| Show r Staff Member at Milestone o 9 I Albert F. F Philips Has Birthday o Recalls Vicissitudes of oJ Labors By Albert F. F Philips Philips- HY have a a birthday For as the years roll by and W WHY how swiftly they do go a fellow should forget all alla a shout limit about birthdays Why not put it thus My birthday How many years I ago ago ago- Twenty or thirty Dont Don't ask mel Forty or Fifty How can I 1 tell I do not remember my birth you see And yet Just because today marks m my ry and be- be be because because cause I 1 have spent all my life lite in newspaper work th the city editor gives me an assignment to write a astory astory astory story about myself He just mixes my birthday anniversary with my newspaper career Were it anyone else that the story was to be written about I could write it but about I I myself myself-I I balk But here is the assignment It reads your birthday recalls the fact that you have devoted a lifetime to o newspaper work Write a a yarn arn about the three score and more years rears that you have been In the newspaper game the game the sweet the bitter the tragic the humorous MY FIRST FAILURE And he gives s me inc this assignment after my first failure on an as assignment as- as When the Colorado Colorado- Utah football game was played on October 4 Tie lie asked me to score the game gameS I 1 attempted It but as I had never seen a game played knew nothing about punts or wedges or drives or kickoffs kickoffs dId did not know why they used a gridiron in the game Well the this story I turned in was Just a mess I then recalled I the fact that when I was In school we were taug taught t riUn rith riOl history and grammar and spell In and that our marks marls in those days das were upon proficiency In studies rather than on ability of or vaulting a high wire or striking a ball on the tee and sending It on th the green or making a down We also learned that the island of C Cuba ba was east of pew NeW NeWYork York and that a line Une drawn straight north and south through the United States to come out on the west side of ot South America would come a littie little lit lit- tie tle east of t Buffalo Bufalo N N. Y The at attempt attempt attempt at- at tempt to score the football game was a real tragedy to me My n newspaper school was the old school when a scoop or beat counted count count- ed and was Was' the ambition of ot the life lite of ot every man engaged In the getting out of ot the paper and he was happy when h he ma made e the scoop MY FIRST SCOOP I When I was printing the Kokomo Koko- Koko mo Ind md Tribune a schoolboy I friend of mine gave me a real scoop p. p He drifted into my office one Wednesday evening loaded with something that had a greater kick kiOk than Florida water and flourishing a gun In his hand informed me that he was going to shoot a fellow tellow that evening My reasoning with him apparently was without avail until I said Why Frank this Is Wednesday night Why give the opposition paper here which prints on Thursday a scoop Dont Don't shoot him until Friday night when you can give me a cinch on the stor story as I print on Saturday The suggestion met with his approval approval approval ap ap- ap- ap and I took him home and the Incident passed out of or my mind But Bui not so with Frank for tor on Friday Fri Friday Fri Fri- da day night there was the report of ot a agun agun agun gun In a saloon two doors below belo the theoffice theoffice theoffice office followed fo by another and on In to see what had happened happened happened hap hap- there stood my friend way way- waving waving ing lag a gun sun In his hand and as I en entered entered en- en he exclaimed Saved It for you Al AI Good scoop hey And there on the floor loor lay his enemy perforated with two bullets Well the victim got well and I got my friend acquitted They are not so accommodating these days COINCIDENTAL TRAGEDY It was way back In the seventies se that a demented father who lived twenty miles from my old home hometown hometown hometown town in Indiana killed three of his children in their home by by- severing their heads from their bodies Another Another Another An An- other little one a e. boy of or four years yeats was shot in the head while the wife and mother got away fleeing from the demented husband and father tather I reached the home about four o'clock in the morning attended the Inquest and held the wounded boy on my lap while the surgeon probed for the bullet The lad lived I Thirty-eight Thirty years afterwards aman a aman aman I man walked into a department store in my old home town of Kokomo and I drawing a revolver re shot his wife wiCe dead The wife was an en employee at the store He was arrested and within ten hours had been tried convicted and sentenced and was on his way to the state prison to serve ser serea a life Ilfe sentence That murder was the boy I had held on my lap when he had been shot by his demented father Perhaps he too was Insane NEWSPAPER ACUMEN In Hastings Neb r an alleged oc- oc was wa on trial for an assault on a young oung girl one of his p patients I was reporting the case and when the noon recess of the court was WIlS II 1 taken I suggested to the city editor edi tor of or the Gazette Journal that we had better keep three or four tour meri meriand men I I and end the pressmen on op dut duty that night as I r was sure they would lynch the prisoner and In all probability probability proba proba- bUlly his alleged ged wife whom the testimony showed was equally guilty guilty guil gull ty with him Arrangements were so made n Then at o'clock In Inthe inthe inthe the afternoon when the tile Judge was making out the commitment papers pape's the tho court having ln decided to lo hold the tile prisoner to the dl district court and the half hair dozen of or us In the court room were awaiting the end of the hearing hearing hear hear- ing there was as a report of ot a n gun and the prisoner who had been pacing pacing pac pac- ing lag the floor fell dead his brains being scattered over o u us as he fell feU He lie wo wa shot hot by a brother of the girl girls girl Continued on 00 pegs page S. S SO SJ p. p t STAFF MEMBER AT MILESTONE I Continued from page 1 1 The alleged wife was spirited a away way from the crowd which quickly gathered gath- gath gathered lathered ered and was driven over to Kearney Kearney Kearney Kear Kear- ney where after an incarceration Inthe in inthe inthe the jail for several months she was tried and acq acquitted The boy did the shooting was arrested taken talen before the court tried the same I evening and ana acquitted These are some of the tragedies which comein come comein I in the course of duty in the newspaper newspaper news news- paper mans man's profession BITTER AND SWEET news news-I There is perhaps more tragedy in the newspaper profession than In any other Tragedies like the Winter Winter Winter Win Win- ter Quarters horror In Utah those that come in the home affect so many people a ant ir pull so many heart heartstrings heartstrings heartstrings strings and cause many tears That Thatis is the bitter The sweet comes in ln inthe inthe the recording of the good deeds done b by oy DY Y th the e h hundreds un d re d s o or of f men an and d women b by oy DY Y th the e h hundreds un d re d s o or of f men an and d women of the country every day And of the humor It comes oc oc- oc My l memory records an obituary that I wrote of ot an in the long ago His life liCe had not been the most exemplary and I Isaid Isaid Isaid said so in addition to recalling a afew afew few tew of the good things that he had done Then I gave him a nice newspaper newspaper newspaper news news- paper funeral Two we weeks ks afterwards afterwards afterwards after after- wards he paralyzed me by walking into the office and after saying that he did not know how damned ornery he was until he read my obituary of ot him he complimented me for the good things s said and said he was ready to die again ALWAYS REMAIN YOUNG However to cover an assignment I like the one given me causes one oneto oneto oneto to become reminiscent and when one gets Into that groove well groove well I dont don't want to get old I Just want to continue t teJ td be a Kid Several years vears ago when on my golden an anniversary anniversary anniversary an- an in the newspaper profession profession profession sion I wrote a yarn from which I know I will be permitted to quote thus The newspaper to me is like a amill amill I II I I mill to the miller To this mill has come come during the fifty tifty years now almost sixty that I have been I watching the burrs many a grist to tobe tobe tobe be ground And of this number there have been many many how how many manyI I cannot say that say that have never been ground but have been thrown Into the race to be carried away and forgotten for the grinding would have shattered many a castle broken brok brok- en many a heart sent many to the grave with reputation ruined while the living would have suffered So down from the cobwebs in this old mill In fancy looks many a face as asit asit it watches the burrs continue the I grind and the smile seen in the memory recalled is worth a life forthe for tor forthe the happiness of if homes whose good name has been kept untarnished because the grist that was sent to the mill old was vas not ground Then too come the recollections of the stories told of weddings and f friends happy years that followed the story of pf the firstborn and the others of the happiness when those little ones grew up how the grandma grand grand- ma and grandpa beamed with Joy Joyas joyas joyas as they asked me to write a story of the grandchild And looking locking backward over th tip I 1 three score years that have passed I since I first came on the editorial II I end of a newspaper newspaper I had mastered the mechanical end before re on this my birthday cannot recall how v I could have hae dany d dany any better Oj |
