The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-04-05

wild enthusiasm. the speeches he deliv-
 cred from the verandah of the old Ex-
 change Hotel. and the eloquent address
 of William l.. Yancey to the crowd that
 gathered about the hotel
 All the stories dealing with the SC.
 cession of the States, the meeting of
 the Confederate Congress. the iaaueur.
 ation exercises and the formation and muster in of the various military com
 panies. were written by Mir. Brown
 No newspaper man in Alabama, per.
 haps. ever handled larger stories than
 he while. the Nation was being formed
 and defended.
 MT. Brown was a personal friend and
 associate of such famous writers as
 Matt Blue and Johnson ]. Hooper, the
 noted. humorist. who wrote simon
 Suggs" He was a witness of the fight
 between Mir. Blue and MT. Hooper over
 rival publications. a light in which
 neither was seriously injured. Some
 years after the war. Mir. Brown quit
 the newspaper business for good and
 At that time" he said. q was Mar
 shai and Librarian of the Supreme
 Court. and was employed by The
 Montgomery Mail to write its local
 news at s2s a week. For my Capitol work I was receiving salary of s1,- 900 a year. That was good money in those froublous times and thought If could continue 10 draw those two salares I would get ric.,. saw. though. that the time would come when I would have to give up my Capitol duties and when Mir. Barrett. who afterward be- came my partner. offered me chance
 in the job printing business re- | signed" er
 That was the foundation of the well
 known printing house of the Brown Printing Company, which is prosper. ous to this, day and from which Mir.
 Brown has made handsome fortune
 How does Montgomery of 1s4s com
 pare with Montgomery of tsos7' said Mir. Brown. s'Why. there Is no com parison. There is the same difference
 as there Is between village and a city. Court Square has changed com | pletsly. as has the entire business sec ton of the city. The old Madison
 House was. however. standing on the corner of Perry and Dexter Avenue when I came to Montgomery. I stop ped there my first night in Montgom- cry. I had been born in Jacksonville Ala. and as a boy of 15 came to this city to make my fortune. Judge Sam uel F. Rice happened to be on the stage with me. the stage that came ! in from Talladega. When we came
 from Wetumpka on what is now the Lower Wetumpka Road. It was then
 known as the Plank Road by reason of
 the fact that 1t was poorly paved with | plank. That used to be tn cory of | those days---that road could be built of plank. When we got to Montgom- | cry Judge Rice showed me the Madison House and advised me to stop there. | From then until now I have lived in Montgomery. except the short while was at Rome"
 Asked as to how newspaper work l was done In ante-bellum days, Mir. | Brown said; &-
 T was not only the city editor of | The Advertiser. I was the whole re- portorisl force. I not only located all , city news, but I wrote 1t up myself. If | wrote a whole column I thought I had done good days work hardly | suppose q good reporter in these days | would not consider column any big | days work but I was satisfied with # | In those days.
 Then I was telegraphic editor. too. Oh, yes. we had telegraphic news in | those days. But. there were no. mes
 senger boys. The telegraph ofice was
 over Levystein's store, overlooking | Court Square. the same place from which the order was sent to fire on l Fort Sumter. had to go down every | night to wait for the telegraph news | to come in. It came In slowly, too. We had only few telegrams and each night I would catch my sleep on, the ! table while waiting. for our items over | the wire"
 | are heartier than Mir. Brown. He spends nearly the entire year in Mont
 gomery. But he takes time to make an annual visit to Saratoga Springs. 8 custom which he has kept up for many years. --.. t