The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-08-18
MEN, WOMEN
AND THINGS

/ IN an automobile with Dr. Lokey, and
in crossing the 21st street viaduct
saw that lot of broken glass had been
/ set in cement along the top of wall
of an abutting building.
1t was done as the building of the
bridge with the parapet had made 1t
easy for ay one to step on it and
/ climb on the roof Broken glass was
hoary with age as a preventive to
keep out intruders in the older coun-
tries where stone walls, are used as
ENCLOSURES. before barbwire was in
vented here in America.
1 have heard the story about the late
John W Gates and it sounds like a
| true one for it is in keeping with his
common sense and his ingenuity to put
| things over. 1t seems that the factories
were finding it hard to get it used, and
| particularly in the great southwest
which offered such an opportunity for
I, it's use and sale
Agent after agent falling to nut IT
over at last John w. concluded that
he would take the matter in hand and
SO he lit out for one of the great border
cattle towns and got permission to
erect stock fence made of barbed
wire in the open square and then filled
it with steers and put out a reward
for any cowboy who could stampede
them and make them or.,ak through.
1 can remember how great was the
prejudice against it's use. L recall
when living at Jackson, Miss, that my
brother S T. Barnett bought a fine
trotting horse from Columbia, Tenn,
known as wild Bill" on account of
his proneness to do the unexpected, and
from the fact that when the time for
him to be shod rolled around it was
a public event, being equal to a wild
west show. The different smiths try
ing but once and then giving it up.
At last they had to build stocks and
charged premium for shoeing him.
My brother was the only one who
seemed to be able to drive him or get
any pleasure out of it. know l never
took a chance unless he held the lines.
! Wild Bill' with negro swinging
from the bride used to come out of the
stable on two legs to go dashing madly
up the street to the amusement of the
public, while 1 sat tight not knowing
what was ahead of me.
In those days it was my brothers
custom to spend the summer in Sara
toga, but it never meant that / was
going to have the pleasure of using
his horse and buggy, for handling stock
has never been one of my accomplish
ments. I (never considered that 1 was
a good driver) and 1 never shined on
horseback though l rode great deal
in the old days before automobiles put
old Dobbin on the blink.
I'll get back to barb wire. for when
the time came for brother Sans outing
he arranged to have wild Bill put
in a pasture; but even the pricks of
! the sharp pointed wire thorns could
not keep him in the field and at last
in an effort to get out he almost tore
his legs and sides into ribbons and had
to be sacrificed. 1t was my first knowl-
edge with barb wire
1 used to hear the late "Joe" Wood
ward tell of his experience on his big
ranches with wire cutters for in the
early days the use of barb wire fences
was as bitterly resented in the west
as was the coming of the homesteaders
Dr. of "a oh
spelled civilization and the closing of
the open ranges which had been the
custom from time immemorial He had
some exciting times, and 1 always en-
joyed getting him in a reminiscent
mood
But back to the use of glass as
means of keeping intruders out of
yards and gardens. One of the things
that made a big impression on me
when 1 was put in a private school at
Neuil1y surSeine, near the famous Bots
de Boulogne was the fact that the
select institution was hid from out
side gaze by a stone wall on which
broken glass was affixed in cement
making it difficult to climb without
serious injury.
l soon learned that most of the great
walled institutions used the same pre-
caution and that even many OF the pri-
vate grounds attached to residences had
adopted similar precautions. In all my
stay at the French school l never even
SO much as heard of any boy who had
the temerity to Try and scale the wall.
The gate was a ponderous iron affair
with lock and key that might have
done service for the Bastile itself.
For years number of our American
penal institutions resorted to Embedding
broken glass on the top of the sur
rounding walls to make it hard for
prisoners to get away, but 1 believe
that at present it is not being done in
any of the modern prisons as it has
been found much more effective to
make use of live wires which not only
means DEATH but has a mighty effect
on the imagination of those who might
otherwise try to escape, as the mere
thought of being burned to death by
electricity is enough to put fear into
the heart of the most desperate crimi-
nal
II it was as rare TO find broken
glass in the streets as ii to find II in