The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-18

Methodist parson, and l could write volumes of the sweetness-I use the word advisedly-the gentle kindness of his ministrations. l recall the fu- neral services he conducted over little child. It seemed the father and mother had become estranged, the baby sickened and died; there was a young lady neighbor who went in and helped the mother; the young preacher and the young girl put the baby in it's tiny white casket and the sermon of the then beardless preach CT and the song the girl sang abide with me still F.
 Charles F. Hard. who lately passed on in Greenville, S. C., was prominent figure then. His voIc~ rumbled in his throat and you couldn't always understand what he said, but you laughed heartily when he did, to show that you caught his meaning.
 "Dr. E. P Lacy was a good-looking young physician, who lived at Wood ward, and even in those early days was already accumulating data about Abraham Lincoln. Dr. E. M, Rob inson was sparkling the girls and drove fine sorrel horse.
 "once, about year after Besss- meC WAS SldIIcut we nd0 d p'b -S'~i' ing where the Alabama Great South ern depot now stands. Guards pa trolled the streets at night and the women and children were scared to death. In those early days, when a young man went to see his sweet heart he took out of his hip pocket a seven shooter and laid it on the. ta- ble; sometimes he might need 1t eo- ing home in the dimly-lighted streets.
 "One gray November afternoon we heard a noise on the back porch-we had gone to housekeeping then on Second avenue, and the front door and stairs were so narrow we hoist ed the furnitnre to the. second rtory through d window-taking out the sash. The gray afternoon that we heard the noise, we went out to the rear, and there stood something per fectly horrible-a FrankenStein may be-deep gutteral sounds announced: I killed man last week; I'm hiding in the woods. l want something to eat, and l want it quick"
 we nearly died for minute. Alright we said, stay where you are and we'll get it. So he slipped into the little room that was lean to on the back porch, and we went into the house and brought back everything 10 eat that we Couiu lbiu pretty nearly half, a ham, as we re- member it, and a big piece of pouad cake made as our mother-in Jaw made it in Charleston.
 We had covered a pistol oursel 'es with & napkin, but we didn't need it The poor fellow was famished; he ate in hunks and swallowed whole.
 We gathered up the scraps and he rammed them in his mud stained cor duroy coat. God bless you" he said and was gone. We thought of the bishop and silver candlestick in Les Miserables,' but we never heard of our Valjean again.
 Another time we went to the front door. Buy my needles and pencils? said hobo. 'No,' we said, here's dime
 "'But the needles are 25 cents We don't want them You are not going to buy my needles? I'm a poor man, etc, etc. No,' we said, here's dime you can have.' We'll said the hobo, d. you!
 These are both true stories; we have often wondered what he would have said if we had bought his aee- dies.
 Early one Sunday morning we saw two men fight duel on Tenth avenue and Nineteenth street-they faced sideways and fired-we ran
 'Oh, those were lawless days, hut all the world was young, and we didn't need to gild the lily then-in those far-off happy years. In this past year we have come back to this district for the third time, and this time it is for good. We reckon there's only one of us left. l guess we came back because of the mem ories-the memories"