The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-05
TOM HAYES DEAD
IN new ORLEANS
WELL KNOWN SOUTHERN NEWS
PAPER MAN PASSES AWAY-HE
LEAVES MANY FRIENDS IN BlR-
MINGHAM AND OTHER CITIES.

The news comes from New Orleans that
Tom Hayes is dead, and in his passing,
another man who had "hls heart in the
right place" encounters the mysteries of
that unknown bourn from which no
traveller returns.
The young man. prey to treacherous
pneumonia, yielded up the fight that was
not Ion the square" in New Orleans yes
terday afternoon. In his few years he
moved about the territory of the south
extensively, and wherever he stopped new
friends were drawn to his standard, men
who realized that behind the silent and
outward mask there breathed a good and
manly spirit.
Hayes was recently a member of the
reportorial staff of The Age Herald. After
severing his connection with this paper
he assumed charge of the sporting de-
partment of the Birmingham News. From
Birmingham he drifted to Pensacola, from
which place there came reports of his
competency and his making good" After
leaving Pensacola he returned to Louisi-
ana, and did some work for the New Or
ltdilS ANtWS itlt liC Ndo dGSdltu Will
pneumonia and was overcome
The deceased was a native of ShreYe-
port, in which city he was connected with
the Times, and with the city government
in the capacity of auditor. After leav-
ing Shreveport he was employed by the
Meridian Star. From Meridian he came to
Birmingham.
Hayes was a man of convictions and
one who did not fail to make those con-
victions known. lie reported sensa-
tional case in Shreveport Immediately be-
fore leaving that city, in which certain
serious charges were brought against GER
tain city officials. So interested was he
in this work, and SO diligently did he pur-
sue every thread of evidence that was
brought before him, that the subsequent
conviction of the defendants was due pri-
marily to his courageous and Industrious
research. Such a determined stand in the
face of public opinion, as is always the
case, often aroused the antipathy of those
with whom he came in contact which an
tipathy, as is invariably true the wide
world over, became tribute to his manli-
ness.
The deceased was not always right, but
his inante characteristic of never aban-
doning a cause he thought it right, won
for him admirers, though not always
friends. On every subject he had an opin-
ion. He probably was no politician. But
no man can state that Tom Hayes was
not honest.
There is much grief in Birmingham that
Hayes Is dead He made numerous
friends IN the short period that he lived
here, and for him, no one says things
unkind.
lie was about thirty years old, and just
before leaving Birmingham his health was
gone. Last fall a private message was
received here that he was desperately ILL.,,
and after recovering from this attack it
is no wonder that In the terrible grasp of
pneumonia he yielded up his spirit.
AS d writer Hayes attracted attention
on account of his knowledge of the sub
ject matter, more than from any bril-
liancy of style or rhetoric. His readers
knew instinctively that the writer knew
what he wrote about. AS a baseball ex-
pert lie had few equals. lie knew the
game from beginning to end. and all the
players who wore the togs. He remem-
bered every dispute that had arisen in
the kingdom of baseball, and there were
few in which he had not been called upon
to deliver an opinion.