The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-04-13
Veteran Policeman, Re- tired, Anxiously Awaits
 Results Of Appeal
TELLS OF CHANGES
 ABOUT BIRMINGHAM
Only Living Member Of Original Warrior Guard
 Of Confederacy

or the coveted NO. D0dge, SClii IS familiar figure at the city hall.
 Every day he makes his appearance at roll call and eagerly questions his superior officers regarding what dis position has been made of his appeal to the civil service board, requesting that he not be placed on the pension list. but be allowed to remain in active service.
 At present Uncle Bob' is on the retired list, drawing a lifelong salary of $100 per month. It's not so much the financial angle that worries him, he says, as it is the feeling that he is too old to remain an active member of the force.
 In Service 38 Years
 For more than 3S years Uncle Bob" has served the city of Birmingham. Coming here December 4, 1S96, he i'm mediately was placed on the police force. There were but 13 members of the force at that time, he says, and his appointment increased the number to 14. During that period he has worked under Il different chiefs of police, some of whom, according to him, were highly proficient, and some of whom were dismissed from office because of in- competency.
 In relating his experiences, Uncle Bob" always speaks first of the city hall, and the changes in it. It is there that, with the exception of few vaca- tions, he has made his appearance for more than 38 years. .,f
 Many changes have been made in the city hall since that first night, De cember 4, 1856, when came here to work" Uncle Bob" says. "In the northwest corner, where the office of Commissioner McLendon is located now, was the city courtroom. The remainder of the north side of the building, now occupied by the offices of other city commissioners, was then the city jail. It wasn't very large then, compared to the size of the present jailhOuse.
 Hand Pumps Used
 "In front of the city hall were hand pumps, then used exclusively for fur nishing the city's water supply. Three cisterns with hand pumps were located in the middle of Nineteenth street, be- tween Third and Fourth avenues. On the site now occupied by the Hillman hotel was the old Methodist church. The city car barns were located at the corner now taken up by the large building of the Loveman, Joseph and Loeb company.
 Tn those days transportation in Bir- minEham was provided by mule cars. The main line ran from turntable at Thirteenth street and First avenue to Seventeenth street, north to Second avenue, out Second avenue to Twenty sixth street, and down Twenty-sixth street one block to First avenue, where another turntable was located. Turn tables for the other lines in the city were located at Twentieth street and Avenue c, Nineteenth street and Twelfth avenue, north. and at Thir- teenth street and Eighth avenue. The average mule car would carry from 20 to 25 passengers and was very slow.
 "The total number of passengers in those days. was very small, as compared with today, but the officials of the company thought they were doing great business"
 Duck Pond
 'An interesting incident in connec- tion with the early days. of Birming- ham was when Tom Jeffries, who pre- ceded A. O. Lane as mayor, rounded up all the maps of the city he could locate. A man by the name of Wells also had quite a collection in fact, he thought he had all of them. One day he decided to fence off the area now known as Capital park. Jeffries chanced by and questioned his right to lo so. Wells replied that it was his property and he had a right to fence it off. Jeffries then declared the property did not belong to Wells but to the city, and he forbade Wells to even drive an other nail in the fence. To make sure that his orders were obeyed. Jeffries placed Sam Robertson, a policeman, on guard at the site with orders not to allow Wells to continue his work.
 "The streets of Birmingham cer- tainly were different in those days from. the pavefhents of today. We consid- cred ourselves lucky then if we could have a few black cinders to walk on. Where the l.. & N. depot now stands was huge frog pond. From Twen- tieth to Twenty-third streets was a body of water known as the duck pond" It frequently was possible to shoot ducks there.
 For ticket offices both the l.. & N. and the old H. & S. railroads had mere box cars. The freight office of the L. & N. was located where the large Crane company building now stands, and the H. & s. railroad offices were upstairs in the Commercial hotels frame building"
 Served In War
 Uncle Bob was born February l. 1899. in Giles county, Tennessee. En- listing in the Confederate army soon after the war broke out, he remained in active service during the entire war
 Il am the only man remaining of the original 100 who composed the Warrior Guard, the first organization I fought with" Uncle Bob" says. We were in Go. H, Fifth Alabama regiment. On January 26, 1882, only 54 of the 100 were left, and we went to Rich mond, Va, where we re-enhsted for three years. Of the 125 men in the group l was then placed in, only two besides myself still are living. served as a gunner for two years and then was made a sergeant in the second detach- ment, which rank held throughout the remainder of the war.
 II think probably the heaviest firing of any battle in the whole war was done on June p, when one of the Generals Cook opposed us. There were four brothers named Cook, and all were generals. This man had a picked corps of Sherman's men. He turned on our small force about six miles from Mari etta. Ga, and within an hour we vir-