The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-11-16
A Journalistic Ring.

In letter on New York journal
lists, the correspondent Of the Phila-
delphia Press says:
l met old "Doc" Wood on Park
Row The other day. / have never
known why he was called doctor,
unless it was by reason of his ability
to physic the manuscripts of other
men. Doc Wood is the most ac-
complished condenser in the world.
He can boil an article down into less
space than any man who ever WELD
ed blue pencil. For years he was
with the Sun in the capacity OF
squeezer, and he received heavy
salary for his services, too. Now he
is a reporter on the Herald, and is
paid like any common reporter, for
the mere work he does. If Mr..
Wood is fair example of jurnalists
and, barring his inability to look
out for himself irst, he is up with
the best of them--writcrs retrogade
after they have reached a certain
point on the journey OF existence.
If they do not become dissolute,
thew are either absorbed by some
great institution and never heard OF
afterward. or they get out OF the har-
ness. There are no men who are
known so little Of as a class. There
is no profession in which one error
can be so full of serious results and
that, too, in the face Of peoples no.
ton that writers are all Bohemians,
and that within this mystic circle all
is carelessness and joviality. | am
moved to these remarks by the fact
that to-day / saw on Broadway a
man who offers a singularly striking
example OF the condition named.
Some years ago he was employed in
a responsible position upon a great
daily. He organized ring which
embraced a proof-reader, a corre-
spondence reader, and city editor.
(he was the telegraph editor, all
employed by the same great daily.
The operations Of the ring were
cleverly arranged any mysterious.
One day a member of the editorial
staff who had not been taken into
the secret picked up a Western paper
and found in its columns a telegram
credited to Chicago journal. The
telegram he recognized as having
been cabled from London TO the
paper for which he worked, and he
therefore wondered that the Chicago
journal should be credited with it.
Only little time after this he found
another paragraph in a second
Western paper similarly mis-credit-
ed. He began to imagine curious
things. He went to the exchanges
and found copies of the publication
which had been receiving the bene-
fit of the enterprise displayed by The
paper which employed him. The
special dispatches had been careful
ly cut out and detroyed. He went
to the office of another metropolitan
daily and borrowed their Chicago
exchanges. His first discovery was
that the journal in question printed
every day the best part of the eek.
elusive" news purchased by the
newspaper he served. Clearly,
somebody had been stealing this
material, and the exchange reader
knew all about it. He posted his
superior officer and they set watch
on the Office. They found that ex-
ira proofs were struck off and sent
down to the telegraph editor. They
saw him write busily little while
and give an envelope to the city edi-
tor. They observed the latter leave
the building and hand the envelope
to another man, who carried it to
the telegraph office. They pushed
the investigation further and learned
that the ring was furnishing dis
patches to ten or twelve newspapers
all over the country, at an aggregate
income of about 5000 a week. One
morning in the office of the great
New York daily there was conster-
nation. Four men were instantly and
unceremoniously discharged. They
were all important members of the
staff, and, therefore, their acts were
not publicly exposed. The origina-
tor of this clever scheme WIS the
man / met on Broadway this after
noon. He had a black eye, and his
visage bore other marks of debauch-
cry and its attendant ceremonies,
Once he was remarkably promis-
ing journalist in the city. Now he
is drunkard and a generally ruin
ed man. / believe all the Others
who shared his dismissal from the
great New York daily have come to
grief since. One tried to be detec-
tive and failed. The others, all
bright young men, have drifted into
that black unknown which we call
obscurity.