The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-01-02
"The Day We Celebrate"
Annual Function Expressing LoDe for and Admiration of Maj. Screuos and Mr. Glass by the
 Employees Association.

CT suspended publication except during that time in which Montgomery was occupied by a Federal army. and The Advertiser was forbidden issuance be. cause of its devoted and earnest ioy. atty to the South and to Alabama.
 When he arose to speak, Major Screws was given an ovation by the three-score and ten employees of The Advertiser who/ were gathered about the banquet board. He. said:
 If you will pardon personal refer ences. after expressing sincere thanks for the kindly words spoken, and wish ing each one of you happy New Year, I wish to say that am put in a remfn- iscent mood hv the advent of this day. 1 It is the fiftieth anniversary of my citi- zenship in Montgomery. Coming here as I did January 1. 1898. 1t has been my home ever since. Half a century of time has made wonderful changes in this city. Fifty years ago it's popula- tion was not 10000. There were but few houses on Commerce Street most of the space. where now are magnifi- cent structures being then vacant. We had no great wholesale establishments, all the business being of retail charac- ter. There was but little difference fin bad weather between town streets and country roads. Both at that time were almost impassable. and loaded wagons would mire down on principal city highways. We had no railroads South, North or West of us. our only rail out let being by the Montgomery and West Point eastward. Other modes of travel were steamboats and stage coaches. Where we now have solid blecks of | tasteful residences on dozens of streets was playGround or hunting ground for | the bows
 We had three newspapers-fhe staid old Whig paper. The Alabama Journal, | whose editor. John c. Bates, was one of the most accomplished writers of | the United States. After the death of the Whig party and the advent of the Know Nothings. 1t refused to give up | it's old faith and in 1858 quietly passed | out of existence. It was a power in l it's day and the idol of Aosts of patri- otic men, The Montromery Mail was in its prime. It's editor being the famous Johnson J. Hooper. whose hu- | morous works have been enjoyed by | thousands of people in every part of the Union. His Simon Suggs became | a classic. The Mail was the organ of the Know Nothing. or American, Party, | Then there was The Advertiser, which | occupied conspicuous place in the | journalism of the country. and was re- l garded as one of the foremost Of 1 mocratic~newspapers. Its tn en prin- | cipal editor was G. H. Shorter.
 Although these papers circulated | all over the State. their particular field 1 of endeavor was political They lived and moved and breathed in a political atlnosphere and there were grand men in those days. whose causes they advo- | cated. There was not a brighter galaxy | of Whig leaders in any similar sized community in the Union than was to be | found here, The central and com handing figure of the Democracy was 1 William l.. Yancey whose fame was International as we'll as national.
 You of this generation would be amazed if YOU should be turned loose in newspaper office equipped as those | papers were There was not the re- l motest suggestion at that time that a l Mergenthaler would arise and revolu -
 tionize the art of tYpesetting. It was
 then all hand work. and the swiftest
 compositor could not set up in four or
 five hours what is now easily put upon 1 the mach ines In one.
 The press work was mostly by hand and power presses. The Advertiser in.
 stalled the first engine for press work
 by steam here and it was regarded as
 a great step forward, The paper, how.
 ever, was hand fed and only one side
 was printed at a time. That part go.
 ing through the press was turned and 1 run through again when the other
 pages were ready. Mailing, especially
 for the weekly issues was a great
 occasion. There was no mailing ma.
 chine to expedite and simplify, but
 simply long lines of postoffices on
 books and the names were transcribed
 by hand. It was a pleasant diversion
 for a number of young men to go to
 the newspaper offices and help the
 mailing clerk get off his work.
 "The business department was far
 more in the circuation end of the pa
 per than anywhere else. There were not so many county papers then as now. and good sized bundles of Mont
 gomery weekly papers went by the staI
 route and horseback route to every
 postoflce in the State. The increased
 facilities for reaching people promptly
 and the establishment of free rural de.
 livery has brought the daily to almost
 every mans door.
 "Of the fifty years of my residence
 here, forty-three of them have been
 spent in doing work on The Adver-
 tiser. Three of the other seven waFs