yards and put them in croker sacks and swing them on dur backs on saturadys down on the branch in natural amphitheatre in the midst of a pine thicket and have a main all to ourselves,
 Now, don't bear down too hard on me just because I am preacher, for in my 20 years of ministerial life I have never seen a wayside chicken fight that I did not choose my rooster. I just naturally have to take sides. I have often said publicly that I wouldn't have a dog that would as soon trot under some other fel- lows buggy as mine. l am no fence straddler (eyen in congressional elec- tions).
 Now, Charley Hawthorne, quite was and one of the most gifted story tellers have ever known, being in Jim Nixon's class, and higher praise cannot be given in Jefferson county, for those who used to hear the famous old hotel man when listening to one of the best in the land. I used to get my moneys worth in board and then over again as mine host smoked and talked of Birminglams early days and of some of the men who made it. Dick Johnston will bear me out in this, for he used to enjoy him as much as 1 did when we were both young in the newspaper game.
 One of Charleys favorites was about how the family were seated on the front porch just as his fathers and Woods Whites roosters came in growing dis tance of one another with the gate wide opSis SiCoSi tlte4 SOl lO one diiOtuGiJ and soon the lowing and scraping ana circling ceremonies were over and they had made 8 few sure enough passes, when dinner was announced Slowly with eyes turned chickenward, accord ing to his eyewitnessing son, his father moved into the dining room as the chick ems were ranging toward the backyard.
 Charley in telling it before his father always was careful to say that he never lost his dignity, but kept his nerve and his wits about him as he made pretense of eating, but in his stately way turned to Mrs. Hawthorne and said: My dear, don't you think it is very close in here? With your permission I will ask the but Ter to open the window" It was granted amidst howls, and aside came the cur tains, and out went the blinds, and up came the sash, and the great preacher got to see the knockout blow delivered by his fighting bird.
 I remember as a boy of perching many an hour on the back fence of the various barrooms as the game birds were pitted against one another. l can recall at this day, twoscore years having passed, the scenes as wildly as if they were hap pening before my eyes. I can vision the various groups. l can look into the eX- cited faces of the betters. I can catch the anxious solicitude of the owners ot the birds.
 l But I counted it a day wasted if the chicken fight came to an end without l a personal encounter between some of the men. can hear the oaths, the sting ing words of insult the quick blows, the flash of knives, the gleam or the guns, for in those days men drank hard and fought recklessly As a boy it never l struck me as being out of place. It all seemed natural but looking back on it all I am glad that such days and such bama
 l It seems hard to believe, and yet at l some of the county fairs they used to 1 stage in tents chicken mains which brought thousands out and in which scores of birds were killed If any one has ever seen the cold nerve of a game rooster as he stood without flinchings as his enemy gaffed him, he will understand i the scorn intended to be heaped on a man with feathers on his leg who can t stand the gaff.
 Under no circumstance would I ever care to see another main in which chick
 ems are ruthlessly slaughtered by the
 wholesale as angry, excited men rip out
 paths as they make their bets. But l would not be truthful if didn't confess
 that to my dying day expect to always I enjoy the coming together of two well
 matched birds. depending alone on their
 spurs to decide which is the best one of
 the two.
 l have heard much about the infsBence
 of environment, and there is much in it,
 and so if you are disposed to cast me out
 of the synagogue for making the above frank admission. please beax in mind
 that was reared in Barbour county,
 where game chicken was looked upon
 as the greatest bird in the world
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