The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-04-03
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

| mound,
 Speak kindly and cut out the knocks, Here lies Jay Walker in the ground,
 He chose the middle of the block"
 This bit of motorist verse brings to my mind ride I had the other after noon in jitney. We were going down Twentieth street, and had gone several blocks before the jitney driver made q remark, but when a man came near being run over in crossing from the ] Birmingham Trust and Savings Com pany, over to Thompson's. he opened up.
 T see," said he that they have got new nickname for folks who are in such a hurry that they cannot wait to use the regular crossings" They have" Unanswered. "and where did you see it?" "oh. it was in The Age Herald and it shore hits lot of Bir- mingham people. for if we fellows who drive cars didn't keep a close watch we would kill someone every day. Sarah Owens was right in her state ment that jay-walking is still preva- lent in this city of ours, and if you doubt her statement all you will have to do to find out that she did not malgn the public will be to take your stand between blocks anywhere in the downtown district and watch the droves of pedestrians who fit from one side of the street to the other without any thought of waiting to get to the end of he block before so do- ing.
 Not only this, but large percentage of the inhabitants still cut corners un- less a traffic policeman happens to be on the job. recall when the city fath- CTS forbade 1t by ordinance that among the first to be arrested was my good friend, pr. A. J. Dickinson. I attended his trial before the recorder and re- member that Judge Alvin Douglas was on the bench but in spite of the fact that he was one of the doctors mem bers he imposed fine of st.
 l The case created quite a bit of in- | for the papers, but lost sight of it beyond the fact that it was appealed. The other day I met Dr. Dickinson and asked him what became of it and he laughingly said: They fined me dollar in the lower court but were never able to find the dollar in the higher one" I did not press him to state whether it was affirmed, over ruled or dismissed, for all that I cared to know was that he had not been made to part with any coin. l
 ! l read Sarah Owens article when it came out and enjoyed it, and the more ! I thought about it, the more I felt that she was describing me and my walker, I am he. I suppose I ought to hide the fact but from my boyhood lup l had mania for cutting corners. have always been fond of walking and in my younger days was really a good one. and could keep it up all day. had long stride and covered ground, land had fair wind and could last l
 | One of the things that I laugh over one of my first pastorates in the days l before was married the 'possum hunters. when they found out that I was fond of 'possum hunting, made up their mind to take me out and lose me, tire me out, or go into territory | u,l,o framed up on me by putting me with three of the fastest walkers and best winded men in the community. It so happened that one of my friends. a
 Yale graduate was to be victimized on the same trip.
 They started out at swift gait and
 we managed to keep up without ever asking them to slow up, and when they found out that they could not leave us
 behind they changed their tactics and hit for creek bottom and into the swamp they plunged and we at their heels, and to save their face when they got to the bank they had to wade in and we followed suit. Both of us were l uoep water pdptlstS anu nut dlFdlu | of being drowned When the party 1 reached the other side we saw that they were bit worried.
 | They put their heads together and
 struck out for the hilly country and all the time we were at their heels ndarlv killing ourselves with laughter for we knew we had them treed, They
 kept up killing pace until we had reached point about ten miles from town. when they called halt and l decided that it was about time to back ltrack. My friend innocently remarked that he didn't see any use of being in a hurry. that the night was still young
 and there was no sense in starting home until daybreak.
 I knew that had the bunch guess ing. and so a few days after they came
 to my study and said. Now. we will own up that we bragged what we were going to do to you and your friend but somehow we felt that you would pull through because we had seen you tried out on bird hunts. but the thing that got our goat was the way that friend of your just ate up the ground" rOh. that is easy" 1 told them, flor
 he was reared in East Tennessee on a mountain farm where he had to tie himself to a tree to hoe corn, and last ~t-