The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-06
ITINERANT JOURNALISTS

Along with the tramp printer, whose disappearance is recorded in the rural press, another type that was formerly familiar is missing from newspaper of fices. The itinerant journalist no longer drifts about the country, as was his custom when liquor was cheap and plen- tiful and railroad transportation could be had for the asking. Perhaps, the loss of railroad passes which enabled wanderer to make his way from city to city, with the aid of sympathetic man. aging editors and obliging railroad off cials, has done more than any other sim gle factor to put an end to the travels of the financially embarrassed news paper man with his future behind him.
 Prohibition and the ban placed on the distributor of railroad passes, taken to- gether, have robbed the road of most of it's attractions. Nowadays, one not only has to pay his way, unless he steals ride on a freight train, but the cost of transportation is higher. Also, much of the old-time fellowship of newspaper off, fices has disappeared. Formerly tramp printer or reporter could drop into a newspaper office almost anywhere and be sure of receiving a cordial welcome, which included a round or two of drinks and the lunch someone with dollar or two in his pocket would offer to buy; or little change, donated in the guise of a "loan." Perhaps there was job open on the staff, which the wandering one held for few days or weeks, according to his inclination and his habits.
 And then, when the urge came to move on to pastures new or to revisit scenes where the free lunch was known to be of excellent quality and the beer abun- dant, the managing editor who may have precipitated the departure by discharg- ing the journalist for drunkenness, would take pity on him and obtain a railroad pass to be used in reaching the next town, thus passing on the offender as was formerly the custom of cities in Humping" their vagabonds on other cities, very unneighborly thing to do. If, perchance, the managing editor was sufficiently hard-hearted and so incensed by the discharged one's neglect of duty that he withheld transportation, the prob- abilities were that the inherent journal ist had cultivated the acquaintance of local railroad officials, with an ulterior object in view, and could get pass for himself.
 The modern newspaper office still re- tains some of the camaraderie and bo-
 
 the newspapers of twenty or thirty years ago, but the old, happy-go-lucky days are gone forever. Newspaper men no longer look and act as much like bo- hemians as they used to do, and there has been such a transformation in the machinery, mechanical and otherwise, used in getting out a newspaper that highly skilled and dependable organiza- tion is required. Also the increase in the size and circulation of newspapers has made them great business institu- tions that are conducted much as other business enterprises are conducted. The newspaper tramp who was once tolerated everywhere would not be allowed to finger long on the premises of a mod ern newspaper, because he would not fit in. His habits and his personal ap- pearance would make him persona non grata. The managing editor or the fore man of a mechanical department who ventured to employ him would be court ing trouble, if not disaster.
 Yet, the itinerant journalist was most interesting, and often brilliant, individual. He knew life literally, from the bottom to the top. or vice versa. His experiences were so numerous and so varied, and not little exciting at times, that a night given over to drinking liouor paid for by his auditors, and to the relation of his past, would find the dawn creeping in and the tale not half told. His acquaintance with towns and cities, and with men and women, was all-inclusive. It was not unusual to meet one who had beaten path all over his native land, and was equally familiar with foreign countries, and the teeming ports of the world. Some of them had been stars in their day, losing first one position and then another through drink. Nearly all had been honored and steadily employed members of their profession at one time or another. There were men who had risen high in other professions the law, or medicine-and in their descent toward the gutter had clutched at poorly paid newspaper work and be- come the parasites and rolling stones of the newspaper world.
 Pathetic figures they were, notwith standing their worldly cynicism and the boosting they indulged in when in their cups. They died in the gutters, in the police stations, in the charity wards of hospitals, these wrecks on the shores of humanity, paying the price of lives mis- spent and opportunities wasted. It is just as we'll that we see them no more.
 Some of those congressmen who claim that they cannot live on $7,5OO year might be reminded that many of their at al0po on V1onRh