The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-11
M E N, w o M EN
 A ND HIN G s

world, because of the simple, unselhsh life which he lived while on earth
 l had story about Al G. Field, fea- turing the fact that to the last he had the heart of a child, and now I am to
 write about another man whose death was close upon that of the great min strel who was known far and wide be- cause of the same, trait
 l It would hard to find two men whose careers were so different in outward as- poets, but whose inward thoughts were more attuned. Al Field was a man of the streets, for in his day he tramped through the great thoroughfares of this country as the premier minstrel of his time, while the stage was the breath of his nostrils.
 Yet deep down beneath his fondness for the excitement of the parades and the footlights in his subconsciousness was always the thought of the farm, not as the passing fancy of a city man, but the love of the man to whom the soil was in the largest sense Mother Earth out of whose bosom came the good things of the great God of providence who sends the rain and the sunshine to make the crops grow.
 Just because these two men. whose deaths came so close together, are occu- pying the front page" I wish to talk about John Burroughs from the stand point from which I featured my friend. Al Field. for verify he has what Bjorn- son called "the child in the heart" It is this, and, in a way, the "chId' in his books, that accounts for his wide ap- peal, for If all the world loves a lover" sympathy with the man who keeps the spirit of the boy alive.
 One of his admirers reports that he often says he can never think of his books as works, because so much play went into the making of them He has gone out of doors in a holiday spirit, has had a good time, has never lost the boys relish for his outings. This is why the man behind the book makes the widest appeal, for I believe that if census could be taken it would show that he is the most lovable man-character in the literature of life, not even excepting Charles Lamb.
 Those who had the priceless privilege pf coming into his presence bear witness Ffbot bo he did and said. born comrade, de- lightful acquaintance as we'll as phiIos- opher and poet and naturalist. I think one of the pictures I like best of him is the one which shows him after win ter's snow had whitened his locks riding with lot of young people on billowy load of hay; going to ball game, at which no boy there enjoyed the game more or knew the fine points better
 This is enough to show why flocks of youths and maidens from many schools and colleges for a score of years climbed the hill to the rustic cabin in all the gayety and enthusiasm of their young lives to get in touch with one whose heart beat in sympathy with their every desire. One exhuberant western youth wrote: He is my great good teacher and friend. He is more to me than Harvard or Yale. He is the biggest, simplest and serenest man I have met in all the east"
 Nothing shows the nature of the man more than the letters which came pour ing into the mail pouches for him from at home and abroad, Take, for instance, little girl. who wanting to learn his attitude toward snakes, after writing a pretty letter, was thoughtful enough to end thus: Enclosed you will find stamp, for I know it must be fearful expensive to be celebrity" She might have added, and rather a trial to have to answer the many questions propound- ed to him. physician of 30 years prac- tice asked him in all seriousness how. often the lions bring forth their young. and whether it is true that there is a relation between the years in which tbev breed. and the increased productivity of human beings. It's going some to be ex- pected to be an authority on snakes for little girl and on lions for doctor.
 In his seventy-fourth year he wrote to some children who were planning to cele- brate his seventy-fourth birthday: Let me hope that when you have reached my age you will be as well and as young as am I am still a boy at heart, and enjoy almost everything that boys do except making racket. Youth and age have not much to do with years you are young so long as you keep your in terest in things and relish your daily bread. The world is full of a number of things and they are all very inter- esting."
 hope those who have passed three score years and ten who may read this will take new grip on life if they have iost interest in living. But hear him again As the years pass I think my interest in this huge globe upon which we hVe' and in the life which it holds, ueepens. An active interest in life keeps the currents going and keeps them clear Mountain streams are young streams: they sing and sparkle as they go, and our iibes may be, the same. With me, the secret of my youth in age is the simple ife, simple food, sound sleep. the open air, daily work kind thoughts, love of nature and joy and contentment in the world in which live.
 reckon if I had stopped here that nearly all of my readers would have been ready to utter a hearty amen! But l must finish the paragraph or falsify the