Byline: Old News Is Good News

A podcast of historic journalism for young writers, Byline uncovers fascinating stories from the printed past and examines the lives of forgotten reporters.

Telegraph Talk and Talkers 12/06/2019

Telegraph Talk and Talkers In its written form telegraphese, or "Morse," as it is called in the vernacular, is rarely seen. Yet as a vehicle of expression it is, to the initiated, as harmonious, subtle, and fascinating as the language of music itself. /episode/index/show/byline/id/12305390

Disbanding the Union Army, part 2 11/15/2019

Disbanding the Union Army, part 2 As soon as the order to disband the volunteers had gone forth, the North had begun to ask itself what they were going to do with the million men about to inundate them. /episode/index/show/byline/id/11990888

Disbanding the Union Army, part 1 11/01/2019

Disbanding the Union Army, part 1 Great numbers of them had gone into the army boys and had been made men by danger and suffering. /episode/index/show/byline/id/11826599

Disbanding the Confederate Army, part 2 10/18/2019

Disbanding the Confederate Army, part 2 The disbanded army faced their hard situation like the brave men they were, and joined patiently in one of the gravest tasks in the history of the world—the Reconstruction of the South. /episode/index/show/byline/id/11687120

Disbanding the Confederate Army, part 1 10/04/2019

Disbanding the Confederate Army, part 1 The worst of the ordeal of these men, who had begun to disband in this haphazard way, was not getting home, it was what they found when they got there. /episode/index/show/byline/id/11506583

My Life in the Underworld, part 3 09/20/2019

My Life in the Underworld, part 3 Here was I, under sentence, after a farce of a trial wherein I was denied not only my right of trial by jury, but my right to plead guilty or not guilty. /episode/index/show/byline/id/11276198

My Life in the Underworld, Part 2 12/21/2018

My Life in the Underworld, Part 2 I am now in a precarious position, riding the ends of the down-curving roofs of two cars at the same time. With a quick, tense movement I transfer both legs to the curve of one roof and both hands to the curve of the other roof. /episode/index/show/byline/id/7951394

My Life in the Underworld, part 1 12/07/2018

My Life in the Underworld, part 1 I have often thought that to this training of my tramp days is due much of my success as a story-writer. In order to get the food whereby I lived, I was compelled to tell tales that rang true. /episode/index/show/byline/id/7826891

The Author of Cyrano 11/23/2018

The Author of Cyrano I said that whatever he would write for me, on what ever subject, at what ever time, I would accept without question or reservation, and put on the stage at my own theater: rather a remarkable pledge, seeing that our acquaintance dated from about ten minutes back; but I meant exactly what I said. /episode/index/show/byline/id/7664810

Under Fire 11/02/2018

Under Fire In times of war you constantly see men, and women, too, who, sooner than suffer discomfort or even inconvenience, risk death. /episode/index/show/byline/id/7401329

Paris at Bay 10/26/2018

Paris at Bay As the little speck drew straight overhead, these human specks suddenly realized that they were in the line of fire, and scattered just as people run from a sudden shower. /episode/index/show/byline/id/7235081

The Germans Are Coming! 10/13/2018

The Germans Are Coming! Into the fog of war that covered the Continent an army of Englishmen had vanished, none knew where. /episode/index/show/byline/id/7169192

The Capture, Death and Burial of John Wilkes Booth 09/28/2018

The Capture, Death and Burial of John Wilkes Booth Even in his deep distress Booth had not forgotten to be theatrical. If he must die he wished to die at the climax of a highly dramatic situation. /episode/index/show/byline/id/7014968

David Crockett 09/14/2018

David Crockett Nowhere but in America would such a career as Crockett's have been possible. /episode/index/show/byline/id/7014845

Stories from the Royal Humane Society 05/04/2018

Stories from the Royal Humane Society It it not so surprising that there is heroism in the world, as that there is so much of it. /episode/index/show/byline/id/6552689

Kit Carson's Duel 04/20/2018

Kit Carson's Duel "Gervais," he said, "go to yonder bully, and say to him that unless his threats and boasts cease, I shall be forced to kill him." /episode/index/show/byline/id/6504016

The Real King Solomon's Mines 04/10/2018

The Real King Solomon's Mines On the hill above, amidst the granite boulders, frowns the fortress, and all around stretch the foundation blocks of a dead city /episode/index/show/byline/id/6465150

The Caliph and His Court 03/23/2018

The Caliph and His Court Now and again in the regular round of delinquencies there comes the unmasking of a tragedy. /episode/index/show/byline/id/6398409

The Tammany Commandment 03/09/2018

The Tammany Commandment A crook has got to look out for himself, and  I didn’t trust any gang to take care of me. /episode/index/show/byline/id/6330628

Kebeth the Aleut 02/23/2018

Kebeth the Aleut Alaskan Indians paddling in their baidarkas or clustered at camp fires in their cedar forests are telling with awe the strange tale of Kebeth, the Aleut. /episode/index/show/byline/id/6244320

The Heart Wife 02/09/2018

The Heart Wife The reason for all the knavery was to avoid the payment of three hundred dollars to a destitute and distracted woman—that, and that alone! /episode/index/show/byline/id/6236697

Behind Asylum Bars 01/31/2018

Behind Asylum Bars I felt sure now that no doctor could tell whether people were insane or not, so long as the case was not violent. /episode/index/show/byline/id/6209971

Nellie Bly Breaks In 01/12/2018

Nellie Bly Breaks In Could I pass a week in the insane ward at Blackwell’s Island? I said I could and I would. And I did. /episode/index/show/byline/id/6027811

When I Went Home 12/29/2017

When I Went Home I went back to the old home, to Denmark and to my mother; because I just couldn't stay away any longer. /episode/index/show/byline/id/6027763

The Little Dollar's Christmas Journey 12/22/2017

The Little Dollar's Christmas Journey The coupon looked for all the world like a dollar bill, except that it was so small that a baby’s hand could easily cover it. /episode/index/show/byline/id/6025910

The Making of an American 12/15/2017

The Making of an American We had been looking the police over by night, Roosevelt and I. We had inspected the lodging-rooms while I went over the long fight with him, and had come at last, at 2 A.M., to the Church Street Station. /episode/index/show/byline/id/6025824

Twas Liza's Doings 12/01/2017

Twas Liza's Doings In those days, somebody was always fighting somebody else for some fancied injury or act of bad faith in the gathering of the news. /episode/index/show/byline/id/6000130

Death Comes to Cat Alley 11/17/2017

Death Comes to Cat Alley Cat Alley is a back-yard illustration of the theory of evolution. The fittest survive, and the Welsh babies were not among them. /episode/index/show/byline/id/5951531

Lost Children 11/03/2017

Lost Children It is not my fault that the one thing that is lost more persistently than any other in a large city is the very thing you would imagine to be safest of all in the keeping of its owner. /episode/index/show/byline/id/5850551

The Burning of Louvain 10/20/2017

The Burning of Louvain The Germans had sentenced Louvain to become a wilderness, and with the German system and love of thoroughness they left Louvain an empty, blackened shell. /episode/index/show/byline/id/5794037

Byline: Old News Is Good News

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