The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-05-22
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Did you ever have to wait at Calera? If not you have done mighty little travel ing in Alabama. In the Is years that have been going up and down the state l figure out that I have put in at least So days in the little town which claims to be near the center of our great common wealth.
 began to learn to possess my soul in patience" back in the old days when the Centennial hotel was the lounging place of stranded wayfarers. and I once said 1 that if I ever had any money to give | to cor Etribute to the welfare and happi- ness of the citizens of Alabama that l would endow a reading room at Calera, where those caught between trains could pass away their time without contem- plating suicide. I am glad. however, that at present things have improved and it is not such a bad place to wait ! as it once was. l I'll never forget an incident which hap pened to me a few years back, when the question of putting prohibition in the constitution of Alabama was even more heated matter of discussion than is the present effort to put it into the fed
 eral constitution. (And this is written the day before the democratic executive
 committee is scheduled to meet at Bir- nlingham to settle the knotty problem of
 submission to the people)
 -
 I was sent down by the committee to make a speech in favor of the amend ment to Calera, when it was in it's zenith as saloon town. I was under orders to speak out in the open in order to reach lthose wEo would not think of going into Ia church or hall to listen to temper lance address. The little town was all agog with excitement for feeling was running high.
 I got off the train. There was no com mittee of citizens to meet me. l had been requested to report to a friend ol the cause I gathered up my grip and started on my way. Just as turned
 corner, a fellow with just enough aboard to be friendly greeted me with a smile and said, T shay. are you the young Heller from Birmingham who is going to make a prohibition speech?'' admitted lit. He gave me a look of perfect joy as he replied, Well thank God, ole New
 Orleans will Eever go dry" It was his
 hope and salvation.
 But did not sit down to write about
 Calera, but to say am at Chehaw, an otbar .,,rra maftiue nlace.
 Frequently under one management
 great transportation system will come
 under an aesthetic spell and made ar
 effort to beautify its right-of-way oI
 make it's depot surroundings attractive land homelike and then change comes
 and the new crowd. being rank utinta' rians laugh at the silly fad of their pre- ldecessors and straightway let what they l have done die for want of attention But it seems that this road has con
 tinuity of purpose and keeps up wort begun more than quarter of century tago.
 went through the gate into the gar den and all around me were specimens O shrubs which cannot be matched in al ! Birmingham. I have been in Kew Gar dens in London. in the Jardin de Plante at Paris, and in the Boston Arboretun' ibut here at Chehaw are some ornamenta bushes that are in class by them selves There is a pair of dwarf cedar tthat in themselves are worth trip t. Isee. There are other glorious varietie
 that are in a class by themselves. Il It seems that for more than score o wears William Merna, lovingly known a
 Uncle Billy.'' was in charge of all tn gardens on the line He did not loo
 on it as a job to care for them, but | lhim 1t was his pleasure and his pride
 and so he dug and planted and trinme and watered. and now that he is no more all up and down the road they are liv ? ling monuments testifying to his love fo tree and flower. IL seems a fitting thin
 that his son has taken up his work an