Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-12-05
BURGLARY A CREDIT
To the Enterprise of the Wideawalze
and Unscrupulous Western
Reporter.

''There is the 1iveliest kind of competition
among the newspapers of st. Louis" says a
man in Cleveland, who was once a reporter
there, land their reporters will hesitate at
nothing short of murder to gain piece of
exclusive news. Burglary is not considered
crime in this connection; it is looked upon
as enterprise, and an accomplishment that is
almost prerequisite to the western journal
lists successful career. The present managing
editor of The Dispatch, Harry w.
Moore, an intellectual young Englishnan Of
not more than 80 years, who is an untiring
worker, and who has been city editor of the
paper for the past six years, is probably the
most pushing and eager man I ever
saw to score scoop or other
wise Guido his contemporaries.
He came near breaking up the Order of
Yelled Prophets three weeks ago by causing
reporter to steal the official account Of the
annual pageant, which he published almost
verbatim in eight or nine columns of The
Dispatch two weeks before the order was
ready to make the affair public The greatest
secrecy always surrounds the Yelled Prophets
preparations, which entail an annual ex-
penditure of over 900 in the way of
costumes and other float decorations, and 375
of the solidest merchants of the city are in
the organization. Their combined influence
against the paper would have very seriously
affected its business department, and the
destruction of the twenty-five floats, which
came very nearly being accomplished, would
have not only wasted an immense amount OF
money, but brought disappointment to the
hearts Of thousands of people who are now
accustomed to viewing the yearly spectacle.
Mr.. Moore, however, saw but one possible re-
suit of his enterprise, the big scoop he would
have on the other papers. He detailed man
to work the thing up and the reporter was
eight or ten days fishing around for the neces-
sary clews He went everywhere, spent money
freely, and got a vague idea Of the character
of the pageant, and few of the floats from
some members Of the order. Armed with
these he visited, almost daily, the printing
Office that was turning out the official book,
and having failed to bride the devil and the
printers, and the photographers, determined
to steal the proofs himself.
sHis assiduity was rewarded one day when
he saw the head Of the institution hide an al
most complete copy of the work under some
papers in his desk. The reporter remained
there talking for nearly an hour, until some
gentlemen dropped in on business. They
took the boss printer to another part of the
minutes or less that elapsed, The P.-D. re-
porter not only successfully skinned through
125-page volume, almanac size, but man
aged to memorize the twenty-five floats and
their subjects in rotation, and also by means
of the Illustrations photographed the picture
Of each float SO finely in his memory that,
next morning at 9 o'clock, he handed his city
editor complete nine-column description Of
the whole pageant, which was printed that
afternoon, and created a tremendous sensa-
ton The Prophets called a meeting that
very night, and voted to destroy the floats,
but some cooler heads in the order obtained a
reconsideration of the vote, and the pageant
took place in time. There will be no more,
though, as the order contemplates disband-
ing in consequence of the sharp trick put
upon them by The Post-Dispatch people.
Burglary, as have said before, is not
rated a serious crime in the st. Louis deca-
logue. Why, few years ago a Globe-Demo-
crat reporter actually accompanied pair CT
crooks on an excursion, and helped them to
crack a crib,' just for the sake of finding out
himse If and telling the public how it was
| done. The two burglarized a house on Le-
baume street, took some money and property,
| all of which was afterwarG returned by the
| newspaper man, who went into the risky bust
ness, was honest and paid the craftsmen out
of his own pocket for the nights experience
they gave him. The Globe-Democrat pub
ished the exploits the following day, and as
the unblushing reporter took to himself his
share of credit for the work, detectives were
around the office for week trying to get
hold of the copy and find the amateur burg
lar. But they didn't find either"