Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-01-21
THE "COMEBACK"-By Frederic J. Haskin

The responsibility of it's position as the
first paper of it's kind rests heavily on the
shoulders of the infant journal, four weeks
old on the fourth of January.
ga noncom officer has to cut his notches
pretty straight" the editor laments "The
job of being a nOncom newspaper to hay
foot-strawfoOt brigade of hospital sheets,
may be dignity, but it is certainly also a
responsibility"
AS it's fourth duty, the paper must serve
as practical school of journalism for the
wounded men with leanings toward newspa-
per careers.
For example, Private Stewart L. Evans,
eighteen-year-old veteran of twelve months
hard fighting there, came back to the
Walter Reed Hospital with arm gone
lost under barrage fire at Chateau Thierry
and a disinclination to go back to his old
trade as machinst One weeks service in
the advertising department of the Comeback
has convinced him and his chief that he was
intended to be the advertising manager Of
some metropolitan daily few years hence,
and in the meantime he loses no time re-
ceiving his practical training On his hospital
paper.
From the typesetters case to the impos-
ing stone, and from cub reporter to editor
in-chief," the paper declares, ''eyery job will
be filled by a Yank they couldn't kill The
fellow who wants to learn journalism will
have opportunity to learn any phase of it
for which his ability fits him.
eff these doughboys ever learn to write"
the paper prophesies, there will be more
real stories of the war written after the war
than while it was being fought. Suppose
the Comeback gets a fellow who battered the
Boche in Beleau Woods and helps to find the
reporter that is in him. What a tale he
could tell!'
Every man in the hospital is given chance
to write for his paper. The Comeback issues
reporters blanks with instructions just how
to write the story and distributes them
among the men in the wards. The wounded
soldier lies on his cot and writes, usually
about his neighbor his nurse, for the men
are rather shy about telling of their own ex-
ploits
All of the stories that come into the Come
backs editorial desk are 1t in praise of
that neighbours particular E'roism.
"BilI' one chap, signing himself Jim"
writes, says that he got that bum leg at
Argonne but we all know that it was due to
his uncouth disregard for military courtesy.
He passed Maude, a high-ranking mule,
without saluting, and aforesaid mule ex-
pressed her resentment by properly kicking
Bill in a perfectly Iadylike manner
In the next issue "BiIl' CONS back with a
heated refutatiOn of this insult, and further
more proceeds to explain Jim's missing left
arm in an equally unheroic way.
The editorial desk of the Comeback is
swamped with poetry, many a budding
Wordsworth or Walt Mason finding an out
let for his poetic soul in the Comeback.
Unframed writer's learning the art of
journalism are not the only writer's for the
Comeback. In the first edition such names
as Rupert Hughes, Gelett Burgess, Harvey
O'Higgins, Montague Glass, Arthur Somers
Roche, Charles Hanson Towne and others
appear signed to- congratulatory letters,
promising that the Comeback will not be for
gotten. There are also cartoon by we'll
known artists such Bergman, Gordon
Grant and Goldberg, the latter sending a
drawing shortly before sailing for France
accompanied by promise to send the first
cartoon he draws in Europe to the Comeback
President Wilson, on the high seas, sent
the Comeback his hearty greetings and we'll
wishes the second edition of the paper
proudly carrying in facsimile his radiogram.
Convey my cordial greetings to the boys
who have come back" the President wired
Private Frank Connolly, managing editor of
the paper. what they did was worth DOING
and will always reflect glory up them. My
heart is with them in every part of their flu
ture as it was in their past