Columnists (Howell, Soskin Publishers, 1944) wrote this about Pegler:
“Having read the newspapers in bed, he breakfasts and retires early tohis study, whence emerges bad language, the sound of copy paperbeing yanked from the typewriter and ripped to bits, and considerablequantities of cigarette smoke. He spends perhaps six hours a day on apiece and has been known to hunt forty-five minutes fora word.”Pegler died June 24, 1969, at the age of 74. (The
New York World-Telegram was created in 1931 by the merger of the
World and the
Evening Telegram. The
Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, owners of
United Press International, bought the
Sun in 1950
and merged it to form the New York World-Telegram-Sun. The paper ceased publication in 1966.)
5
be himself again.” At this point in the text, Hill originally included the following indignant remarks about the way some employers treated down-on-their-luck people during the Depression:
Some employers take the most shocking advantage ofpeople who are down and out. The agencies hangout littlecolored cards offering miserable wages to busted men aweek, $15 a week. Ana week job is a plum, and anyonewith $25 a week to offer does not hang the job in front of anagency on a colored card. I have a want ad clipped from alocal paper demanding a clerk, a good, clean penman, totake telephone orders fora sandwich shop from 11 AM. to 2P.M. fora month—not $8 a week but $8 a month. The adsays also, State religion Can you imagine the brutaleffrontery of anyone who demands a good, clean penman for11 cents an hour inquiring into the victim’s religion But thatis what busted people are offered.6
Share with your friends: 
