The age-herald., 1898-07-31

am really beginning to believe that like | Birmingham. It's a good town. There are ! some provincial people, but not many. Lots of people who know more about the other 1 fellows business than their own, but that's l to be found everywhere Lots of people | who want to tell you how 10 run a news ] paper They are in every town. l found 1 them here fourteen months ago. Among | them were a lot of enthusiasts. They
 talked newspaper, and talked about the
 thousands of dollars they would subscribe
 in order to have a good morning news
 paper in Birmingham. It is needless to tell ] that not one of these prominent citizens 1 ever subscribed dollar.
 didn't waste much time with them after | the first meeting. By the way, that first | meeting was funny. The five men who "by word or sign make unmake men and l enterprises" were there. They talked and ] figured and conditioned and then adjourned | to meet again. Somehow when I left that ! crowd and walked out into the night air 1 my thoughts reverted to the old story I had read in Aesop's Fables in my child | hood-the story of "The Old Lark and the
 Young Ones" We'll before went to sleep that night l decided to cut my wheat with | out waiting for the assistance of neigh bors. have since concluded that old Ae- sop was a good adviser.
 But Birmingham is good town-a grow | ing town. It has bright future. Some of us who make this prediction may be soaring in the realms of eternal happiness before that bright future materializes, but it's coming.
 Birmingham hasn't heretofore been suc- | cessful morning newspaper field. Several fortunes have been lost in the effort to | make it one.
 There are some unproftable advisers in Birmingham. I remember how l went to the old bell wether of the flock of wealthy and influential citizens" He said: Young man, I don't know whe ther you know d-n thing about newspaper business, but they say you do. So jump in, will help you.' He did. He had an old claim against the paper. He was quicker in collecting 1t than Schley was in destroying Cervera's squad ron. Then when he was sent to to pay $2 for a three months subscription he n- dignantly told the collector he was the friend and adviser of the management and of course he was not charged for it-it was sent him complimentary. He is one of the kind of men who build up cities. There are several of these in Birmingham, but Bir-
 mingham is a big town and 1t Is well to
 be charitable. I liked his nerve, and he is yet dead-head-but the only one. He's
 The Age-Heralds mascot.
 There's lots of fun in conducting a news paper in Birmingham. My first experience
 was with "a leading citizen," six feet tall and proportionately built. Before the new
 Age-H Herald was a week old he wrote Ia
 piece" measuring several yards of type
 written copy which he sent around to be printed in the editorial columns as an ut
 terance of the paper. The office cat got
 it and took it upon the roof to play with. The Heading citizen in reading the paper next morning found his "pece" had turned
 up missing In fit of indignation he ap- peared at the counting room and demanded to know why his piece had not been pub- lished. When told that it would be printed over his signature at regular advertising rates and marked advertisement he indig- nantly demanded that his paper be stop ped. The subscription clerk quickly showed out bill for six months arrears
 "Send it to my office' he cried It still goes there monthly. His office boy now subscrbes and pays monthly in advance.
 
 Speaking of writers for papers, The Age
 Herald office has a job lot of editorials sent in by its friends that some ambitious