The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-02-05
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Friday morning, while in Montgom- cry Richard Hobbie came by in his car and invited me to take a drive with him and some friends through the county, and I gladly availed myself of the opportunity, for never cease to atch with great pleasure the farms from the car windows as I travel south Qf the Capitol City.
 I was glad that Bruce Kennedy. the secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, was along, so that could ply him with questions and also give him an oppor- tunity to shoot information into me. for it's not secretarial habit to pass up canoe to boost his own town to man which happens to come from sister city. l,now what I am talking about, for have done it so often my self
 Now, am not going to stick to facts and figures, but set down my impress sion in a general way, although Prof. J. F Duggar of Auburn was member of the party, and knew the lay of the land and whether it was good for this or that crop. He is greatly interested in Montgomery county as he has al couple of boys who are now trying their hands at farming and in handling dairy cattle. We passed the edge Of their place and saw new dairy barn large enough to shelter about 80 head of cattle.
 I love the hill country, although was reared in Barbour county; but ever since I have lived in Jefferson county, and, by the way. I have lived longer 1 here than anywhere else. There is fas- cination about mountains that cannot | be shaken off. I spent year in the mountains of East Tennessee, and know just the love which the natives have for Gods eternal hills But some times it is restful to go down into the 1 plains, where the vision is unobstruct- ed. It is also true that the prairies make a strong appeal to those reared on them.
 1 All the time I was talking to Count /! Ilya Tolstoi or hearing him speak, down in my subconsciousness l was | thinking of my trip through Russia and although 1t was more than 30 years behind me. could visualize the vast i, and interminable plains on each side 1 of me as the train sped from Moscow to Warsaw. It seemed as if the world | itself had been flattened and was be- ing spread out all around me as great map, and that hills and mountainse had been wiped off of the face of the earth The country through which we drove did not have the sense of vastness of the Russian plains, for it was dotted with mansions, homes and cabins, but all the same It was mighty level to a man who lived in Mountain Terrace. We first went south and crossed creek where the county is building a concrete bridge at cost of $1o0,ooo or more and which when completed will be a monument to the fact that 1t pays to build this type of structure In a country where floods come periodi- Ically to destroy inferior structures. We soon were far enough out to come : 10 some of the old ante bellum homes, and to me there is no finer specimen of home architecture than is embodied in the massive old mansions with their pi1lared fronts. A modern bungalow set down by the side of them seems an
 impertinence, a blot on the land dscape
 and yet. I daresay that in time they
 will replace the former, for the days
 when there was a troop of servants al the beck and call of old master and
 mistress is dream of the past, and
 compact cottages like Ford cars are
 born of the needs of the day.
 At last some of the large estates are being cut up and sold to farmers from the north and west. Every few mo-
 ments we were passing some little
 home recently builded to house settlers . from outside of the state. Professor
 Duggar told of how last summer
 he had been invited-to a new settlers
  Ilies. This will give some idea of how th'
 county is being peopled with thrift,
 farmers who, tired of the long winters
 are looking southward for place t'
 live, work and die. To me it IS jus
 the beginning of the exodus.
 
 , We passed many modern, pretentiou } residences provided with all city con veniences, for some of the wealthies
 families have their homes in the county
 I saw fine cattle, pure bred hogs. flock l of sheep, fancy chickens, dairy afte dairy, with the countryside dotted witt
 cement silos standing like great tower erected to commemorate the passinl of cotton and the coming of the cattl industry. Bruce Kennedy told me tha r if the live stock business grew as mucl r in the next two years as it had done il the past eighteen months it would brini | more money to Montgomery than tn cotton crop.
 All the time we were riding Richar' s Hobbie and Bruce Kennedy were point 1, ing out farms which had been sol cheap a few years back and resol
 later at large profits. Some hustlinl 2 Kehtuckian had bought large acreag :, at s60 or more per acre which had bee
 marketed at s2o an acre only shor