The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-06-25

safe for citizen to travel over or occupy"
How the Herald Gets Its News-Ex-
element In High Quarters.
The State Department at Washington has
long been convert to the opinion that the
ways of the HERALD are inscrutable in the
matter of getting news. Within the past few
days, however, it has knelt at the HERALD
shrine in manner which amuses us as we note
the comicality of the puzzled expression that
plays round the mouths of these worship
pers in spite of themselves. On this SUBJ
ject the HERALD has a record which can
afford to smile at the wonder Of
the devotees OF the State Department
1t contents us to publish the news, and
whether it falls into our hands like ripe
peach from the tree or we are obliged to climb
perilously up for it, as people in the tropics do
after the delicate bonnie bouche of the cab
bage palm tree, or whether we are
forced to dig deep for it like
water in the desert, we care only
to chronicle the success. A failure on our
part to achieve anything, no matter how great
the effort made, we would regard with as little
sympathy as the world generally wastes on it's
heroes of unsuccess. 1t was our fortune once
to supply the English government itself with
the news of the fall of Magdala and the death
of King Theodorus, of Abyssinia The. news
of Dr. Livingstone, which came to us so long
ago, is now being confirmed through the slow
medium of mail communication to the Swans
to the Royal Geographical Society, who were
in nowise willing at first to credit the informa-
ton furnished them gratuitously by the
HERALD. The arrival Of Alexis for which
New York was athirst last November, awak-
ened scepticism when it was found that the
HERALD was the only paper that had the news,
which was lying at our very doors If we
refer to the publication Of the Fisk Mansfield
letters in the same breath with the thirty-fve
secret treaty correspondence it is because no
other paper published on the same day mat
ters which were in the highest demand us
important matters Of news. They were things
which increased intelligence among the people
demanded of increased facility in the press
secret the grave steps it was taking in a matter
of such vital interest to the nation it was MAX
ing war upon that popular intelligence and the
increased press facilities to satisfy it; the
HERALD's pages have shown with what result.
The dark lantern device has been knocked to
pieces in the nervous hands that held it, and
the medieval secrecy proved to be no secret at
I Il A.. 4 r -
teenth century were abroad. It was all very
well when potentates cooked up treaties and
got the crowd to hurrah when they were
signed. The people nowadays want to know
not only for whom, but for what they are
asked to cheer, and if the Old World style Of
partisan newspaper cannot or dare not and
the diplomats will not tell Them the live, pro-
gressive journal must do it.
The State Department lately become, as we
have said, wonderfully exercised over the man
ner in which the HERALD got its news about
the various steps in the treaty, which were
reported in it's columns as soon as they
were made by the old diplomats, who
thought they were managing the bust
ness with consummate secrecy. Accordingly,
a most confidential parsonage, with the vast
department machinery at his back, was set to
pluck out the heart of the mystery; but, like
the courtiers in Hamlet they discovered
they could not play upon the pipe which dis
coursed such eloquent music to the public
daily through the columns of the HERALD.
'They tap the State Office wire," said one; but
neither spigot nor bung could be discovered
whereat HERALD man could drink in the
vintage Of diplomacy as it was fermented in
the brains Of our treaty makers and bunglers
on both sides of the Atlantic. 'They SUBJ
sidize entire telegraph companies" sug-
gested another, and the confidence clerk
breathed the foul suspicion into the ears of
the head telegraph officials We cannot print
the exact measure of the indignation which
this aspersion reused in the tickings of the tee-
graphic breast The biggest electric battery that
ever scientific lightning imitator discharged
for the edifcation of virtuosos would not be
the faintest electric spark beside the thunder
storm of strong language used by the telegraph
people at the insulting insinuation. The con-
fidential man left Immediately, lest some of the
sturdy assertions of blastedness and donkey
ism might become realized on his person and
o coroner's inquest become necessary. No!
Like Caesars wife, the telegraph company pro-
nounced itself and its employees above suspi-
cion. At last the innocent little cherubim who
wear pretty white wings in business time and
play "tag' in their leisure hours-the tele-
graph message boys, in fact-became the latest
suspects of the confidential Fouche of the de-
partment Lynx eyes were set to watch the
gentle children as they flew on rapid
pinion towards the leviathan of the State
Department and as they gambolled home
ward along the cutters and every two or three
days INDUCED in the luxury Of a piece of stale
pie, secured at an immense reduction on its
value in the fresh state. The severe fouting
which the department man received at the