The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1873-08-22

paper that they will aid the reporter
in keeping sensation items from the
knowledge of his rivals Then, one
should make the acquaintance Of the
tiremen, city and county officials, hotel
keepers, railroad and steamboat men,
and can, if born for the business, Sc
cure the aid of a hundred men to help
him in gathering news.
''There is no labor more laboriOus
than the task of the reporter on a
morning paper. He may be said to
never sleep. Starting out an hour be-
fore noon, he may finish up at mid
night, but is lucky to get off before
three O'Clock and the chances are that
he is routed out after a nap Of three
or four hours. If called upon to make
trip into the interior, to report q
convention or calamity, he may be
thirty or forty hours without sleep.
There is constant wear and tear of
the nerves and muscles, and, after
time, nervous feeling accompanies
the man day and night. There is no
time to doctor or to be sick, but it is
one push-and-rush year in and year
out, until everything gives way at
once, and the man drops into the grave.
The rivaly which nearly always exists
between reporters on contemporary
sheets is a wear and tear which of it
self will take off a pound of flesh per
month. The reporter who is derelict
in securing all the facts in connection
with a big thing secured and pub
lished in an opposite journal, would
feel n self-disgrace which he could not
shake off for a week. This rivalry
leads often to the expenditure of large
sums of money by all dailies of a city
to secure certain information. | have
in mind a case of steamboat explosion
about twenty miles from one of our
lake ports. The rumor created the
greatest excitement in the city, but no
particulars could be learned, as the
point where the explosion occurred
was not connected by telegraph. There
was only one tug in the harbor which
could be secured, and three rival re-
porters boarded her at once.
" Fifty dollars to take me to Duck
Point and back = shouted one at the
captain.
a hundred = cried the second.
4 hundred and fiftyr yelled the
third, in a triumphant voice.
"They continued their bids until the
first bidder finally named five hundred
dollars, and the services of the tug
were his. He steamed down to the
scene of accident, procured a full list
of the killed, injured and unhurt, and
l.
fully handed over the large sum.
do not defend the profession from the
charge Of being tipplers, bHt | say the
men of the craft who do drink, and
otherwise render themselves incapaci-
ated from the full performance of their
duties, are seldom retained long in one
position. Not many years ago, in a
Western city, several reporters, all
representing opposition Journals, traY-
eled together to a point in the State to
witness an execution. The victim had
committed heinous offence, and the
particulars of his execution would be
eagerly devoured by every reader
One of the men represented an after
noon I,sYIJSr, and tLe s--~o--tis-4
fixed for noon, he had been ordered to
telegraph in a full report, SO that his
paper would have a long start of all
others 1t was OF course an object
with the other reporters to prevent
this, and they laid their heads tOgeth-
er The afternoon man did not drink,
the telegraph operator was strictly
on the verge of despair when one of
them got happy thought. He went
to the police magistrate, swOre out a
warrant against the operator for biga-
my, and had the pleasure of seeing
the man walked off to jail and his office
closed. The excitement over the eX-
ecution was SO great that the operator
could find no friend to 90 his bail un-
til it was too late for the afternoon
| paper to receive a line, and the object
of the conspiratOrs was accomplished.
perhaps one of the most audaciOus
/ displays of cheek ever made by re-
porter to get even with a rival can
! be narrated here. A railroad accl-
( dent occurred about six o'clock III the
/ evening, some thirty miles from a city
/ which sustained two morning papers.
/ A reporter from each paper reached
/ the city depot at the same moment,
/ and both rushed for a locomotive which
was ready to start out with freight
! train. The president of the road was
J half proprietor of one of the dallles,
/ and. having an eve to the interests of
his employer, the engineer refused to
/ take up the opposition reporter. The
/ man saw that he was aoorod,' and,
after ascertaining that he could secure
a hand-car and four stout men to pro-
pei it, he went to the telegraph office,
and sent a message to the city mar
shal of town on the line, fifteen miles
away, saying:
Young man on engine No. 8, com
ino down the road. Blue eyes, light
hair, small moustache, Arrest him
! for murder, and hold him until L send