Pioche daily record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1872-1876, 1873-11-21
The Newspaper Reporter.

The Newspaper Reporter. ltf
II is interesting to watch the struggles
of the reportorial fraternity in their en-
Sssyors to furnish forth sufficient
onantity of their startling and sustaining
;tems. The vast material for wonder
tens and unlimited resources of the me-
tropolitan are constantly goading thorn
in the side of the rural editor. The daily
harvest of horrors that is garnered with
the purlieus, the slums and the by-ways
Of the great city, and that never failing
source, the police court, sometimes drive
the country rival to desperation. Cut
off from these urban sources of supply in
this department, he is thrown back upon
himself, and is forced to rely upon the
yiyidness of his own imagination. Once
ar twice month, according to the
amount of strain his ganglionic functions
will endure and the scarcity of items,
he retires, big with some idea in the way
of the wonderful, into his inner consci-
ousness, and at length reappears weak
and weary, but flushed and triumphant,
bearing tenderly the fruits of his labors-
one Of those items about sheeted ghost,
a three-legged hen, or seven hundred
nound pumpkin, that are so cheering and
comforting.
The last season in this particular has
been an active and exhaustive one for the
rural reporters, especially. Fresh mate.
rial has been hard to procure. Washing
tons nurses and body-servants have be-
come Il drug in the market. The Brazil
ian yarn about a man 22i years old
knocked the stuffing out OF all the old
people stories. Big turnips and beets,
three feet cucumbers, fruit trees bios.
soming the fourth and fifth time, and
vegetable eccentricities generally, have
not seemed to take very well. In spite
Of these drawbacks the necessities Of the
emergency have SO stimulated the inven-
tive faculties that the season has been a
brilliant success. H-
Let us look on the field little. Early
in the season the Selma Gala. Times
started off lamely with sweet potatoe
six feet two inches long. The Murfrees-
boro (Tenn.) Monitor met this with an
old mare" which ate chickens, ducks
bacon etc. Then Virginia City New
editor, of Imagination all compact, pro.
duced domesticated woodchuck, which
got drunk and cheated at poker; and the
san Bernardino (Cal.l Guardian went
him two better with two-headed snake.
These successes excited tremendous
rivalry, and the scene now became ex.
citing, so much SO as to carry away sew
eral city papers that Joined in the fray.
The Evansville (Ind. Journal, the Bow.
ling Green (Ky.) Democrat, the Troy
n. W Times, the Rutland (Vt.) Her.
aid the Philadelphia Telegraph, and the
ST. Paul (Minn. Press went back to first
principles, and engaged in a. mad rivalry
in the ghost line. The Brooklyn Eagle
worked up the very stale story Of the girl
who lives ten years without eating. The
Lexington (Mo) Caucasian struck in
Gharacteristically with child born with
q tail. A Waverly (Tenn.) paper sang
Of an "egg within an egg," laid by an
eccentric hen of that place. The Fort
Wayne (lnd.) Sentinel trotted out boy
who pulled an eighteen-inch snake from
lis stomach. The Weston (Va.) Demo-
crat struck a new lead with newborn
baby, whose mother was 80 years old,
and whose father was n. The Louis
vile Courier-Journal did not make q
very great sensation with its story of
cat that gave birth to three squirrels.
This gave the Turf, Field and Farm cour-
age to tell about colt which climbed to
the ridgepoles of barns and beamed
pleasantly upon passers-by, and after
that the Lebanon (ky.) Standard felt
equal to the task of telling about girl
baby born with a chignon. Made des-
perate by this, the Waverley Tenn
man came back with "six tape-worms
inside one sheep" and Fayetteville Tenn.
demonstrated with a rooster with three
appreciable legs" The Cleveland Plain
dealer brought out its mouse which
chewed up two hundred dollars in green
backs, and the Evansville Courier
came up smiling with the boy who
eoughed up a gold dollar The Brattle-
boro (Vt.) Record exploded trunk,
which injured a lady who was standing
by upon her head and the Kansas
City Times followed with a hustle burst
ing with direful results. The Erie Pa
Dispatch introduced to notice streak of
lightning which entered that Office and
knocked the devil down stairs, and the
Franklin (Ky.) Patriot recited little
story about horse that committed sui
eide. Then the San Diego (Cal.) Union
got Arabian Knights on the brain,
and told about a devil.fsh in a porter
oottle, which on being taken out expand
ea TO foot or two in diameter. This
the Burlington Gazette knocked into the
shade with its prairie-chicken story-how
tthey settled head and tail in long
lines on telegraph wires, and how
shrewd hunters fired double-barreled
guns down each side of the wire and
knocked of couple Of hundred heads.
report from La Franco of man with
'he head OF Scotch terrier aroused the
struggling editorial fraternity to in
creased exertions, and the Whitehall
tN' ~ Times capered madly to the
'front.' with rat that sat BY sleeping
oaoy' and with its tail whisked away the
aies, and not satisfied with this dizzy
AlSht OF the imagination, went into the
sea serpent business, which, though an
oia lay, it worked up with consum-
mate genius.
But the imaginative heroes are too
many, the roll Of honor too long for us
70 mention all; and, after calmly con.
shderinng all the rival claims of "intel-
.ec.ual inventors, we calmly and sadly
NV Tward the prize to the Johnston Voice.
tRt mat paper tells Of lady. "Mrs. X.''
~ is suspieiousl, living in Kernville,
sao soitened an egg-shell with vinegar,
,pteed ,bd 1t into demijohn, and hatched il
.nefe; Now she has good, healthy hen
IN demiiohn. The Voice says she in.
G ENDS to bottle an American eagle for the
tSehlennial. We presume, but for incu.
aa.ory obstacles, she might be induced
,ry 1t with baby. The Voice says,
Nobody need believe this il they don't
choose" We are glad of this. not that
we we would think of doubling the story,
out II sort OF "lets ms ont +" ma II were