Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-07-23
IN oLDES TIMES.
The Way In which Newspapers Obtsined
News Before rrof. Morsc Completed
His Great Invention.

Tho way In which Newspapers Obssincd
News Before prof. Morse Completed
His Great Invention.
what will the newspapers do now
that the telegraphers have struck?n
asked Mr.. Clark, the old printer, Of
Couricr-Journdt reporter yesterday.
The reporter thought the papers would
be published just the same, and init.
III lted that IL would be much improved
by having more local, thinking as he
spoke In drcary way of many a fine
article that had been crowded out'
by an obnoxious special or some viii
lainous Washington matter.
"Oh," said Mr.. Clark, slowly pull
ing his beard, IL remember the day
when was here on the press when
such thing as telegraph or the rail-
road was unheard of, and when men
got news by coach and boat. That
was, let me see, some time In the thir-
ties, nearly fifty vars ago. things
were managed differently I'm those
days. We had three papers--the Cou-
rier, journal and the Demo-
crdt. / was uslnts, man.
aver of the Comie unde.
Mr.. Haldeman. There was much OPP
position between the journal, Mr..
Prentice's paper and the Courier.
We used to get all our news from other
papers, except the local news. The
boat would come In from Cincinnati
about twelve or one O'clock at night
We would get the eastern mail and
the Cincinnati papers on 1t, and then
IL there was anything OF Importance,
we would wake the compositors up
and have 1t set up for the
morning paper. Sometimes men
would come here from the East and
bring their papers with them. Then
we would get hold of the news gener.
ally n day ahead of the regular mail.
Those were great days for the scissors
men,
A BIG SCOOP.
"Were there scoops In those days?n
Oh, yes. The Courier used TO boast
of its enterprise. The enterprise
of those days would make you smile
now, in this age of electricity.
/ remember once going all
the way up to Cincinnati to get pres
ident's message ahead of the Journal,
then finding that one of their men had
followed me. We both had 1t in the
same day. But the biggest scoop we
got was during the Mexican war
There were number OF Louisville
boys with Gen. Zachary Taylor, and
the last accounts we had from Mexico
he was said to be surrounded by Santa
Annals army at Resaca de In Palma,
and in danger of being cut to pieces.
The people here were In n
! fever of excitement. 1t might be days
before We could get any definite news.
We could only hope toreceive reliable
information from New Orleans. All
the up-river boats We're closely
watched, but no news came. One day
n friend came into the Office and said
he had Just come up from New Or
leans, and laid IA copy of New Or
leans paper ON my table. ltcontained
n full account of the battle, and told Of
the glorious victory OF our troops.
My friend also informed me that
he had the only paper on
board saw a big scoop on the Tour
nal, and posted off to consult with my
superior about the issuing Of an extra
edition. l casually dropped into DIR.
Bells office and allowed him to read
the paper. We thought we were safe
enough to risk holding it until morn
ing. We picked up the journal, the
had the great news, and sure enough
there it was. They had all the facts
we had in q condensed form and
double-leaded. They had in a quarter
or half column what we had in two
columns. To this day | have no idea
where they got it, or whether they
stole IL or not.
ONE or CLAWS SPEECHES..
"Another time remember going up
10 Lexington to report one of Mr..
Clay's speeches. He was to give his
views on the slavery question, aud
everybody was anxious 10 hear what
they were. / slipped off quietly, and,
as | thought, unobserved. There
were number of newspaper men
there. remember when Mr.. Clay be-
gan to speak he made us promise that
we wouldn't try to take him. He
said his speech could he got
from the Lexington Observer Of
flee, and that he had been misrepre-
scented so much he was tired OF It, He
wouldn't speak till the promise had
been given. Igot the speech and then
started post haste for home. / got a
fast horse and good buggy and drove
down to Shelbyville; and there n gen.
tleman relieved me and took 1t to the
Office. read the Journal the next
day and found the speech In IL. They
had sent man To shadow me, and he
had got the speech as well ms /. After
a while the telegraph WAS extended
here. aud we all got to receiving the
same news.
PoLK'S MESSAGE
was the first thing we received here.
They got upa New York Associated
Press. Richard Smith, now of the
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette; Mr..
Snowden, of Pittsburgh; Wallace, of
Baltimore; Eugene Fuller, of Bolti
more; Barry, OF ST. Louis, and myself
originated the Western Associated
Press. The New York Press soon ex-
changed with MS. We used to send
everything in cipher In those days, for
IL was very expensive. But the Courier
was fine local paper" said Mr..
Clark, his face beaming with the pride
of the craft, ''and we used TO scoop the
journal ON home affairs
THE HORSE EXPRESS.
The reporter met another veteran
Journalist, who said.
Before the introduction of the tele-
graph the government ran horse ex-
press rs Far west as st. Louis, which
hrolpht nrinfed news Sins and other