The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-04-18
MEN, WOMEN
AND THINGS


flashed on the screen for the past few
years. for | make it a habit not to
overlook any shown, for to me they are
wonderfully instructive
have seen the silent line of nation
on the march as Belgians, old men,
women and children, were fleeing before
! the advance or the ruthless Hun. The
sight made me bitter against the Kaiser
and his horde of soldiers, drunk with
the victory of battle.
| have seen the Smelling of churches.
even the dissertation of that priceless
piece of architecture, the cathedral of
| Louvain, which has stood for centuries
lifting on high it's towers as silent senti-
nels to show the Heavenly Father that
his children wanted to give him an
earthly home of beauty in which they
could worship him for many loving kind
nesses.
| l have seen the havoc of ruined homes,
shattered by the merciless vultures of the
air, who with a fiendish smile on their
faces and cruel lips and cunning hands,
| have dropped death-dealing bombs out
| of the sky on unfortifed towns, and
glorified in their hellish pastime, and
called it cyncally war of "'kultur."
| I have seen the hell of shot and shell,
gases filled the air with their horrible
fumes, and shuddered and sat tight as
the fiendish Germans sent forth waves
OF liquid fire, burning trees and scorch-
| ing the earth and literally roasting COM
panies of men.
have seen the great armies locked in
a death struggle as they raced over the
top and made wild dashes into mo Mans
Land" and tore their quivering flesh as
they fought through barbed wire, or
made desperate bayonet lunges at one
anothers unprotected bodies, and at
times with the rage of mad Bersekers
have grappled and clutched at one an
others threats.
I have seen the great crater holes
with terrific force, buryng men as COM
pletely as though they had been swal-
lowed up in an earthquake or pitilessly
buried beneath the outburst of vol
canic upheaval, until had to shut my
eyes in very pity, for it was more than
flesh could bear to see and not become
crazed.
| / have seen the stretcher barriers. the
Iambulances, the hospital train, the in
side of the operating rooms, the broken,
bloody men lying on beds of pain, the
| halt, the MANNED, the blind as they sat
| in the sun in the yards, and what l saw
made me hate the man and the men who
willed this war to carve out an empire
for the Hohenzollern dynasty and for
ever fasten autocracy on Europe.
I have. seen many of the horrors of
1.-THE mad war of the murderous Potsdam
crew of militarists, but it is strange
thing that the thing which caused me
| to choke and tears to come into my eyes
was not a scene of German frightfulness.
but picture of joy which flashed over
4
| the faces Of our boys in France when the
first baseball outfits reached the front.
| Somehow the bats brought the war
closer home to me than the guns, the
balls than the shells, the masks than
those worn to keep out the poisonous
fumes.
! I have seen Clark Griffith. who start
ed the movement to send baseball out
| fits to the boys lover there" l am
thankful that some of them have already
reached the trenches. I am thankful
that men who were accustomed to sit in
the bIeachers and root for their team,
are going to get into game with Kaiser
Bill and bat him and his miserable ag-
gregation of militarists out of the inn
perial box and send the bunch back to
the bush league where they belong. !
am glad that our boys to be in the
world series and that they going to win
1 a pennant for democracy and that the
Stars and Stripes will float proudly, not
merely in America, but will be a symbol
to the greater and the lesser nations OF
the earth of liberty, equality and fra
ternity.
have seen the national games of
many countries, but there is none so
democratic as is baseball, none in which
the spirit of country is so incarnated.
and I have faith that a people who be-
! lieye in such clean and manly form
| of amusement will be sports enough to
stav in the game until they win.
tNl@ass4lI
| I, No ba cehall tea m ever won with