The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-17
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

 his friends to know about william" his faithful servant
 Now, his intimates knew of the real devotion existing between the two. and just because it shows that there may be bond of real sympathy between a mas ter and servant l am going to set out here the true tale of white man and a black man.
 have always maintained, in spite of the coming of the trained white servants. that the old ante-bellum negro man servant was the best valet in all the world. He may not have known some of the things possessed by the Japanese, but am sure that he was able to put more heart into his job.
 have often wished that a book might have been compiled in which the stories of the negroes who followed their mas ters to the war were recorded, for I am sure that 1t would have been a revela- ton to the northerners who were fighting to give them their freedom. It would be one long tale of faithful and loyal serv- ice
 We talk about manners. and the un- mistakable air of breeding which we never fail to recognize in certain type of the old school aristocrats, few of whom still live-thank God!--to remind us of time when the south was justly noted far and wide for its hospitality, and the doors of every southern home swung wide to receive. guests. But if the air was noticeable In the masters 1t was also In evidence in the servants. I have known some of the bodyguards of the dominant men In so- ciety, church and state, and there was a courtesy about them which was inde- but saw. moving picture recently. I think 1t was called "Tobys Bow''-any- way, 1t showed on the screen the bow the family servant reserved for the fam fly. There was a reverence and a. caress in 1t which was never bestowed on out sidera
 So close a student of human nature and customs as was Charles Dickens. on his visit to America, was brought under the charm of manner of an old servant who opened the door of g Richmond home at which the great author had knocked to pay a visit. It 50 impressed the Englishman that he wrote home about 1t and stated that. despite the traditions of the old family servants in England, he had never seen so fine sense of genuine interest shown guest. or more sincere and fattering regret that the master was out.
 It may put me in the provincial class, but I had rather have negro butler. driver, gardener than a white servant I greatly prefer to be waited upon by them in hotels, in fact, 1t must be born in me, but I have never gotten accustomed to having white people attend to my wants. Even when they are highly trained. there is just something missing which I can't Bates Posts Japanese valet, but he was just competent mulatto.
 
 men of the south who were born before or shortly after the close of the war, but somehow the old type negro came nearer tosbeing a member of the family than any other class of servant ever will be. Any one who had a negro nanny" will know what I mean. just every one who used to be scolded as child by the ! | plantation. It is just something that has I to be felt. The threat, q am gwine to | tell ole master or ole mistress on you, | had the power to stop any devilment on | foot
 | And then, the negroes themselves boast | ed that they belonged to ''Marse'' So-and- so. This was the proudest thing in the i life of the man. jtst as was the boast or his wife, that she belonged to Ole Miss" The ones who belonged to the | great old families of the south felt that they were quality" negroes, and they even looked down on what they called poor white trash' It was disgrace to
 be sold out of a ruling family into one | of lesser degree
 l I have friend who is an agnostic, and IT remember his telling me about his | boy, Frank. Said he; T have never talked to him about religious matters 1 but he is just chuck full of the Bible
 stories told him by his nurse and the | cook. and I believe that he has been in I doctrinated in religious strain that i will greatly influence his whole life I 1 merely cite this to show that as a class negroes are intensely religious in an emo
 tional sense. They live in an atmo- sphere which is permeated with it.
 But back to the story of Ross Smith
 William for years, even before the
 marriage of Culpepper Exum, had been his manservant. He loved him with an urdying love, and served him with a loyalty which was touching during the illness which ended in his death It happened that Williams only brother
 went down during his masters sickne and "Cull' asked about him daily. He
 died. but when questioned. William
 never told him. as he feared it might excite him overnuch. but simply said, "oh. he is all right
 | I wish what l am now going to relate
 might be published in every paper on the other side of the Mason and Dixon line Through the long night William