The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-10-08
M E N /, w OMEN
 A ND T H N G s


 Is worth it's weight in gold as a trade mark, for no one who ever hears 1t can ever forget it, and then it is easy and short to write.
 A name sometimes makes or kills a corporation, and when it comes to an amusement company the simpler and easier it is to remember the better it is. No need to spend much money in bill boarding to impress upon the public mind the fact that Johnny Jones' show has
 Another thing, if it has ever played a town once there is sure to be glad hand for it when it comes again, for it is not the kind of one which works a com munity for all it is worth on. its first visit, and then gives it the go-by, for it makes a speciality of covering the same territory from year te year.
 The show is run for amusement and not moral purposes, and yet it has set pace for other shows in the way it values the ordinary proprieties. for it is the OOhSt Ol JOhnHJ OllCio ltldl ne CdLeIS lO women and children first, if you so care to put it. because it pays; and second, be- cause It is right Any way, he impresses it on all who work under him that he IS after the patronage of the whole family, and can only get it by keeping the acts clean and respectable
 Ed Salter, the publicity man. is my friend. Now, Ed does not pose as saint, but he has heart that beats true to some of the best things in life. He loves children. and when man like him has been on the road as long as he has still has a smile for the little ones. and gets his chiefest joy in seeing one on their face, I put him down as good fel- low" but not the kind which neglects his own crowd to be popular with out sders.
 was walking down the midway with him late Monday afternoon. and it was crowded with people, and many were be- ing annoyed by having. dusters brushed across their nose or rubber balls shot uklOeI LH6lE CnlnS. IL ScciilS lO i4lc Hiih, as it does Johnny Jones to have such boisterous conduct made a part of the fair Now, I like little innocent fun, but when lot of roughnecks get to talk ing liberties with girls and women, think it ought to be prohibited, and hope next year the concession to sell dusters and balls wifIro5t be sold. have seen |some near fights and much bad temper
 I am sure Secretary Dent and Presi- dent Brown want the fair to be place where any mother can take her children out to the grounds either during the day or night and feel that they will be per fectly safe and free from embarrassment. Set me down as country jay if you will, but am against duster tickling, rub Der ball bouncing and confetti throwing, unless it be specially advertised that they are to be part of the programme. This will give people who do not care for such things chance to stay away.
 ssS
 am not trying to convert the midway into Sunday school picnic, but for years Coney Island was run with an eye to organized vice on the false theory that unless it was wide open the public would not patronize it. I used to visit it in the days of its shame, when it was sink pool of iniquity, and overrun with tin- horn gamblers, confidence men and paint ed women, and no man felt safe himself and it was almost criminal to expose ones family to the demoralizing atmos- phere.
 Then there came along a man with a vision big enough to see that after all the open-town element. while the loudest in the community. wasn't by any means the largest, and that if an amusement place would cater to the average family it's clientele would be largely increased and SO in spite of the, predictions Of the old-time showmen he managed to clean up Coney Island, and converted it into family resort It paid handsomely. not only in dollars and cents, but in the pleasure it gave to thousands who found an outlet from the great city.
 This has been worked out on smaller scale here in Birmingham, for East Lake park for several seasons has been a place where any man could let his wife and kiddies spend the day or go out after supper and rest assured that they would not be molested, and whats more, in stead of it's cutting down the attendance. it has grown from year to year. Hugh Hill was a stickler for good behavior. and Miles Bradford, his successor, saw to it during the past season that there was no rowdyism, but that everything was done for the comfort and conveni- ence of family groups.
 Ed Salter said to me: Doctor. I'm not saying this to you because you are preacher, but simply because it is fact. prohibition has worked wonders for the show people themselves, and made it much easier for those who have to han dle them. He makes no pretense to being a reforner, but told me of the change which he had witnessed for himself. He did not mean to intimate that all drink irg had ceased. but he did intend for me to understand that it was no longer the order of the day and the night as of old. when not to booze was a sign that a fellow was queer.