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VOLUME TOUR
NUMBER TIFT?-TWO
"THE ‘BEST TIEE OT YOUNG AMERICA”
'Barney L. Whatley, a Rising Young Birmingham Attorney Whose Name ‘‘"Spells Something” Tor the Cihic and Religious
Uplift of His City and State.
WILLIAM D. UPSHAW.
T is “good for the eyes”—and head and
heart, and conscience, and all —to look
on a young business man who makes
his life count in the kingdom of men and
the kingdom of God.
If he be a merchant he is not one whit
less business-like or successful because
he keeps a ledger account with the
Giver of all good and reckons the ad-
i
vancement of his Redeemer’s cause more than the
merchandise of silver and gold; if he be a manufac
turer, the whirr of his spindles or the midnight glow
of his foundry give out a richer music or shed a
brighter light because he hears and sees in all of
these a glorious harmony of progress in the better
making of Christian character in the world; if he
be an insurance man he dedicates his wits, of course,
to the fascinating work of “writing a man” for a
good, snug policy, but to him it is more fascinating
still to “line up” a fellow in the Old Line Company
of the skies; if he deal in real estate, his vision of
“corner lots” and his concept of the “appreciation”
and “depreciation” of values is nothing dimmed nor
blunted, but he would rather far make an invest
ment in the real “real estate” of a nee boy or
girl—the real estate that is animated b„ '•ark
of immortality; and if that young man wn. 4“
his life count' be a lawyer he forgets not to be .
ful to his client and his mistress, THE LAW, but .
finds a deeper joy in pleading for the CLIENT who
needs no defense, and he would rather win a soul to
Christ than to win any case in a crowded court
room —counting the applause from the galleries of
the skies worth a million times more than the
“sweet, seducing charms” of the applause of men.
Such a young lawyer, they tell me, is Barney L.
Whatley, of Birmingham, the leaping “Pittsburg of
the South.” He is a part—a real, live, stirring part,
in the bounding better life of the great Iron Metrop
olis.
Think you not, good people, that because this con
secrated young attorney is devoted to his church —
the South Side Baptist —and pours his unselfish life
and enthusiasm into the best building of the Junior
Baraca Boys as an organization and as individuals,
that he has about him what some of the foolish men
of the world imagine all Christian workers among
men must have —a sort of sickly, sentimental
“pietism.” No, thank you! “He just means business.”
There is none of the “namby-pamby Miss Nancy
ism” about Barney L. Whatley. He has piety, it is
true —undisguised and crystal clear. But there are
no frills about it. Barney Whatley just means busi
ness —that’s all. His Christianity is of the mascu
line type —in the best meaning of that term. He
believes that if a man must mean business
affairs in order to be worth while
READ “THE LADY FROM ALABAMA”—Page Three.
ATLANTA, GA., FEBRUARY 17, l? 10.
in the business world, even so —as eternity is longer
than time, as righteousness is far above sin, as
Heaven is higher than hell, as religion holds within
its compass the fullest meaning of time and eternity
—even so, a Christian man should get up early and
work late in order to make his life count in the race
where prizes tarnish not, and coffers must be filled —
but not with greedy gold.
Reckon not, gentle reader, that this Christian
young lawyer is not abreast with the best in his
legal profession.
Although the new-made shingle of “Black and
Whatley” was swung to the breeze barely two years
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BARNEY L. WHATLEY.
ago they have made their place—a large and com
manding one, among the young law firms of Bir
mingham; for Hugo Black is made of much the same
grade of “gully dirt” that Barney Whatley is; and he,
too, believes that the law business and every other
kind of business should be made subservient and
tributary to a man’s Christian life.
The Beginning of Interest.
It was a case of “arrested attention” which made
me wish to know more, and led to the investigation
from which I pay this glad, earnest tribute to this
gallant young Alabamian. I received a letter from
Barney L. Whatley inviting me to lecture in Bir
mingham on Washington’s Birthday under the aus
pices of the Junior Baraca class of which he is
teacher. That was nothing unusual. I receive doz
ens of such invitations every year without any pecu-
liar “throbbing of the heart” or wishing to “call out
the militia.” But there was a latent something about
this letter which became no longer latent. It made
you tingle to your finger tips.
The engagement was made. Soon I learned that
“everybody in Birmingham” was talking about
“John and His Hat” on the 22d of February—not
because of the reputation of the lecturer by any
means, but because of the unique way in which the
announcements were being made and the everlast
ing “get up” of the twenty-two hustling boys who
are known as “the Junior Baracas” at the South Side
church.
They do tell me that those electrical young Amer
icans are going after the people of Birmingham with
such relentless fury and resistless momentum that
already the vision of a tennis court, baseball suits
and all other proper regalia and paraphernalia for
well regulated boys in the “good old summer-time”
is large and luminous before their dilated eyes.
“He is a Live Wire.”
“Do you know anything about a young lawyer in
Birmingham named Barney L. Whatley?” I asked
of C. E. Crossland, another Christian young business
man who made his life count so much that he went
from the place of an active worker in the East Lake
church to a field position of great influence under
the Sunday School Board at Nashville.
“Know him?” he answered with a broadening
smile. “I know all about him. Barney Whatley is
one of the most refreshing and inspiring characters
I ever knew. He is a rousing success as a lawyer
who don’t forget to keep his religion on top.”
“Good! But what is there about that young fellow
that makes him make everything move so when he
touches it?”
“He is just a live wire,” the answer came. “He
knows how to strike and when to strike. He knows
what to say and how to say it.” “And then,” added
this friend who has known Barney Whatley a long
time, “his heart is in the right place.” “Coming to
Birmingham from Lineville, Ala., about six years ago
he did what many young men do who come to the
city from the country—he seldom went to church.
But through a rare sort of tact for which he was
noted, Bro. Shelburne, then pastor at East Lake,
got Whatley interested in Baraca work. This great
work “for young men by young men,” won his judg
ment and his heart. Soon he was gloriously con
verted to Christ and took his stand like a man as a
“soldier of the cross.”
“One day,” said Mr. Crossland, “when I went to
Barney urging him to become President of the B.
Y. P. U., he blushed in evident embarrassment and
said: “I never did learn how; I could catch a colt
and /ide him, or do something else along that line,
but I don’t know how to do this work. It is all so
(Continued on Page 5.)
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