The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-18


reporters fail to get, and that Mr.. Cruik-
shank thinks worth publishing. will you
use it?"
yes" said he.
"What will you pay for it?" I asked,
and he replied after due consideration:
"One dollar and fifty cents column
Then I asked him il he needed an adj
vertising solicitor. and he said no.
'If 1 get advertising that your regular
men don't get will you use it?' asked
He said he would and would pay me
10 per cent when the bills We're collected,
provided I did not solicit lads" from any
of his regular advertisers
'I am engaged" said T. and walked
in and told Mr.. Cruikshanl1 that was
just beginning work on the Chronicle.
I put in my mornings hunting scoops
and my afternoons husting for ads
and while I did not set Red mountain on .
| fire I made living and some reputation.
| There was a sood-natured printer
named w. II. Jeffries. then foreman of
the Chronicle-he is now well known to
| every advertiser on The Age-Herald-
who was my staunch friend and who en-
couraged mo by many kind word. He
called mo Smoke because that word
played an important part in a stock"
| head I used over a column OF railroad.
furnace and other industrial news,
/ always reported at the office about
Z o'clock in the morning before 1 started
out on my daily rounds, and sometimes
Mr.. Cruikshank would have glad
word" for me- when he would say:
| Morton. all tho other reporters are
drunk today, and the whole town Is
yours"
| Then I would reap a harvest at 'I.50
per-" Sad to relate most of us reporters
and printers used to drink liquor in
those days, before it was discovered that
newspapers and whislSy-drnkers could
not ride in the same boat. | might say
that jeff" tho foreman, never got
drunk, though he did strike one time
and marched out of the composing room
at the head of the other printers, right
past Mr.. Cruikshanlss desk, though that
was not the regular route the printers
took out of the office
| MY thousand words are nearly used up
| and l must hasten. Like the steamboat
| negro who ''proved so good as a roust-
about" that he was promoted TO deck
hand" | made sufficient progress as a
finder of industrial news to be offered
regular job on the Herald by Colonel
Rhodes. as soon as it was started, at SIS
per week, which was counted pretty
good pay in the good old days.
worked on the Herald until was
made city editor, an honor L then greatly
priced, and which l resigned a few week&b
later to accept a reportorial place on tli8-
| Nashville Democrat started by the late
Senator Il. W. Carmack, then an aspir-
ing young newspaper man. When l lett
| the Herald Colonel Rhodes called me
into his office and handed me letter of
| commandments only one ever
| had-and which is still filed away among
my valuable papers. though nobody ever
knew 1t except Colonel Rhodes, my vito
and myself Colonel Rhodes also told
something to mo which pleased me very
much, and which may help some other
youth in the fierce battle for a toe-hod.
He said:
Morton, want to give you this let
ter because you have been a hard and
conscientious worker and because during
the fierce office politics that has ragged
around here recently you have had sense
enough to keep your mouth shut
When you come to think about 1t that
was some compliment; for 1t sometimes
takes considerable number of corruga-
tions in your brain to keep your mouth
Shut
The Nashville Democrat had brief
but meteoric career, and was merged
into the Nashville American after seven
to tot
and went to work on The Age Herald
the consolidation having been effected
| during my absence, Colonel Rhodes
connection with the Herald having been
severed and he having started the present
Birmingham News.
| Col. w. p. Pinckard was one Of the
chief stockholders of The Age-Herald.
Capt. Frank p. O'Brien was general
managers Robert Warnock was business
manager and r. II. Yancey, now editor
of the Nashville Banner, editor.
| Bob" McDavid, since secretary of state
of Alabama, was city editor, and w. l..
Hawley, now dead, but later on the New
| York Sun, was telegraph editor, and a
little later Chappell Cory became man
aging editor.
| There was not IN my early days in
Birmingham an electric light nor an
! electric car on the streets-only gas, mule
cars and dummy lines"-and many a
column did l fill trying to convince the
public that Birmingham was not mule
but an electricity city, and that four
electric arc lamps would shed moro
| light than all the gas "glims' IN town.
| Who knows but some of the seed then
sown might have been the progenitors
of some of the splendid achievements
that have since come to pass?
| / always was an optimist 'bull' IL
you will, and many a time in the good
year 1887 1 did write it down that lin
three years Birmingham will have a.
larger population than Louisville, KY"
Yes. / believed in Birmingham and the
| faith is In me still. I saw the marvel
Gus development, and the budding possi-
bilities for a period of about three years.
| In those days Birmingham was cos
mopolitan, over-grown country town.
"Buzzard's Roost' and Pigeon Roost'
| long since passed away, were holy ter
rors'' and it was q dull night that did
not bring forth murder.
| The town was new, the people were
new, and contrary to the generally ac-