Birmingham Southern College - Southern Accent Yearbook (Birmingham, AL)

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ALUMNI R. I.. WILLIAMS Governor of Oklahoma 21

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ALUMNI H.C.HOWi KI) r.I.CHAPHy K COLLEGE PROFESSORS 20

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ALUMNI LETTER FROM F. E. PORTER, CLASS OF 1887. AiK ' oM, C ' aiuil Zone, Octobei- l,j, IDl-i. Mr. C. W. Segrest, ' Greensboro, Alabama. Dear Sir: The Southron, several communications from Mr. J. H. Baxley, of Dotban, Ala., and your favor of the 11th ultimo relative thereto, were all received while I was in the hospital, where I have undergone several severe operations on my head and been confined since the 18th of last May. Now as to The Southron, it is not just what I expected, for in carelessly reading the l)rospectus I rather jumped at the conclusion that it was to be a kind of register or direc- tory of the S. U. from its beginning, including a roster of the ahmini, which of course, was unwarranted and due entirely to my own carelessness. But I can not say that I was particularly disappointed, for tlic ]uililication is a credit to the institution and to its student body, to whom I tender my sincere congratulations, and is by far the most pretentious and the most creditable publication of its kind that I have ever seen, and this opinion is shared by everyone who has examined it, and as my old black mammy would say, the doctors and nurses in the hospital carried on a regular miration over it. It now occupies a conspicuous position on the center table in my oifice and attracts llic attention of everyone who drops in to gabberfest or otherwise pass the time in a social seance. And notwithstanding the fact that it is not a complete directory, it contains enough to vividly revive my memory of the good old days gone by when the rivalry or rather the emulation between the two societies and the ' arions fraternities then present was respon- sible for divers and various comical stunts, social and otherwise. I find the l)eaming phiz of the then ,Jim, now Bishop McCoy, who ruthlessly, pre- meditatedly, and with his prepense and malice aforethought, snatched from me the declama- tion prize, even when I had thought aforetime that I had it cinched, and that there was nothing left for me to do but to skid out on the rostrum, give to the judges and the audience a stately bow and a winning smile, turn loose my spiel, and walk off with the bacon. But Jim was some speaker himself, and in addition thereto, nursed an insatiable ambi- tion, so that he was not satisfied or contented with this overwhelming triumph, but per- sistently, consistently and assiduously made Clarios and K. A. ' s of the elect whom I had predestined for Belles Lettres and A. T. O. ' s. 1 am not in the least surprised at the eminence he has attained in his calling, and doff my hat to him in deferential admiration and sincere congratulations for being an honor to himself, his State, and to his . Ima Mater, which is also honored by the publication The Southron. Then there is the moon-lieam countenance of Brother C. P. Atkinson, with his perennial .smile and exidierant and never failing good nature and princely comradeship, who was one of the elect who turned a deaf ear to the siren voice, dulcet wooing, and enticing wiles of Brother ,Tim, and landed safely in the A. T. O. camp where he properly belonged, and be- came an honor to it as well as to the University and to Methodism, to all of which he ded- icated his life and ennobling example, which are now in full frviition and of which you are no doubt one of the beneficiaries. And now I come to the classical features of the jirini and reserved Dent, and those of the osculatory ship destroyer Hobson. Dent was there during my time, but Hobson graduated the session before I arrived upon the scene, though I afterwards met him while T was living in Washington. 22