The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-05-26
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS


 Ever since I saw the game some
 weeks Nback at Munger Field between 'tbe Partners and the Bulldogs l have
 been eagerly waiting to witness .an-
 other contest between them, for l knew
 it would be for blood.
 To my delight, on picking up The
 Age Herald and scanning the sport page, I read wher> the two were to
 meet in the final clash of the season.
 but through some strange freak I got 1 it into my head that the game would
 be staged at Eagle Field.
 | I worked all the morning getting things in shape so I could run out and
 feel carefree as the collegians swat
 ted the ball and raced round the dia-
 mond. Somehow it's hard for me to
 get all the pleasure there Is to be had
 out of show, a picnic, game or
 any form of amusement If my days
 task is not well in hand.
 l I had written my story, visited around among the stores, attended the l Salvation Army dinner. and was back
 at the office to see if anything de- nianding my attention had turned up.
 There were no calls and nothing in
 my box. About 2:So in strolled pr. c.
 c. Daniel, president of the Birming- ham Southern, and I remarked that T
 hoped it wouldn't rain, as I was all
 keyed up for the game"
 l He answered: T never pay any att tention to the weather. l just paddle I along, rain or shine. For some years
 it has been my custom on the first of
 January to buy an umbrella. as I feel one is all I can afford in twelve month. I have carried one for month | without losing it or having 1t appro- priated, but usually at the end of two weeks I am without one. It is great comfort to know that for eleven
 months I'll not have to be on a strain
 to decide whether I ought to take one
 with me. or bother about leaving it" l He went out, all the time thinking that l knew that the game was to be 1 on Munger Field, but with a strange jperversity I waited until 2:45 and then | took a Tidewater car and was carried !, ou. to Howard College. I got off and, l starting up the campus, was surprised to see only one automobile parked near the main building and no one in sight. I thought mighty little interest l was being taken in what promised to be the hottest ball game of the collegi- 1 ate year.
 1 I had gotten about half way up the
 walk when out of the building came lDean John c. Dawson and Professor l Chapman. They began to smile as soon as they saw me, and when they i got in speaking distance said: We'll l bet you have made a mistake and come
 cut here to see a ball game when it is
 scheduled to be played at Munger's l Field. Don't you ever read The Age-i l Herald?" Now, I was completely talk
 en back, for I do read it. I mean other
 things beside Men. Women and 1 Things.
 |
 | The joke was on me and I owned
 up, but stopped long enough to tell 1 them of an experience I had when edi- 1 tor of the Alabama Baptist. It was | during the fall association meetings when time was precious and expen- sive to get over the state. I left Bir- niIngham for Enterprise and had to l spend the night in Ozark getting down l | I walked around to the church and it
 was closed. I then went to the pas
 torium and asked the preacher why the people were so late in assembling. 1
 l He looked at me quizzically and lthen broke out in peals of laughter after telling me it was postponed, say ling: Well, if this ain't good one l on you Brother Barnett!" I had | |, l>t fAx Iaft irc me about it, showing that I was bit lhurt over the loss of time and money. He went on and told me that the mo- tce of the postponement had been pub- llished on the front page of the Ala 1 bama Baptist, and then with sly thrust asked, Don't you ever read ycur own paper?" I was sore enough
 to reply, No only print it and leave it's reading to others
 was in perfect sympathy with the | college man, who, finding himself out west hungry and strapped, took a Jop | as a waiter in a restaurant lie Knew no one and no one knew him, but one day, as he looked over the counter, he idiscovered that the man on the stool fin front of him was college mate. He made himself known and began to commiserate with his waiter chum for having fallen on such hard lines. only to be told Don't waste any sympathy
 on me; it's true I wait here, but don't eat here"
 i Now, when I start out to see ball game I am not easily discouraged, and so I doubled back on a Tidewater and got off down near the Owenton Meth
 odist Church and made my way up the hlll to the Munger Field just as the fourth inning gave the Partners the lead over the Bulldogs. It wasn't very happy entrance for me. for being a Baptist, my hopes were naturally icentered on the Howard boys. and 1 sc mething seemed to tell me that they were in for a drubbing. The fifth ln- ming was bad one for them but good one for the Methodists.
 It was a threatening afternoon. The clouds were getting ready to let down more than a sprinkle. The thunder rolled and the lightning flashed, and soon there was scurrying for the street cars and the automobiles. II was sad time for the Eastenders but "a joyous one for the Westenders. for | they had sewed up the game with a score of to 1. thereby breaking even on the series, the final reckoning be- | ing fifty fifty for the season. It l may be treason for me to say ,it but do mot think the Bulldogs would have won if the rain had not interfered, for lit seemed to me the Partners were on the alert.
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