The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-14
MEN. WOMEN
 AND THINGS

At last one of my boyhood dreams has come true. Clouds always had a fascina- ton Tor me. As child spent hours Hat or my back looking at them as they floated above me in the blue.
 
 IL was my ambition some day to be able to poke my nose through a fleecy one, to dive in on one side and after oeing hid for bit dart out on the other side. It was but a childish fancy and yet IL has come true and the experience was pleasanter than I had ever thought it could be-
 l nave often been humorously intro duced or referred to as sky pilot" but little did l suspect that the time would come when l would be literally winging may way heavenward with eyes fixed into the boundless depths of Gods great ocean of blue above the smoke and tur- moil of the fretful earth.
 Alter my first trip up in the sky when Pilot Steele had given me the third de- gree some of my friends asked me if wasn't scared to death, but I answered no, for I was in such state of exalta- tion that thought of any possible danger had passed completely from my mind and was exulting in at last Swimming around in the air
 may have been in the same fix that l found myself when about 10 years of age. was driving down Broad street in Eufaula with my oldest brother, Will. the father of Mercer, and the horse be- coming frightened ran away, and thought it was great and was sitting up having the time of my life and laughing uproariously at his fruitless efforts to stop the mare I recall how it got on his nerves, and he turned to me and said: Shut up, you little goose, you your danger"
 Now, I know l am going to disappoint some of my readers and cause a few of my best friends to accuse me of posing. but l utterly failed to have all the har- rowing sensations described by other newspaper men who have made flights. never had any dread before I went up with Pilot Steele at Wright Field, Mont gomery, or fear while in the midst of the aerial circus, or bad after effects when l came down to earth. The whole performance was a pleasurable one.
 1 had d fine Scotch collie, a perfect beauty in the canine world. but my boys and the neighbors' children took such liberties with him. by running their hands down his throat in what seemed to me to be an effort to turn him wrong side out that for fear his patience might give way some day, I thought it best to get rid of him as there was a mad dog scare on and I had visions of rabies.
 
 I went down to Loveman, Joseph x Loebs and said to Leo: II have d fine dog that l want to get good home for, how about wishing him on youY he an- swered that nothing would please him better" and calling Jim, his chauffeur, he told him to get in his car and go out
 
 yard but he wouldn't get in the car with out me- and I had to hold him in. A week or two afterwards I met Jim and asked him if he had gotten used to the automobile, and with grin. he replied: MT. Barnett, that dog is gwine to get natural born joy rider and sits on the front seat and howls if l don't burn the wind
 The only difference between me and my dog is that no one had to coax me to get in a biplane, as they did him to get in car and no one had to hold me in to keep me from jumping out We are alike in that as he soon got the love Of motoring and the speed mania, I too ac- qLired the flying habit, and 1 am afraid that I have lost all fondneSs for auto mobiling, and that the Ford I was saving up to buy will be put aside for little Curtiss flyer, the gnat of the air that will devour the road lice"
 For r years I went up and down the state in the interest of the Alabama Bap- tist the denominational state paper which 1 owned and edited made trips on horse back, in sulkies, buggies. car riages and wagons over all kinds of roads. remember the first association I went to in an automobile. It frightened al. the horses en route and when 1 got to the church every body was mad and 1 did no business They didn't like it be- cause it scared their teams and they didn't like me because it placed me among the wealthy class. For long while I absolutely refused to use a car but not as long as "Breck'' Musgrove, for he vows it took him ten years before he would ride in or buy one.
 After particularly hard trips I used to say in my talks out in the churches far from the railroads: Brethren, I know you put the associations as far back in the hills and valleys as you can so that the visiting brethren representing the de- nominational interests will have d hard time to find you, but you wait and one day l will be able to jump off one of the skyscrapers in Birmingham in my airship and light right in the field joining the church grounds.
 Well, it looks like that day is coming rapidly, fer already in Alabama there are corporations with flying machines for pleasure and business purposes look ing for purchasers, and I expect to live to see the time when the air will be thick with aeroplanes, and that my sons will be holding me up for money to pay their fares over well established air routes, both in and out of the state. I am glad that I have lived long enough to have seen some of the triumphs of aeronautics
 
 People are funny. I remember when I NY at ha f,;r ;e-