;— «--t^ i *.>/ieDK^ ^mnnliffmtii Im MOP\j^;p <3( n THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM FIRST AVENUE, LOOKING EAST THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM BY JOHN R. HORNADY ILLUSTRATIONS BY W. Paul Pim frontispiece by Roderick D. MacKenzie NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1921 COPYEIGHT, 1921, BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I In the Beginning 1 II When Everybody Voted 19 III The '' Double-Cross '' in the Seventies 31 IV Courting the Bauble Fame 44 V Iron and Steel to the Kescue .... 56 VI KoY Cohen's Negro Quarter .... 68 VII Visions of Beauty 86 VIII The People at Play 100 IX Grave and Gay in Politics 114 X Turning Ore into Ships 130 XI Conserving the Human Element . . 145 XII Iron for the Confederacy 161 XIII Popularizing the Water Wagon . . . 179 XIV The Sway of King Cotton 197 XV Blazing New Trails 213 XVI Reforming the Public Dollar .... 228 XVII Routing the Reluctant Germ .... 240 XVIII Freaks of Fretful Nature 255 XIX The Teeth of a Child 270 XX Aladdin's Lamp Surpassed 283 XXI Far-Flung Influences 299 XXII Whetting the Intellect 315 XXIII A City of Ex-Executives 328 XXIV The Snake-Charmer Eclipsed .... 346 XXV Combining Loans with Laughter . . 363 550546 ILLUSTRATIONS First Avenue, looking East Frontispiece FACING PAGE Wire Mill : Recreation, beauty, utility 24 Concrete work in mine 36 Children of the mines perform 48 By-product coke ovens: Plant in background . . 60 The sky line : Red Mountain in the background . . 76 A vista from Red Mountain 92 "Where children make merry — City Park . . . 106 A view from the Highlands 120 Steamship fabricated in Birmingham 136 Homes of miners in modern village 152 Modern pig iron plant 168 Homes on the mountainside 186 World's largest rotary coal pump 204 World's largest lake of pitch 204 Underground electric railway 218 Typical South side homes 232 Central hospital, Tennessee Company 246 School and club house in mining village .... 262 By-product plant. Naval air craft just leaving . . 290 Limestone, ore and coke furnace 306 Science Hall, Birmingham Southern College . . . 320 Two views from the sky. Terminal station in center of lower picture 336 Civic Centre, Fairfield 354 Rear view of Highland homes 368 THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM CHAPTER I IN THE BEGINNING THE stupendous assurance of those adven- turous spirits who founded the town of Birmingham half a century ago is the most amazing thing ahout the beginning of this, the South 's most populous post-bellum community. With a series of indifferent farms to start with, they planned a vast metropoUs. The sky and the horizon were their limits, and they laid the founda- tions accordingly. If one can visualize a long and tortuous valley, traversed by meandering streams which left their banks and wandered far afield whenever the rains descended, one can appreciate something of the faith as well as the vision of the men to whom the [1 ] THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM city of today owes its being. Were you or I to found a city doubtless we should conclude that it would be a good idea to keep its feet out of the mud. But not so with these men. They knew where they wanted the city, and the fact that its people would have to fight their way to success through seas of liquid earth hindered them no whit. Perhaps they reasoned that the deeper the mud the quicker the paving would materialize. At any rate, they went forward with their plans. And \\ith what magnificence they did their work ! With them every gesture was a full-arm movement. In that valley where stood a single blacksmith shop, they laid out a colossus ; a city whose dream streets echoed to the traffic of a vast metropolis and whose fanciful squares w^ere filled vnth tower- ing structures where vibrated the restless pulse of giants in action. There were no railroads to serve the commerce in this city, no traffic for streetis, no furnaces nor factories nor buildings of whatsoever kind to grace the splendid squares. But these pioneers foresaw the coming of all these things and they demon- strated the sublime character of their faith by the divine excellence of their work. Hence it is that Birmingham, entering into its own as one of the great industrial centers of the world, has no such problems as confront those all [ 2 ] IN THE BEGINNING too numerous American cities which grew hap- hazard along irregular highways and by-ways, to find too late that streets and avenues, which served well enough in the days of the ox-cart, are wholly inadequate to accommodate the traffic of a twen- tieth century metropolis. For the vision which gave Birmingham wide thoroughfares, its people should ever be grateful. It was a stroke of genius that should immortahze the men who could visualize a city where stood a lonely shack. In what was to be the business section of this dream city, they laid out a great checker-board, streets running toward the hills and avenues par- alleling the valley. Later they approached the hills and there performed new marvels. Follow- ing the contour of Red Mountain on the South, an avenue was designed that for years has ranked among the most wonderful thoroughfares in America. Winding in and out and doubling back at times, it presents an ever changing vista that is a source of lasting joy to home folks and a delight- ful surprise to every visitor. Flanked by hand- some residences, and well groomed lawns, and arched by beautiful trees, Highland Avenue ranks among the really great thoroughfares of the world, and there are others ! Becoming more ambitious, the builders of Birmingham pushed their serpen- [ 3 ] THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM tine highways to the very crest of the mountain, and as one traverses these swift ascending avenues he is treated to a magnificent view of the great panorama stretched out in the valley below. Upon the crest of Red Mountain these avenues twine in and out and present vistas such as thrill the artist soul. Those who enter the city below; under the impression that it is a mining camp are fairly staggered by the beauty and charm of these highways and by the evidence on every hand of a delightful home life. But this is getting a long way ahead of the story, and we should leave the asphalt of today and return for a little while to the mud of yesteryear if we would learn something of the characteristics of the to^Ti in its beginning. Tough ! Birmingham was all of that. No sooner had the far-seeing pioneers who laid the foundations of the city gotten the community under way than adventurous spirits were attracted from the far corners of the earth, and here were enacted just such scenes as were witnessed in the mining camps of California during the great gold rush. Came liquor, came liquor consumers. Came guns and men who knew how to use them. Came a little law and much lawlessness, and came the time when the new-bom city attained a national reputation, not so much for the magnitude of its natural resources as for [4 ] IN THE BEGINNING the carelessness with which many of its adven- turous citizens handled their weapons. *'Bad Birmingham ' ' is the title the city won, and it was by this title that it became known far and wide. The boom spirit was at its height, with specula- tion running rife and the gambling fever permeat- ing the very atmosphere. Men rushing about eager to turn a dazzling profit over night had no time for judicial procedure when friction arose. Fights and fatalities were numerous. Speculation and gambling put much money in circulation and crooks came in who got theirs at the point of a revolver. Discreet men in going homeward at night took the middle of the street. Alley corners offered too much danger from the lurking thug. Stock exchanges had been established and here holdings of all kinds were traded in, stock in boom companies being a favorite offering. In the midst of the excitement, a firm from New Orleans came in and opened an all-night cafe, where liquors flowed as freely as in any Parisian establishment of its kind. Birmingham ceased to sleep, and the morning paper carried the story of some night- time tragedy in almost every issue. But these violent expressions of a turbulent spirit were largely surface. The real men of the community, the men who were here to do a man's [ 5 ] THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM work because there was a man's job at hand, brought with them thB idealist's conception of jus- tice and equity and morals. They held the strong man's contempt for the lurking thug and the cow- ardly assassin, and gradually the spirit of lawless- ness broke its wings against the granite of their character. Came the time when the last man- Mller was exiled or hanged or imprisoned, when the last brothel was wiped out, when the last gilded palace of cock-tails, cards and crookedness went by the board. The swing of the pendulum was far. From being a very bad tovra, Birmingham became an exception among American cities in wholesome observance of the decencies of life. Here the saloons went long before national prohibition be- came a fact. Here was built up a religious and moral sentiment which today finds expression in a demand for clean amusements, in churches that are filled on Sabbath morning, in men's Sunday School classes that run into the hundreds, and in a firm insistence upon law enforcement. That Birmingham has grown in beauty, in intel- ligence, in morals and in religion as it has grown industrially and commercially is one of the most outstanding facts about the community. Birmingham has year after year the largest Bible Training School in the world, and it was [ 6 ] IN THE BEGINNING here that the movement for training schools of this character, now nation-wide, received its initial impetus. It was in Birmingham that the Laymen ^s Mis- sionary Movement was made electrical, the first great convention being held in this city. More- over, there is substantial foundation for the claim that Birmingham gave to prohibition much of the impetus which finally swept the nation into the dry column. In other words, the reform of Birming- ham seems to have been just about as complete as such reforms get to be, and the measure of her goodness furnishes an excellent idea of the size her aching head must have been when she raised her right hand to high heaven, after one of those old orgies, and solemnly exclaimed ** Never again!" Another thing that might be said of Birming- ham : in spite of its hectic record in the early days, there has never been a lynching in this community, nor has it known the turmoil of a race riot, though forty per cent of its population is colored. The only serious attempt to lynch a person in this city was made by a white mob which sought the life of a white prisoner. And it was a dark and tragic hour, yet pregnant with the germ of lasting peace. The prisoner whose life was sought by this mob [7 ] THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM was Dick Hawes, who had killed his wife and two children that he might be free to marry again. After the commission of the crime, he did marry, and was on his wedding tour when apprehended and jailed in Birmingham. Indignation over the brutal and cold-blooded crime was universal, and the crowd which marched to the jail expected to get the prisoner without formidable resistance, as so many mobs had suc- ceeded in doing on similar occasions in other Southern communities. But the blunder which led the gallant Six Hundred to slaughter was not greater than the blunder of those who stormed the jail, for the sheriff who defended it had a rare conception of the meaning of the oath he had assumed. He believed the oath meant what it said and he governed himself accordingly. The shots he poured into that mldly excited mass of humanity were real and were meant to kill, and they did kill. They killed members of the storm- ing party, and more. They killed forever the mob spirit in Birmingham. In due time Hawes was tried, convicted and hanged, and this orderly procedure has been the fixed rule in handling criminals from that day to this. The sheriff who put an end to mob violence by his drastic action upon this occasion was Joseph [ 8 ] IN THE BEGINNING Smith, popularly known as ^ ^Little Joe Smith." His course subjected him to much abuse, and for a time he was in danger of personal violence at the hands of some hot-headed citizens, but when the community had recovered from the shock occa- sioned by the fact that several prominent citizens, who were mere spectators, were either killed or wounded, the attitude of the public altered, and in after years he was given credit for having done a good w^ork in letting it be known that men charged with crime would be protected, and that attempts to impede the orderly processes of the law were fraught with great danger. There was something fresh and boyish and exuberant about that little coterie of men who founded Birmingham. 'V\^iile they were in dead earnest about building a city in the valley of their selection, they had a keen sense of humor. They did not take themselves nor their job too seriously. For confirmation consider their attitude toward the rough shack in which they lived while surveys were being made for the city that was tucked away in the back of their heads. Built of rough pine boards, nailed upright upon rough timbers, this long, low shack was dubbed the St. Nicholas Hotel, receiving this title because no name more high-sounding suggested itself. Until the coming of real hotels, this establishment housed a group [ 9 ] THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM of men who afterward became famous in the annals of the community. Prior to the opening of this temporary refuge, the only hotel accommodations available were in Old Elyton, then the county site, some two miles from the new town. Of these hotels. Colonel James R. Powell, the moving spirit in the founding of the new city, and who af tenvards became known as **The Duke of Birmingham," dropped this per- tinent observation: *^They are like the roads in Arkansas, whichever one you take you wish to h — you had taken the other. ' ^ It was at one of these ancient hotels in Elyton that Major James Thomas, after whom the great Thomas furnaces are named, stepped upon first entering the valley. He was suffering from a severe headache at the time and told the negro boy to bring him a cup of hot tea. The negro reported presently with an evil looking brew that was so suggestive of lye that Mr. Thomas asked : **What in the world is this? I told you to get me tea.'' *'Boss, that's tea," said the negro in a tone which indicated that he had rather a poor opinion of the gentleman's power of perception. *'Well, what kind of tea is it?" asked Mr. Thomas. ** Sassafras tea," replied the darky. [ 10 ] IN THE BEGINNING *'Take it away," exclaimed Mr. Thomas, **I want real tea and no cheap imitation.'' ^'Then why didn't you say you wanted store- bought tea," exclaimed the boy in fretful tones, *^and I'd a done gone and got it for you!" In those days ^^store-bought" tea was a luxury in this isolated valley, and such as trickled in had come a weary distance. The Panama Canal, destined to bring the Eastern world thousands of miles nearer to the New, was then no more than a subject of desultory conversation, and it did not enter into the minds of the founders of Birming- ham that one day the East would be drawn so near their young city, nor did they realize the tremen- dous significance such a development would have upon the community. They builded better than they knew, for today the buyer from the under world who comes to market through the Panama Canal must pass Birmingham long before he can reach any other center where the products of a great industrial community are available. In locating their little shop to catch the trade of the world, these pioneers placed it where the Eastern and the Southern buyer would have to go much farther if they passed their open door, after com- ing into the Atlantic. It is doubtful also if the founders of Birmingham realized the full significance of the fact that the [ 11 ] THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM city was planted witliin thirty miles of the AVarrior River, a stream impossible for navigation at that time and which few dreamed would some day be- come the means of conveying Birmingham products to the ends of the world. Today Birmingham has a port upon this stream and tea coming in from China or steel going out to Japan, may go all the way by water. Because of this fact, Birmingham enjoys a water rate, just as if the river flowed through the heart of the city. The first real hotel erected in Birmingham was known as the Relay House, not because its guests slept in relays, as became the custom at some hotels during the boom, but because of its prox- imity to the railroads, which by this time had pushed their way into the town. Early registers of this hotel, still in existence, contain the names of many great figures in the financial and indus- trial world, who came from time to time to see for themselves how much of fact and how much of fiction was contained in the A^ddely published stories of Birmingham's natural wealth. The rush for the new town was under way be- fore adequate accommodations could be provided, and small hotels and rooming houses sprang up on all sides. Some of these contained large '* wards'* in which numerous beds were crowded, and it was the usual custom to pull one set of [ 12 ] IN THE BEGINNING guests out early in the morning in order that others, who had been waiting around all night, might get some sleep. Thus the beds were made to do double duty while the thrifty landlord waxed prosperous. To the enterprise of the management of one of these early hotels was due the first sidewalk laid in Birmingham. David Bridges, who after a lapse of fifty years still stands behind a Birmingham hotel register, found that the guests of 1872 were a bit hesitant about coming to his hotel on account of the sea of mud that oozed between its hospitable portals and the shack which did duty as a depot, put down a three-foot walk to meet the whims of this element. The walk was held to a width of three feet on account of the excessive cost of lum- ber, and was in no sense a vote of confidence in the ability of the guests to always walk the straight and narrow path. In the absence of railroad transportation, the gentlemen who created Birmingham on paper had considerable difficulty in getting a substantial start toward the realization of their aspirations, since lumber and brick are essential factors in city building. However, they found two brick manu- facturers who were willing to establish plants in the community if guaranteed an output of a mil- lion bricks each, and thereupon a bold policy was [ 13 ] THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM adopted. It was determined that no building less than two stories should be erected in the main business district, and that these buildings must be of brick. Not only so, but it was stipulated that all purchasers of business lots should be required to build within twelve months. Thus the problem of building material was solved by making brick contracts, and the sale of the brick was assured by rigid restrictions as to time and material. That is to say, the problem was solved if the tiny segments of farm land these pioneers had platted and called *^lots" could be sold, which was a matter of sheer speculation at the time. When certain of these lots, measuring fifty by one hundred feet, actually were sold for as much as one hundred dollars each, one old-timer was heard to remark that he knew of no specula- tion that equaled bujdng farms by the. acre and selling them by the foot. His admiration for the genius of the men who could put over such a thing was boundless, but he had a very poor opinion of those who surrendered good money for the lots. The land that brought this seemingly prepos- terous price as **city property" was bought from the native farmers on a basis of $25 in cash for two-thirds of their holdings, and $50 in stock for the remaining one-third. Four thousand acres were bought upon this basis, and the stock involved [ 34 ] IN THE BEGINNING became the foundation of numerous fortunes, as it grew in value at a most astonishing rate with the development of the city. In fact the story of the dividend payments of that pioneer organization, known as the Elyton Land Company, has all the elements of a Jules Verne romance. From $100, those lots leaped into the thousands within a few years, and many small investors found themselves possessed of undreamed wealth. But it would be erroneous to imagine that this golden stream of wealth flowed in at once or that its course was uninterrupted. It was not all smooth sailing with those bold architects of an industrial empire. They received their bumps. Yea, verily ! Chartered in December, 1871, the new town grew with extraordinary rapidity, and its promoters decided that the time was ripe for a great ingath- ering. To this end a campaign remarkable both in its boldness and its ingenuity was launched; this with a view to holding a great sale of lots on June 17, 1873. Colonel Powell had all the genius of the old- time circus promoter when it came to exploitation, and one of his master strokes was to invite the New York Press Association to meet in Birming- ham in connection with the Alabama Press Asso- ciation, which had been induced to come here. He urged the wonders of the new town mth such elo- [ 15 ] THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM quence that a number of New York correspondents actually were sent to investigate its possibilities. They were astonished at the absence of anything that looked like a city, but were profoundly im- pressed by the show of coal and iron, and they sent back glo^\ing stories of Birmingham's natural resources. Follo^ving this an intensive advertising cam- paign was adopted, the story of its material wealth being carried to all parts of the United States and to the Old World as well. After months of such exploitation, the promoters succeeded in creating widespread interest in their enterprise, and the outlook appeared most propitious. But just as the dream of an immense throng and an immense sale of lots was about to be realized, the heavens became overcast and presently nature was engaged in giving a fine imitation of the flood which sent Noah scurr^dng to the Ark. It rained for several weeks and such transportation facilities as existed, limited at best, were so interrupted that it became necessaiy to call off the sale. This was bump No. 1, and, alas, the worst was yet to come. In July, 1873, cholera, which had appeared at several points in the South, invaded the town of Birmingham and withered it, not so much because of the ravages of the disease as because of the wildly exaggerated reports that were circulated. [ 16 ] IN THE BEGINNING ^'Birmingham wiped out'' was a familiar head- line, and it took the community years to recover from the injurious effects. Swift upon the heels of this disaster came the Jay Cooke panic, the baleful effects of which were being felt throughout the nation in the fall and winter of 1873. These staggering disasters left many empty houses in Birmingham and many hearts were sick, but hope and faith and the purpose to achieve sur- vived. Having put their hands to the plow, the little group which had planted the town refused to turn back. There is nothing finer in the annals of community building than the courage with which they fought to make good their promises to the world. Neither floods, nor plague, nor panic could shake their purpose, and in the midst of those dark and troublesome times they created a legacy that has become priceless with the passing of the years. Birmingham had been founded upon material things, a body corporate destined to wealth. Now came the spiritual being, fully endowed with the attribute of faith, hope and love; the last a by- product of disaster. The fellowship of trouble knit together those who remained to fight the bat-, ties of Birmingham, and here was born a spirit of democracy, the impress of which is manifest today in the fact that the only aristocracy existing in [ 17 ] THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM the community is the aristocracy of personal worth. Snobbishness, that colorless product of idleness, has not taken root here. The pace has been too swift. [ 18 ] Jl^/T ! 1.1 CHAPTER II WHEN EVERYBODY VOTED POLITICS, that great national sport, in- vaded Birmingham at the very beginning, and forthwith became distinguished for lurid achievements. The first election, held when the new town was less than a year old, attracted people from a radius of a hundred miles, and the privilege of the ballot was freely conferred. Peo- ple from Montgomery and intermediate points on the South, and Decatur and intermediate points on the North, marched up to the ballot box and voted their preference on a purely local question ! The burning issue on that July day in 1872 was the proposed removal of the county court house from Elyton, the ancient county site, to Birming- ham, the infant prodig}\ The old settlers, the real natives of the county, constituted a formidable [ 19 ] THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM majority. Many of them looked upon the ' ' doings and carryings on'' in the new town -with thinly disguised suspicion, while the calmness and con- servatism of the ancient community in which the court house stood held an irresistible appeal. Realizing that the tide was flowing against them, the resourceful gentlemen behind the new town decided to meet the situation by giving an immense barbecue on election day, ^Svitli an abundance of good things to eat and drink, and ^yit]l music and other features galore,'' as the widespread in\dta- tions phrased it. Construction trains were brought into service on the morning of the election and hundreds of negro laborers were hauled to town, as were large groups of white people. The barbecue was spread on the site donated by the land company for the location of the court house, and a huge ballot box was placed close at hand. Brewer's Band, a hastily constructed musical aggregation thrown together by W. P. Brewer, who today is one of the few survivors of that hectic period, discoursed music that made up in volume what it lacked in harmony, and this, with the speech-making, the games and contests, and other feats, made a most thrilling event. Colonel Powell, the *'Duke of Birmingham," ap- peared on the scene attired in royal fashion, his costume adding much to the color of the occasion. [ 20 ] WHEN EVERYBODY VOTED Adorned with a red sasli, an army coat which might have been worn by a brigadier general, and wearing a glittering sword, he made an imposing figure. Shortly after he appeared upon a proud- stepping steed, the word spread among the negroes that he was General Grant, who only a few years before had stricken the shackles from the limbs of the black man. History does not record who was responsible for the rumor that Colonel Powell was General Grant, nor is it known who passed the word among those negroes that the General wanted them to vote to remove the court house to Birmingham as an evidence of their appreciation of what he had done for them in conferring the blessing of free- dom, but the impression got out, the word was passed, and forthwith all doubt about how the colored folks would vote melted into thin air. They voted solidly for removal, following an elo- quent address by the *^ General." A rare genius was Colonel Powell, and one acquainted with his sense of humor, his daring, his initiative and his bigness of heart, can but deplore the fact that dis- appointment dogged his footsteps and tragedy marked the close of his spectacular career. It was by these methods that the court house was moved from Elyton to Birmingham ; methods made possible by legislation enacted under the [ 21 ] THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM ** carpet-bag" rule which prevailed in Alabama for a number of years following the enfranchisement of the negroes and the disfranchisement of a large part of the white citizenship. Under these laws any one claiming the right to vote could so do, and to challenge this alleged right was to make one liable for prosecution on the charge of obstructing the ballot. Thus the alien voters got away with it. The methods resorted to by the Birmingham boomers on this occasion were the subject of much acrimonious criticism, but the result stood and in due course the court house was removed. Then came the time when the wisdom of the step was conceded universally, and bitterness disappeared. Thus Time, the great healer, condoned the methods of the ward healer. It might be observed m passing, that the oppo- sition on this occasion also had a few unique strings to its bow. For instance, a brass band that had been imported from Montgomery to assist in the festivities, was composed of men who were careless enough to lay their instruments aside for a little while, only to find upon their return that someone had poured tar into the horns ! Yes, it was a lively contest, the forerunner of many other hard fought and spectacular political battles. Colonel Powell was the second mayor of Birm- ingham, the first, R. H. Henley, having been ap- [ 22 ] WHEN EVERYBODY VOTED pointed by the Governor, but several years later, when he attempted again to attain this honor, he met a most hmniliating defeat. His opponent on this occasion was a railroad engineer, and when the latter won after a most turbulent struggle, the Colonel felt his defeat so keenly, that he bade farewell to the city of his dreams and went to Mississippi, where in 1883 he was shot to death in a tavern near Yazoo. Thus ended the career of a Virginian who came to Alabama in his youth, and who played a highly useful part in the devel- opment of the State and in the founding of what is now the State's chief city. The loose political methods w^hich marked the initial struggle in Birmingham continued for a good many years with varying degrees of intensity. No one thought anything of flim-flamming the negro out of his vote during the fervid days of reconstruction, and by easy stages the point was reached when many ardent partisans counted it a shrewd thing, when by some adroit maneuver at the polls, they could defeat the opposition, although the only issue might be: Which element among the whites should be in control. As an illustration of the means adopted in some instances, may be chronicled the story of a once widely known poli- tician whose services were always greatly in demand as an election official. Speaking of a [ 23 ] THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM turbulent contest over a quarter of a century ago, he said, * ' I was one of the clerks at the City Hall box, and during the day I marked a large number of ballots and slipped them under my vest, where they fitted snugly. That evening, when the polls closed, and the ballot box was opened preparatory to beginning the count, I leaned far over the box, pretending to want something on the other side of the table, and at the same moment lifted my vest, spilling the surreptitious ballots down among the others. '^ He thought it a rich joke, and did not hesitate to tell about it in after years. And there are others of this kind, gifted with similar in- genuity. Coincident with this attitude of semi-indifference to the sacredness of the ballot, there flourished a like indifference to certain niceties in the manage- ment of public affairs, such as have come to be observed during the past fifteen or twenty years, partly as a result of quickened public conscience and partly as a result of rigid legislative restric- tions. The aldermanic system thrived here, as in most American cities, and for many years every selfish interest had its representatives on the governing board, and the thing was accepted as a matter of course. The saloons were a large factor in the political life of the community and as a rule sev- [ 24 ] WHEN EVERYBODY VOTED eral saloon keepers were numbered among the aldermen. The old rolling mill district, where Secretary Davis, of President Harding's Cabinet, began his climb toward distinction, was thus repre- sented. Contractual relations with the city were formed by public officials, and city patronage was enjoyed by firms having members in the official family, and little or no attention was paid to such matters. That abuses were not more general is due to the fact that, as a rule the governing body was 'Composed of a majority of men whose pur- poses were unselfish. This matter of city officials having business rela- tions with the municipality rocked along until 1905, when a political convulsion thrust a veritable Teddy Roosevelt into the mayor's office in the per- son of George Ward, who enjoyed what in those days was a rare distinction, in that he was born in Birmingham. Ward put through what was known as an ** Anti-graft'' ordinance, under which the loose and questionable practices of former years were made unlawful. At the same time he created a great sensation by publicly charging a member of the board of police commissioners with having an interest in a famous dive known as the Rabbit Foot Saloon, and, when the police commissioners failed to act in the matter, he caused the offending [ 25 ] THE BOOK OF BIRMINGHAM official to be impeaclied before the board of aldermen. On one occasion, when the aldermanic board be- came arrayed against Ward and elected a presid- ing officer who sought to usurp the duties of that office, Ward beat the *^ pretender '^ to the chair, and, slapping a large and formidable looking re- volver upon the desk, announced that he was at the helm and was going to remain there. And he did. It happened that President Roosevelt visited Birmingham while Ward was mayor, and the latter, given to few words as a rule and being any- thing but an orator, decided to distinguish himself in his welcome address to the President. To this end he wrote a speech full of beautiful and well rounded sentences, and spent weary hours memo- rizing it. At last the great day arrived and vdth it the President. Ward, with a large number of other prominent citizens, met the train. There was a vast throng present, and, as the Colonel stepped out upon the platform, a mighty cheer went up from the multitude. At this crucial moment, Ma^^or Ward raised his voice and exclaimed, *^Mr. President.'' Then he stopped, thought for a moment, and started over again. **Mr. President." A pause, then the Mayor ceased to struggle with his fugitive memory [26 ] WHEN EVERYBODY VOTED and proceeded: ^'Mr. President, I had a fine speech of welcome for you, but IVe forgotten every word of it, but we are glad to have you as our guest. ' ' The broad grin for which the Colonel was famous, became pronounced at this juncture, and reaching for the hand of Ward, he exclaimed: '*Mr. Mayor, that's the finest speech IVe heard since I left Washington !'' Roosevelt, by the way, was very popular in Birmingham, and no-where was his famous joke about **Why I'm a Democrat'' more enjoyed. The joke, as told here, ran something like this : A Northerner and a Southerner were discussing matters political in the smoking compartment of a Pullman, when the Northerner asked : <