The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1879-10-17
WHAT REPORTERS DO.
SOME OF THE VALUABLE HINTS WHICH
HAVE BEEN GIVEN BY THEM

7. Cor. st. Louis Republican.
One day there was great loss to one 0
the banks by means of raised check, re
ported in New York, and the reporters o
the Sun were busy writing out their fact
about it. One of them stopped momen
to say in a chatty way that If the banker,
would cut into the checks the amount fol
which each check was drawn, . raised
check would be an impossible thing. The
managing editor overheard the remark
"Mr. Blank" he said, "when you gel
through write letter to the editor of the
Sun giving that idea." 1t was done, and
the letter was printed next morning con-
tanning the suggestion that the amount OF
each check should be cut into it to prevent
any alteration. a few nights afterwards a
spruce young man came in and, scattering
around some blank checks with mum bers
cut in them, as is now common. said: g
am much obliged for the idea it's going to
be worth $4,000 to me. The reporter
who originated it Is still working by the
| week.
You now and then hear of a case around
Printing-house square of the valuable
things that reporters have done. The past
is to them as the waters that have run by.
There is, however, too much work and life
crowded into their twenty-four hours to
give them much time to tell what they have
done. They are interested only in what
they have to do to-day, or what they have
to do tomorrow. When leisure days come
they do not find themselves in mood to
revive the past. So it is hard to find what
these agile gentlemen have done that
should be fixed in history. Nearly every
man of prominence has story of some sx-
traordinary obligation he rests under to
some newspaper man, but he would be in
deed man worthy of prominence If he
could say that he had fulfilled such an OBJ
legation.
The venerable Peter Cooper not long ago
won suit through the suggestion of q re-
porter who was examining a contract on
which the suit was based. There we're
two words which. in the hasty reading of
the contract, were not emphasized. Hours
were spent in trying to get at the under
standing between the parties, which, to
the reporter, was made clear as the noon
day sun. Jotting the expression, and sew
en- words of argument as to why it repre-
sented Mr.. Cooper's defense and not the
plaintiff IS position, he handed it John E.
Parsons. The lawyer grasped the point,
nodded smile, hammered the reporters
idea into the heads Of the jurymen, rung
the charges on it in two hours speech,
won the case and collected $4,000 from the
aged philanthropist, who cheerfully paid
it, as the jury on former trial disagreed
and he came near being mulcsed in ten
times the sum for damages. The reporter
goes ON reporting.
When the celebrated case of Beecher
against Tilton was being tried, Sun re-
porter discovered, through an evasive ques-
tion he put to one OF Beecher's counsel,
that an attempt was going to be made to
prevent Theodore Tilton from testifying
in his own behalf. Austin Abbott. tire
less legal bookworm, had found law
which William NJ. Evarts was to expound.
It was designed to completely surprise the
opposite counsel, and to overwhelm him
with the Abbott collection of legal prece-
dents and Evarts' serpentine sentences.
The intimation, the first received, was
given to General Roger A. Pryor. in return
for kindness previously done; and he la
bored night and day in his library, and he
prepared the argument which demoralized
Eyarts' speech and destroyed the plan to
keep the plaintiff from telling his grievan-
ces under oath. @