Changing jobs for $3 more a week

In the first two decades of the 20^th century, salaries were so low at The Mobile Register and most other newspapers that employees would often pick up and move to a paper in another city for a few extra dollars a week.

Perkins J. Prewitt, on the right in the above photo, left the Register in 1916 for The Birmingham News because he was offered $3 more a week. Prewitt may have left because he was unhappy with his situation in Mobile. In July 1916, Prewitt, who had been serving as the state editor of the Register, was transferred to its sister paper, The Mobile Item, as its telegraph editor. In Birmingham he became an editor on the News and a member of the Loafers' Club, a men's literary group.

Pictured with Prewitt on the left is Edgar Valentine Smith, the News copy editor and another member of the Loafers' Club. Smith was also a writer and playwright and his short story "Prelude" won the O. Henry Prize in 1923.

Moving from newspaper to newspaper didn’t leave time for making friendships outside the newspaper. The Register often developed camaraderie as family. That occurred in part because they spent so much time together putting out the paper, and in part because they might have no other family.

This Battle House, built in 1906,

was only 10 years old when Prewitt

worked at The Mobile Register.

men and women who worked on the

Those who worked on the nightside of the Register often continued their time together by going to

breakfast at the Battle House Hotel after work, Prewitt once noted. Or they used part of their day time to go sailing together on Mobile Bay.