The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-10
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

TOT several months l have been pot
 toring around in memoirs, histories and
 encyclopedias to see what I could dig
 up about the Pilgrims and the Puritans,
 and l have greatly enjoyed the study, l made remark 20 years ago which
 meant at the time, but have changed my viewpoint since. friend of mine.
 successful young lawyer with political
 ambitions. said to me: I'm now able to lived in county seat.
 Now, any southern man who was reared
 Tn the shadow of the courthouse in one of the smaller communities knows that for years the lawyers built offices for themselves on or near the square They
 were usually one or two-room affairs. and while unpretentous were most com fortable.
 My friend had for some time occupied one of the little white houses which had come down from ante-bel:dm times but having lived at the capital through sev- eral sessions of the legislature, he re- turned with desire to erect a modern brick building with all the modern con veniences
 1 lover of literature as well as of law he had it in mind to set apart large room for library~to hold both his legal
 books and his literary. historical and scientific volumes Being unmarried, he had mapped out for himself quite an ex- tensive course of reading. In discussing 1t with me I made the remark of which I spoke above. It was this. I said, ''Its all right for you to read for Ninforma- tion and culture, but so far as I am con- cerned. I have reached that point where I expect to only read for the pleasure lof the moment without thought of m- provement"
 l suppose I must have given expression to such thought at moment when 1 had just recovered from reading spree for at times I was obsessed by books as some men are by drink, and when the mood was upon me literally devoured' volume after volume until my body and mind would finally rebel. and then, so I to speak, I would sign temperance pledge to abstain from reading. But l was never able to stay long on the for me to pass as a saloon for a dis water wagon" and library was as l hard for me to pass as a saloon for 1 dipscmaniac.
 1 I would, however, say to everybody: Get the reading habit. I have been struck by the fact that many men Of letters, many great lawyers, many doc tors, many statesmen and other men who have made their mark in their chosen profession without ever having been to 1 college or done much if they had gone | through them. have somehow had a pas- sion for reading. Pick up the memoirs or biographies and you will be surprised to learn how many of them speak with ! joy of the time they first had access to library.
 l A man can only speak with any degree of certainty out of his own experience, and if this column has any worth it comes from the fact that I am not afraid to set down in it things about myself, whether they be for or against me. I had excellent educational advan- tages, beginning under beloved private 1 tutor who lived in the home, then to a private school under really great teacher, later to the public schools. and on and on to colleges in this country and
 universities abroad.
 1 I never was known as a hard student, though kept along with my classes, but I think can truthfully say that I was generally ahead in the matter of general knowledge, because from my childhood iup l was an omnivorous reader. know the value of accurate scholarship, and the price one must pay to be classed as one, but never expecting to teach or to specialize I gave the time which it would have taken me to qualify as an au- thority in any one branch to acquiring general culture. I state this as each man must decide for himself what he wants to get out of his education.
 l I'll never cease to rejoice over the
 fact that my father was a college-bred man, and while physician with many
 medical works in his library, yet lived
 in day when the specialist had not come into his own, and along with his general works on medicine had stocked
 it with many of the works of the great names in literature. I was allowed to read at will and just literally ate up the books within my reach. This was
 before the era of juvenile trash had flooded the market, and I fed on the
 best diet of the literary chefs. I find ! that while my verbal memory at present is poor, the poems I learned in my youth I remember, and about all of the scrip ture which I dare quote were the pass ages I committed then.
 I'll admit I have written out a long preface to what I sat down to say. It will be recalled by some that I wrote story confessing that I opened all the
 mail which came to my desk whether it
 was first or second-class. for I never know what advertisement or pamphlet might contain something which would give me an idea to talk or write about, and as am doing one or the other most
 of the time during my waking hours, It is needful that seize on anything which may come my way.
 i l said that I was deep in the story of l the Pilgrim Fathers and on coming down town I was thinking about them. On reaching my desk I found an envelope from the Old Colony Trust company, Bos- ton, Mass, addressed to me do not know how I got on their mailing list, but IT am glad that they got my name, for on opening the letter addressed to me it 1 turned out to be a beautiful booklet. with striking cover, well printed on good paper and illustrated in colors. Alto