The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-12-22
DEAMH 
 
SIX YEARS AGO WALTER JOHNSON \
 STACKED HAY FOR $l5 A MONTH

From stacking hay under a blazing sun for , small sisnoleons a month and meals. to Ringing a small baseball two hours a day in the big show for six months a s75O0 per season. from hust- ling around in oyeralls and jumper year in and year out on one little farm to travelling about .he land on Pullmans. wearing diamonds and silk paiamas is the story of the rise of Walter Perry Johnson, champion pitcher of the major leagues. He has made his jump in six years, too.
 Tn 1906 the famous twirler, then a tall, angling kid with tremendously long arms, powerful shoulders and amazing innocence of the great wide world, was in Weiser. Ida, far up on the top of the universe. He was only IS years old then. but speed? Why, "speed' was Johnson's middle name
 Weiser sported q town team. and Johnson was it's pitcher. He didht get much money, but he did get a lot of fun out of the game, which he had always liked. He would toll all after noon in the thin air, perspiring like a horse. always winning and always col- leeting his little 10 simoleons a week for his endeavors.
 q was in Weiser two seasons. It wasn't in a regular league Wed play teams from other towns more for fun than anything else. It advertised the town. When l decided to join the Wash ington club my friends came to me and offered to set me up in business if I'd stay. They wanted to buy me It, tie tobacco store. I suppose I'd have made living, but the Washington of fer was for more money than had ever dreamed of so l took it.
 T lost money instead of making it when l pitched my first game of ball, lazily remarked the peerless pitcher" one day last summer. "Yes, 1t cost me money, but l didn't care. I was so anx- ious to show what I could do.
 A Two Dollar Job
 q had been trying to get job every where and was delighted when I got a telegram from the manager of a team just outside of Los Angeles, where was living then, telling me to be on hand Saturday. He offered me $2.
 "Well, I went all right It was long, dusty ride in day coach, and I pitched the game. I won it, too, and when collected my S2 l was the happiest kid in the country. was IT years old. That's why I didn't worry over the fact that my expenses from my home to the ball park totaled more ths T $4, while all I earned was s2. That was my first professional game.
 Tt was after that that I went 10 Washington. It was awful hot in Wei ser. and I never would have been able to endure the heat except for my farm training. I won lot of games for Weiser You see, l always had a lot of speed. I didn't nave much else then. I'd just wind up and let it go, and l used to keep the batters and catch CTS, and sometimes the people in the grandstand, jumping around whenever I'd let go. l was pretty wild then"
 Johnson was very green when he ar rived in Washington. He was, of course, photographed. and one day last summer he was shown that early picture.
 Gee, did I look like that2' be laughed. q must have been pretty green, don't you think"
 Indeed, Johnson was the greenest rookie ever seen in the big show when Ee marched up pennsylvania avenue, His clothes didn't fit him. neither did his shoes. He was gawky and angular but he certainly could pitch.
 Not a Swedc
 q wish you'd let people know re- marked Johnson that day in the train I wouldn't care much about being called the Big Sweedie if 1 were a Swede, but I'm not
 II was born ill Humboldt, Kan, not far from where I live now My father was born near Harrisburg. Pa, and is of Scotch Irish extraction. My mother