Kansas City Star - Hemingway's six month employment as a reporter, from October 1917 to April 1918.

After Ernest graduated from High School, his father's desire was for him to go to college but Ernest had very different ideas. Ernest Hemingway wanted to join the forces or learn to write.

Having been forbidden to join up for the First World War by his father, Ernest applied for a job as a journalist and by October 1917 Hemingway was employed by the Kansas City Star.

Ernest had to leave home to take up his job. His father accompanied him to the train station and stood by the train until his son's moment of departure. Ernest was to remember the leaving for a long time afterwards and wrote about it in 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' relating the mixed emotions he felt of sadness, relief and adulthood.

He first lived in the 3600 block of Warwick Boulevard with his uncle whilst the Star newspaper building was at 1800 Grand Avenue between 18th and 20th Streets. Later he lived in a small rented apartment with his friend Carl Edgar, in Agnes Street.

Ernest's job on the Star was to cover the 'short-stop run', which entailed the 15th Street Police Station, the Union Station and the General Hospital.

This meant he had to write about everything that went on in the Police Station, the train station and the hospital. So his first training in writing was reporting stolen goods and crime, accidents and any famous people who might have passed through the Union Station. (According to his sister Marcelline, Hemingway covered "fires, fights and funerals, and anything else not important enough for the other more experienced reporters).

He was trained 'on the job' by studying a style manual which declared good writing entailed short sentences, vigorous English, positive and not negative writing. He learned at The Star that professional reporters stated the way things are. They did not ramble on about how things might be if this or that were true; they declared what was. The idea was to tell the readers what had happened, for first a man had to go out and find what was happening.

Hemingway also found a very good mentor in Lionel Calhoun Moise. Hemingway as a young rookie was impressed with Moise's facility with words and his hard drinking, along with his undisciplined lifestyle of alcohol and violence.

Some insight into Hemingway's life as a newspaper reporter is written in ' Ernest Hemingway, Cub Reporter'. Edited by Matthew Bruccoli

Ted Brumback, another rookie reporter for The Star, gave this account of an incident by the Union Station - the newspaper article was entitled "Throng at Small Pox Case:'' Written by Hemingway and printed in the Kansas Star on February 18, 1918. What follows is the story behind the newspaper report and then the newspaper article written by Hemingway.

On the stone floor lay a man on a stretcher. He was bundled in blankets. The crowd had formed a circle around him at a respectful distance, for his face was broken out in ugly sores. There seemed to be no one attending him. He was moaning a little.

'What's the trouble here?' Hemingway demanded.

``He's got a contagious disease,'' someone in the crowd replied. ``No one dares touch him. Some one sent for an ambulance.''

``Why is he left alone like this? Isn't anyone in charge of him?''

``Two men took him off the train and brought him here. Then they went back on the train. I suppose the man's a pauper and couldn't afford to pay anyone to take care of him.''

``How long since they sent for an ambulance?''

``About half an hour.''

Hemingway swore. ``Why, I wouldn't treat a dog like that. What's the matter with you people? Why didn't some of you carry him out on the stretcher and put him in a taxi and send him to the General Hospital? The man's got smallpox and will die if not given care immediately. I know what smallpox is because I'm a doctor's son and recognize the symptoms. Who'll help me get him out of here?''

At the word of smallpox, the crowd retreated. No one offered to help.

Hemingway became angry. ``What's the matter with you yellow bunch anyway? Are you going to stand there and let a man die?''

When still no one made a move, he himself picked up the man in strong arms and carried him out of the station. Then he ordered a taxicab and took him personally to the General Hospital, charging the expense to The Star.

THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE - Kansas Star - February 18th 1918

THRONG AT SMALLPOX CASE

While the chauffeur and male nurse on the city ambulance devoted to the carrying of smallpox cases drove from the General Hospital to the municipal garage on the North Side today to have engine trouble ``fixed'' a man, his face and hands covered with smallpox pustules, lay in one of the entrances to the Union Station. One hour and fifteen minutes after having been given the call the chauffeur and nurse reported at the hospital with the man, G.T. Brewer, 926 West Forty-second St reet. The ambulance had been repaired.

Behind that vehicle was an ambulance from the Emergency Hospital, ordered to get the patient by Dr. James Tyree, in charge of contagious diseases, after repeated calls from the station.

Brewer, a life insurance agent, arrived from Cherryvale, Kas., this morning. At 9 o'clock James McManus, officer in charge of the police station at the depot, found him lying in the west entrance to the lobby. Streams of persons, hurrying past, eddied about Brewer while solicitous passersby asked the trouble. At 9:50 McManus placed a policeman near the sick man to keep persons away.

McManus says he called the contagious department of the hospital immediately after finding Brewer. An ambulance was promised. Two calls were sent the hospital later and each time, so McManus says, he was told the ambulance was on the way. Doctor Tyree once insisted McManus take the sick man into the police office there, but McManus refused, saying more persons would be exposed. Doctor Tyree also said the ambulance would be there "right away."

When the ambulance did reach the station at 10:15, the driver explained it had been broken down while out on another call.

Doctor Tyree explained later that the regular sick ambulance, No. 90, was wrecked last night. When the call first was received at the receiving ward of the General Hospital at 9:05 o'clock ambulance No. 92, the smallpox carrier, was dispatched, he said.

``But the ambulance had motor trouble,'' Doctor Tyree continued. ``The chauffeur and the male nurse in charge decided to go to the municipal garage and get the trouble fixed.''

The garage, on the North Side, is about as far from the hospital as the distance from the hospital to the Union Station and return.

Doctor Tyree criticized the police for failure to remove Brewer to an isolated place instead of leaving him ``where scores of travelers came in contact and were exposed to smallpox.''

February 18, 1918, The Star

Ernest learnt a great deal at the Star but by now he was bored with mundane news stories and quite desperate to see some real action.

He wanted to become involved in the First World War.

Ernest had a defective left eye and it was thought his entry into the forces was not very likely because of this deficiency. However, Ernest learnt from another young reporter on the Star, Theodore Brumback, that he had enlisted in the American Field Service and had spent four months driving ambulances in France, despite having a bad eye himself, in fact a glass eye.

On Feb. 22, 1918 - The Star carried this headline: ``Red Cross Calls Men.'' Also needed, listed in fine print: ``Four ambulance drivers for Italy. Some stories state that Hemingway saw this article before it was actually printed in the newspaper and got accepted before over 200 other men applied for the position.

He and Theodore along with another friend, Wilson Hicks. They were accepted by the Red Cross as ambulance drivers.

After only six months employment as a journalist, Ernest left the Star newspaper. It was April 30th 1918.

A few weeks later, Ernest and Theodore (Wilson Hicks had backed out) received a telegram from the Red Cross headquarters in St Louis telling them to report for physical examination in New York no later than May 8th.

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