The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-30
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

told in this column how I had bought a book on quilts. then went to much pains to define the meaning of the word quilt" and now I am going to try and tell something about them.
 Now l am not prepared just now to trace the history Of the quilt back be- yond the coming of the settlers to our shores, for if give the leading incidents about them from Colonial days down to the present will have taxed your pa tience.
 To our grandmothers quilt making meant social pleasure as well as necessary toll, and to their grandmothers it ghve solace during long vigils in pioneer ca bins. Sometimes I think we care too lit- tie about the story of the women who braved the terrors of a sea voyage, who faced with undaunted courage the saw ages, who gave up their comfortable homes for the rough hewn ones in the wilderness.
 which went before and even after the Revolutionary struggle. We have been too content to read the story of Greece and Rome, or confine our attention to the ones in the Bible, or to follow in the wake of the kings and queens as they made their entry on the stage of modern Europe, but some of whom today are feel ing the mighty arm of the great sons of the west.
 I used to have a friend, a man of cul- ture, but startling direct in his Sochtlc method of dealing with those with whom he happened to be thrown. We had sat directed by one of the worlds greatest leaders, and had come out of the audi torium into the exposition grounds Ths songs and the music of the orchestra SUI: fingered in my ears, when, without mo- tice, he stopped in his tracks and, look ing me squarely in the face, said: Bar nett, do you know anything about Amer ican history?"
 It was almost like a blow in my face put it brought me immediately out or my musical dream. I answered that ln a general way l had studied the history of my own country, but that, as q matter of fact I had not really taken it up pe- riod by period in a manner that 1t richly deserved That is just it." he fired back "I confess that I know very little about it, and what's more I haven't of friends who know any more about it than l do, and I take shame for myself and for them' It shook me up to the extent that set to work to remedy it and for some years have greatly enjoyed the marvel ous history made right here in America. i am thinking now of years ago sitting next to strong young man who came out of the mountains of East Tennessee and who has been serving his country as member of the military committee of congress during the war.
 | It was a class room in the graduate department of Yale, and the professor l was lecturing about the women of pio' l take the wool after the shearing of the sheep and card it and weave it and make it into clothes. My friend at my side turned and proudly whispered in my ear, My mother can and has often done | that, for my father went into the heart of the hills and with his own hands felled the trees and hewed the logs and built the cabin, while mother did her part as only the pioneer women knew hoT to do it"
 1 So it won't hurt any of you who live m steam heated, electric lighted modernlv equipped establishments to take time to lonial days and watch them as they sew bits of cloth together, or bend above the frames as they stitch the upper and lower
 materials together, having filled in be- tween with wool or cotton or feathers. II will be like breath of cold air to some of our hot house plants of this twen- tieth century.
 I have been pouring over the pictures l of the handiwork of some of the old time uuilters and there is beauty about then,
 which makes as strong an appeal to me
 as does the wrinkles in the faces of many of the dear old farmers wives whose fea- lures in spite of toll are sweetened by the fact that the crows feet had come not ou iaccount of worldly dissipation but in do. ing the thousand and one chores about the house which made for the comfort oi husband. children and guests.
 
 God-A4ess the toilworn wives and the dear old grandmothers throughout tho land who day after day go about then homely tasks with n dev otion which is consecrated into a sacrament by it's to tai lack of self. For nearly a score o | years here in Alabama l have gone LII and down the state and at night been a
 visitor in many an humble home where Christ was always a welcome guest, ant His Holy Spirit was present to give 2 halo to the little earthly domestieities
 which, after all, sweeten and are th'
 best things in life.
 T Many time after the supper had beer
 served, the children tucked in bed I hay,
 seen the womenfolk come silently into
 the room where the men were and in :
 corner by the fire finish the days worl
 by quietly sewing scraps of colored cloth. 1 together against the time when thu
 squares would grow in number unti
 ready for the taking down of the fram'
 and the final stuffing and stitching. | almost feel glow of comfort at th' ! ,,,op,orv of many times when chilled