The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-09-19
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

I into the news room of The Age-Herald,
 Leon Bradley said, Doctor. did you
 know that Carl W. Alderman was in town7" No" replied, where Is he7" Being informed that he was at the
 TutwiIer sauntered up to the desk and made inquiry for him to be told that he was not registered. That's funny" " answered, flor he has just been talking 'I beg your pardon,' he answered after another search, flor he is in room s52. Without phoning or sending my card up took the elevator and went up and | rapped on the door. A hearty voice said, Come in,'' and in went to get one of the surprises of my life, for Carl W. Alderman, in spite of his varied experi- ences as newspaper correspondent. globe trotter and author, is yet in. his twen- ties. -4. F Now, he looks just exactly like the pictures of the natty athletic college men so dear to the eye of the illustrators who show them forth in the pages of the weeklies and monthlies in all kinds of pastures. Some folks just look clean and wholesome and he just radiated clean Illness and good health, and I was sure after a peep at him that I was in con- tact with a like personality. Being sure-enough newspaper man he is wholly without pose and received me in a natural and friendly manner as a brother worker. I had hardly taken the seat which he had offered me when a rap sounded on the door and in walked Henry Gray, Jr., who had been assigned to interview him. I was just out on my own hook to get a more intimate pie ture of him. laughinsly said, You see, you are such big man that our paper has double-teamed on you" sat while Henry asked him the usual things one asks a passing celebrity. and when he had finished and was. gone began to quiz him on my own account.
 I knew that there was not only one good story in him. but score if ono could get close to him and set him to reminiscing. We had no trouble in es- tabiishing a point of contact. for while I was interested in his stay in Berlin in the center of the excitement of the war fever. he was kind enough to ex- press desire to get side light on Der lin as it was more than a quarter of a century ago when the Kaiser was taking up the burden of his job. It was jolly" as the English say, to sit and talk about things in which both of us had watched the nation which had run mauck in the twentieth century.
 Having kept up with his special ar ticles from abroad and fresh from the reading of his prophetic book. Ger that he had witnessed three revolutions, being familiar with the ores staged in Mexico. Russia and Germany, I had fig ured him in my mind as naughty, scholarly type of a correspondent who looked upon himself as "a commission approach. but his hearty handshake, his cordial greeting. his boyish face. and his air. of genuineness put me at my ease and I knew that was on the eve of a good time, 4
 For after all. what is there pleas anter in life than to touch elbows with a fellow craftsman who has seen and done things. and who is willing to tell what he knows without any show of pa rading his knowledge but just because he is full of 1t, and realizes that he has a nearer eager and willing to listen |. There are some people you never know, and then there are others with whom you can buddy" without waiting for years of friendship. There is something recognizable by both parties which turns the trick. Well. we chummed from the start. and when we parted after two days comradeship felt that had found a man worth tieing to- and one of the
 best rounded characters had ever met. Now, why do I say this? Because in l man has packed more into his life before l reaching the age of 30 than most men who have passed their three score years 1 and ten. he was still opened eyed, un-
 spoiled and wholesome in his outlook upor life. Loving his work, adoring his wife l foolish about his child. enthusiastic abou, his Jersey fArm-yet he was racing over
 the country in the hope that some word
 he might be able to write or say wouic
 have weight in solving the problems ol
 Ia hor and capital.
 1 It was my pleasure to bring him r
 touch with bankers. merchants, manu facturers, labor leaders and Q few of tn,
 representative negroes, and then to es
 cort him to the KiwAnis club and sit b,
 him and hear his sane and sensible sais
 about what he had gleaned in his toul of 9 states and also to give him {
 birdseye view of our residential section
 and by the merest good luck to be abls
 to introduce him to one of our lovelies
 matrons whose beautiful home sits or the crest of Red mountain and let hiu see inside of a cultured Birmingham homo
 which was a revelation to him on accoun,
 of it's hoinelikeness and elegance.
 ] Now, he met everyone with the sams 1 frankness. for there wasn't the least evi dence of subservience in talking to ths men representing great capital or ol tpatronage in his intercourse with those