The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-30
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

| We hear great deal in these days ahoat the Notation of stocks and it isn't at sll inappropriate to say that while the. latter in some cases is an adven- tare in finance. the word at one time was Limited to mans ability to keep himself and his goods afloat
 Just for a moment again call atten- | ton to the forward march of the man Who gathered on the banks of stream or laSe brush of some floateble kind and ted them together with twigs. 70 be, 5eattn in speed by the fellow who dug
 burned out tree and fashioned a roth for guiding and swiftness.
 
 tss caua no Idouot, rafts. floating loss oF bandles of brushwood or reeds or rushes tied together; later tas a1nans the Egyptians the buoyancy or the wattIed willows was increased by the Initiation or skins; then dugorts, followed trees. Virgila in his Georgics tells us in glofifying the dawn and early progress 1 of the arts of rivers, then first the hol- lowed alders felt"-this in spite of the fact that the alder is q heavy wood and not ft for rafts.
 The era of canoes. of barks or of skin stretched on framework or inflated skins ' then dawned, and another chapter was added to navigation. It is believed that # vas later that canoes or boats of pieces of wood stitched or fastened to- getner with news or thongs of vege- lIshle growth, were used. Tho next evolu- tion was Vessels of plank, stitched or bolted together with inserted ribs and decks or half decks, to be followed ralurally by vessels of which the frame work was first set up and the planking of the hull nailed on it subsequently,. \ Thus it will be seen that up to recent times mans attempt, or, rather even in America. with all ofsits ingenuity and resource in the matter of transportation, we were content to make use of the most lrrimitive type of river boats or barges to ti ansport our heavy frcights The Mis- Sissi3pi river, as well as the Warrior, rlade use of crafts which were what tmiglt be called antiques before the birth lof Christ. Ii seems. hard to believe that we were so slow, but it's the truth.
 But before getting to barges, just fur ther word about rffts, for the man who dces not know something of the pie l turosque crafts which at one time were Isr:ol' familiar figures on our rivers. has missed sonfething out of his life, for raft life and manners were in I class by them: elves, and called into being about as rough lot of pioneers as even this mer's hero. Ulysses, or those whe- foi- flowed him on his raft with a raised plat form upon it, made of select trees, with cred of old, exceedingly dry, that might float lightly for him"
 Now. all of you who wish can go to the Odyssey and follow Homer If you choose, but at the risk of being thought lhoth plebeic1n and a poor classical scholar, confess that got more joy cat of Mark Twains graphic picture, which first came out in his Life on the Mississippi. lQf lyny kavn't read it and care anything about a photographic account of befo' the
 war manners in the south, l advise yol to buy it, or better, borrow it.)
 It is in Chapter of this work that ) Mark Twain gives us foretaste from
 tf at inimitable volume of his about Huc!s } | trn, a book which oven the celebrated : T,,gI'sl. critic, Andrew Lang, prophcsied l would be an American classic when much } tiiai was thought immortal would be for gotten In spite of tf:5- Carnegie library : prudes in some parts of the country wht
 tabooed it, I'll go on record as saying
 that the boy who has not had chance to read it has been deprived of par!
 of his birthright.
 If you do not read anything else 1T
 Life on the Mississippi just take this
 tip and read "Frescoes from the Past. Chapter 3, and remember that they are out of the life of one of America s mos unique and original authors. Samue | Langhorne Clemens, known the work round as Mark Twain, for it tells al ! about Huck Films swim out to a lumber , raft, and what he heard and saw. } admit it's strong meat and may upse the literary digestive apparatus of th oversqueamish. but it is Rabelasan in it : earthly flavor.
 Yes, it's rough, for they had a jug
 and tin cups. and they kept the jug nov /. ing, and one man was singing, 'roarinss : you may say; and it wasn't nice son, I for parlor, anyway" I'll give one vers 6 of it merely to>show that our vaudeville s ragtme song and sketch artists and ou y makers of musical records have not out
 done the raft artists: H
 There was a woman in our town,
 In our town did dwedl (dwelD; '' She loved her husband dear-i-lee,
 But another man twyste as wedl' l. -1 Just because we live in the twentiet = lcentury, there even be some bull shoot O ers'' here in Birmingham who take prid # unto themselves for the variety of thei |, output in the way of boastng; but a know them all and so do you, and there e fore I'll not name them; but Will as d the toreadors to read the things whic n Bob and the Child of~Calamity" sai It one to the other on the Mississippi raf aland then forever agree among themselve W to stay out of. the sawdust ring. and ad h init publicly that when it comes