The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-01-24
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

| 1 udNS OItGI HGAIu IL SthlQ that a pOpu-
 lar debutante is one of the hardest worked persons in the community if she
 attempts to keep up all of her social en- gagements and attend every function to
 which she is bidden.
 1 sss
 am believing It's equally true of ev-
 cry reporter who has to cover the va-
 ricus meetings. lunches and dinners being pulled off in Birmingham just at present. for it Is just one thing after another,
 and happy Is the editor who can get an off night to be at home with his wife
 and kids.
 | For months I have been living in a whirl. A mere catalogue of the public meetings I have attended would bulk large, and the food I have eaten at | lunches, dinners and banquets would
 feed a regiment. Everybody is doing it. used to say in the old days when I was doing the society act that I knew every new gown in town and could call off the menu at every dinner party with
 out lingering the bill.
 It is getting so now that at many of I tho dinners or meetings at the Tutwiler, one of the old guard can call the roster off on the crowd who regularly fore
 gather for they are the picked men and
 women of the city. In fact, I am rather proud that there is a class of public spirited citizens who can be counted upon to come together to eat, talk and plan to put needed things across.
 But Tuesday night at the Southern club, which is also one of the favorIte places for public entertainments, many new faces were seen. Some were "out- I siders' coming in from various states. while many more were from the differ- ent sections of Alabama. To be more | accurate there were present men from more than 70 counties.
 It was a significant gathering. My
 friend. J. F. Pierce. editor of the Hunts | vile Times, had not put in F hours in an effort to get to Birmingham for a dinner any more than had ex-Congress- man Taylor come all the way from Mo- ] Men from all sections had braved the weather and put up with the inconve- nience of overcrowded and delayed trains, not to eat, and enjoy one another's com panionship, but to plan momentous campaign.
 It's not my purpose to enter into the merits of the issue which caused busy n,er to lay aside their affairs and make long and tiresome trips to confer with one another. It's sufficient to know that it was important enough to make them do so. Economic, moral, social and po- litical motives were the urge which ance, filling the great dining room of the Southern club to overflowing. For IS years have been going up and down Alabama until know many of the key men in every county; yes, in every city; yes, in every town. made 1t my business to go about among the crowd
 Tuesday night before they filed into the fbe autiful banaueting room, and for fear that had not checked them up, after they were seated I went from table to table looking them over and greeting friends from the various sections of Ala bama.
 I was very much more interested in the home people present than I was in the visitors from the outside. knew the guests as men of national reputation. was glad to welcome them, but to me they were professionals. What I wanted to do was to check up on the natives. There were quite few present who surprised men who had consistently fought the en-
 croachment of prohibition. Many were among the bitterest opponents of the amendment.
 If anyone had come out to hear the Anti Saloon league and its directors and 1 followers give out a lot of sentimental or rabid talk they were disappointed.
 If anyone came expecting to hear a revo- lutiorary programme outlined they went away unsatisfied. The speeches at the dinner by leading men in all walks of 1 life were sane, sober and conservative | I was struck by one thing. A note of triumph ran through every speech. There wasn't single doubter in the lot. Every man confidently spoke as if the ratifi- cation of the national amendment would
 be carried. No one seemed timid or apologetic. It was the consensus of opin- ] ion that the way to win an overwhelming victory was to put the anti-ratification-
 ists on the defensive.
 | One thing developed and that was that
 the state was going to be thoroughly organized and that nothing would be left
 to chance The suggestion that an Hour a-Day Club be formed in every com
 munity met with hearty response. Men
 an hour a day to doing missionary work
 among those who were against ratifi- cation. It seemed foregone conclusion that sufficient funds would be raised
 to finance the campaign. The sum set
 was to be from $so.0oO to s5oooo.
 1 The high school auditorium was packed
 to it's capacity to hear Mir. Bryan, who
 made one of his set prohibition speeches l He was in good form and spoke for 1,o, ar1 I,olf