The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-09-02


 Nothing seemed to feaze him. although the city editor gave him hard local as- sgnments in order to take his> measure. Finally he sent him to New York to cover big event. and got his goat; for he soon wired back: Come and get me : don't send anybody, but come yourself; l it'll take you to do it, for I'm so badly rattled Dm sticking to my room, and I'm not going to leave it with any anna teur."
 Every now and then the best of us run across something which overpowers us in spite of our wonted assurance. All of my life had been hearing of gas, but never having been in any of the natural gas fields where millions upon millions Of feet were permitted to go to waste. my knowledge of it was limited to kicking each month for the small amount charged against me by the B. R., L. & F.
 And so when I went out with the Ro- tarians the kiwanians and the Civitans to the new by-product plant at North Bir- mingham the guests of the Sloss-Shef- field Steel and Iron Company, I was wholly unprepared to see such a man. tmoth enterprise within our very doors, lbut after looking it over I wasn't sur prised at the statement of Rotarian A. F. Hike, who built this last word in the way of a by-product plant that 1t had the capacity to turn out billion cubic feet of gas per a1lnum.
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 Night after night sat on my porch looking toward East Birmingham at a flaming torch which lit up the heavens, but did not know that 1t was the escap- ing gas from one of our great industries Which was going to revolutionize the gas service in the Birmingham district, and that some day I might be able to sit by its warmth, as it soon would be cooking food for my table; and that the house. wives were assured that when their ranges got htched onto it there would be no lack of fire in the ovens
 l feel about the new gas supply some thing like the dear old woman, who. living in New York, where all her life
 
 bye charitable organization down to the seashore. She had never seen the ocean, and she sat on the beach and watched the water to the edge of the ho- rizon, and silently noted wave after wave breaking on the shore. Dinner was an- nounced but stin she sat, until some of the party went for her, but she refused | { i in all of her life it was the first time she had ever seen enough of anything. And so they wisely let her sit until she was ready to leave. For long time the. cry of Birmingham was for water, and later came the call for gas. Now, we have l both in abundance.
 | I was sorry that President Mcqueen was hindered from being present, but Hugh Morrow, the vice. proved most excellent host. He is past master when it comes to sitting at the head of the l table. Hugh is as easy and as comfort able as an old shoe, and wherever he has anything in charge you may rest assured that there will be mighty little formality, but that everyone will be sure to have good time, My neghbor, Rus i sell Hunt, the ecretary-treasurer, was on hand, but with his usual modesty was. not much in evidence.
 
 1 think however. that no one will ques ton the statement that A. F. Hike was the star of the occasion. There is some thing big and satisfying about him. When he arose to tell us something about what the millions expended meant. every one present realized that they were looking into the face of a great builder. In in troducing him, Hugh Morrow well said "Mr Hikes success came because all through life he had played the game fair and square to himself as well as to others" He is the best type of the mod ern industrial creator. Now, I am not going to pretend that I understood the use of the many build ings, or caught on to the meanings of the various operations as explained by my guide, for from the moment stepped out of the dining room, where I had been perfectly at home, I found myself in a lana or mystery, where Slant SmOke- stacks loomed heavenward. missing steam shot here and there. great cranes carried their loads easily, cars were shunted over the various tracks, whistles screamed, furnaces roared, bells tangled. To tell the t-utll, I was more intent on saving | ny hide than in storing ny mind with 1 date about by-products Like tn, news paper cub of whom I spoke, all that I wanted was to be led out of the mammoth lildrstry which seemed about to swallow me up. Machinery always has .bulldozed me ever since I got taste of it back in the old days when the Baxter Stove and Manufacturing Company was moved from Louisville here, and occupied the big building which for years stood just north lof the Sloss-Sheffield furnace on First avenue. There was reasons at one time | why should be made its manager, 1 but to tell the truth, when went on the | job, I did not know that stoves were l made in pieces. I lived in mortal dread | of the bursting of emery wheels of the | splutter of the molten iron as it was 1 poured in the molds. A few months of it | lccnvnced me that it was dangerous to I monkey with or around machinery, and | |