The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-20
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

If you patronize vaudeville you cannot have escaped the peroxide blonde or ssucy brunette. who comes out and, in singing her tale of woe, winds up with But it yas a red-headed man who made wreck out of me-
 Now while the Lyric and Loews Bijon are most obliging p furnishing attrac- tons for the Rotary Club. it wasn't one of the fair sex who came very near making wreck out of' the Rotarians, but one of their own members.
 It came about in this way: Before the war the entertainment committee fea- tured the "Rotes" but during the con- nict the custom was abandoned on ac- count of the innumerable drives and the visitation of so many distinguished ora tors from the outside who clamored for hearing.
 But now that peace has come once more, the old traditions are being re vived and each one of the boys will be called upon at some meeting to get uFs before the body and tell where he came. from, when he arrived, and what he has been doing since he got here, and any other little personal data which he cares to give out.
 I felt just bit sorry for Haskin Will apart as the victim to open-the show. I do not know why it is. but in vaude- vile it is considered almost a reflection on the act for it to be the curtain-raiser. and the teams fight to keep from going on first suppose it is because the crowd has not been sufficiently tuned up for the skit to "eet over"
 l But Haskin didn't need any little tuner. but very much to the surprise of his l friends and. I may say. to the aston ishment of himself, he got off with a bang and gave the fellows a ten minutes jazz band bit of spieling which they will | not soon forget. The joy of it arose from the fact that it was not a stage set affair but. like Topsy, "just growed up out of the environment.
 | said that Haslsin didn't need any I tuner, which reminds me of a good one 1 that Vice President Le Grande C. Wilson made when J. Knox Fleming, vice presi- dent of the First National bank, was ] called upon to act as Secretary in the absence of Clarence Lloyd, who was at i the Tampa district meeting. In that droll way of his, Le Grande remarked that Knox ought to be a good pianist and a fine singer for he never made bad note. | '
 The Birmingham Rotary Club has been l literally gorged on the professional type | of speakers, who come with prepared addresses to further some particular 1 cause, and this was among the reasons | why they took the kind of bait which i Haskin was casting here and there and i ran away with it. He hadn't made g half-dozen throws before every fish in l the pond was aware that he was angling with the most tempting tidbts.
 1
 1 I made Nsome rather stinging remarks above concerning the celebrities who stand up preened and self satisfied when thek look out on a crowd. as much as I to say "Wen, it won't be five minutes I before I will have the whole bunch of you cal ting out of my hand.'' I am sure tha
 any of you who lived through the bonn Ibardments of the past few years, wher the heavy oratorical barrages were lait down, will know what I am talking about.
 Such speakers are hard to sit under and in my category of criminals. spiel CTS are the worst offenders, unless it b' the business man who. when ctified tha
 he is to address a body, goes to worl
 and writes out his address and then par.
 tially commits it to< memory and durin'
 it's unnatural recital frequently has t
 tumble in his pockets for his notes unti
 he gets his friends 50 nervous that the,
 squirm in their seats, while the audiene
 fdgets and openly yawns.
 But the fellow who, like Haskin Wi
 Hams stood up without any set speecl
 and just bubbled over with good humo
 and naturalness, is joy for ever. Hi cluclSle over the telegram put in his han
 from his brother Bob at Tampa, wh
 was anxious that his income tax receir
 be mailed in time so that he could ge
 passport for Havana, started the fe
 lows to grinning, and in few minute they were in hilarious mood and read
 to applaud anything which fell. from hi
 lips.
 defy anyone to beat the simple stor
 Of his arrival in Birmingham with wifi
 and baby and sS0 in cash Of getting
 place for a short while with the Vii
 Hanson Furnace, of later renting des
 room on Morris avenue for 8 mont
 of finding his career because Robel iJemison, ST, had some old dummies to | on slow notes;' of opening a shop fe
 repair work poorly equipped, but whic
 has grown into business of more tha
 a million year.
 It was heartening story told. in , 1 straightforward way, which went hon | to every fellow present who had fougl
 his way up in this great hustling cit, l I might say that Haskin Williams is u , incarnation Of the spirit of the young me : of the past generation. which has mad 5 this new town what it Is and has iande Webb Crawford, Henry Badham, w.
 c. Harlng and scores of others Into u ! places they now occupy. IfI1aere is any , thing in a fellow. this is Inc place