The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-02
Easy Job Nowadays Com pared With Quarter of a Century Ago, Says Noted Veteran of Game
MORRIS W. BUSH
By HANS WAGNER


 On the night when Fred Clarke took his leave of Pittsburg, friends asked him when he would revisit the old town.
 "Oh, don't know" replied Clarke, there is only one thing that would at- tract me back to Pittsburg."
 And what is that?" asked George Gib- son.
 'I will come to Pittsburg to see the shortstop that some day crowds Honus cut of his job."
 By that time,' retorted Gibby, 'you will have a long beard and no one here will know you.
 I am still wondering haw to take it. whether it is a knock or a boost, but l guess that Fred intended it as a boost. Thought it is my twentieth year in the majors and time is slipping, I am view ing the dawn of the 1916 season with all the freshness and enthusiasm that char. acterized my feelings in other years. monotinies have never crept into my baseball career and, like the small boy, annually become possessed of the happy thrill of getting my fingers around a new, white ball.
 Twenty years IS a long time, but the future is not bothering me- will not cross any bridges until I come to them, and if 1 feel as fit and fine in pending years as do now, I will not be trou- hled by the task of hunting another job. This year I am rounding out my score of years under new auspices. Fred Clarke and I fought shoulder to shoulder for IS years and I will miss him. but in Jim T-E I,r,z xr-t1 N.,ft, Af hn golden age when stars were great, many and mighty, though stipends were linn tied. Those were days, too, when play CTS did not enjoy the rich travelling com- forts of the present time, and as I em- bark on my twentieth cruise apoard the Pirate brig, I can look back even fur ther into the sorry plight of the athlete of the bygone days.
 It is rosy old job nowadays compared with a quarter century ago, when skip ping the hotel bill was not the op- ject of dishonesty, but really the safest thing to do to keep out of the grasp of the constable.
 ANOTHER EXPERIENCE
 I will never forget our experience one night in Pennsylvania oil town. We were making the rounds of the oil coun- try and not having m acsl luck. With us 
 my brother Al, Pete Lavelle, and other western Pennsylvania stars of the pe- riod.
 We struck the rocks and were ma rooned in a little hotel in one of the towns. Rain had spoiled our chances to get grubstake and at midnight there was nothing for Us to do but toss our baggage out the window and get away by sliding down ropes and bed sheets. +l ,<rrff r,ayrro< q
 It is fine old job now, and that is the reason T am rebelnng so every year against young chaps who seek my job. What will do when I can't play any more is a question for the future. 1 would not be a manager, because l would not want to leave the ball field and take my worries and troubles home with me. Nor would feel like 6oing back to the barber shop. Friends have advised me often what to do when the batting eye is dimmed and the ground between snort and second seems a mile, but I will let that bridge, as I said before, come to me before l cross it.
 Friends often have suggested to me that I become a scout when my playing days are over. Tt might be good idea, since there remain many small town fishing smack that I have not encoun- tered on my many tours Of big cities, put some of the scout experiences related by "Chick" Fraser and Billy Murray have sort of scared me off
 One summer day about two years ago President Dreyfuss received postal card recommending phenom in the way of q first baseman away up in Minnesota. The town wasn't in the atlas nor on the map. and it had to be located by com- municating with the Minnesota state gov ernment Such reports always are inves-