The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-10-06
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS


 national fairs, state fairs. county fairs, town fairs, but got to be present on Thursday and Friday at my first com munity fair.
 Some folks are just natural timers. They will join churches, lodges. clubs or anything which comes along; there arc some people who are bitten by the gad fly and travel Is their de- light; they are the constant gwin' CTS" My wife says I am never hap pier than when I have my grip in my hand.
 One thing do know, and that it. am strong for fairs. Some of the ear Hest and keenest of my recollections cluster around the fairs held at Flu faula. TO me they were but gloyified cifcuses, and any one knows that there is nothing in all the world which ap- peals to a boy like circus.
 I can remember the fairgrounds at Eufaula and the high board fence en- closing it was more wonderful to me than any wall around the great cities of old. And tho grandatapd. with its seating capacity for thousand. was When filled, a sight which sent pleas urable thrill through me. for it ap- peared as if all the people in the world had gathered together.
 I see that some of the balloons in the race which set out from St. Louis are still in the air. I remember simi- lar race which was pulled off about 10 years ago. I happened to be down on the Central of Georgia when one of the balloons came down nearby and the balloonists caught the train into Birmingham. How eagerly they were pouring over their maps and measuring to see how far they had travelled. They had been up several days, and had evil dently had rough sailing. Their faces were drawn and they were dead tired But back to the Eufaula fair. I simply ask, Gan any of you grown-ups ever saw at a fair?' If so, 1t was an event in your life. What thrill got when I glimpsed a child carrying one. And when I came in sight of the Ital- ian with dozens flying aloft. it was the most wonderful and beautiful sight then I got one of my very own. How tight I held it in my hands
 of tragedies. There are tragic things which come into all of our lives, but for sheer tragedy, there is nothing greater that eyer invSdes the life of & boy than to feel his balloon slip out of his hand and watch 1t as it sails away above the heads of the people to be lost beyond the buildings. I have seen the look of absolute helplessness in the eyes of children, and then have felt it myself.
 Can you go back to the night of the day when you took home proudly balloon, and how after playing with it until bedtime came, after shutting
 down the windows. and carefully clos | ing the door with fear but pleasure, ] turned it loose to let it rest up against the ceiling so that when you awoke in the morning, it would be the first thing to greet your eyes. And then how you hustled into your clothes and got broom and famed it down? If you can, then you have not lived in vain.
 The joys and sorrows of children arc so keen. They say that the cry of the child is the same around the world.
 There is nothing winch tugs my heart
 like the vail of an infant, just as there is no sound which so pleases me as
 the laughter of lot of children. This Is one reason I am a Charlie Chaplin
 and Fatty Arbuckle fan, because the best part of the show is to hear the unrestrained glee of the boys and girls or the startled comment of the little | ones just beginning to talk as they
 see some funny stunt shown on the screenA l do not begrudge Charlie Chaplin Ais big salary, for to few has
 been given such a gift to amuse chil- dren.
 Yes. great sorrows have come to all who have grown into manhood or wom- anhood, but was any grief as great as that which came to you when by care- lessness some one punctured your ball. 1 loon. The noise 1t made was as event ful as the crack of doom, the joy of living went out of your life, and you
 refused to be comforted. Or after keep
 ing it for several days, at last the
 air escaped and 1t crumpled up and
 there was not enough wind in your
 lungs in spite of all your efforts to
 blow it up again.
 1 Grown people are not the only ones
 who have to make choice, for carly in
 life the power to choose is developed.
 might get preachy and say that
 after all our happiness depends on our i selective ability. I remember that one of the most momentous things | ever
 had to decide was to show my prefer
 ence in regard to a balloon.---No artist tever studied color more agonizingly
 no woman ever was called upon to pronounced upon the shade of her dress.
 no young man ever fingered so lovingly
 over the picking cut of a- suitable tie.
 as I did on the fairgrounds when 1t