The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1884-01-19
AN EX-REPORTER'S STORY.
Why Mr.. Haddock Went into the Coal
BUSINESS

Why Mr.. Haddock Went into the Coal
Business.
While | was on the train going from
Leadville to Colorado Springs. couple
OF years ago, chance threw me into the
company of a gentleman named George
w. Haddock, who run large coal yard
on Larimer Street, in Denver. l had
known him slightly before; he was
a stoutly built, middle-aged man, and
always seemed to me to have rather
exclusive and austere air about him;
but when we fell to talking, as folks
will do on the cars, found him very
clever and agreeable companion. He
was, however, an extremely practical
man, and constantly applied his, no
doubt, very praiseworthy business
habits to everyday life-reducing the
splendid blue mountains we could see
out of the window to their height in
feet. specializing upon the possibilities
of pasturing mules on the beautiful
rolling plain between, and calculating
the square yards of timber in the grand
old pine forests in such way as to
strip all the picturesqueness off land
scape and leave nothing but dry
skeleton of facts and figures. Still, with
all this, he was, as | have said, very
pleasant and agreeable gentleman.
l was newspaper reporter at the
time, and our conversation happened to
drift upon my profession. Mr.. Haddock
remarked:
Il was newspaper reporter once
myself, although, perhaps, you would
npvar n aya tbpumbt II -
To tell the truth, never would. for
believed Mr.. Haddock to be the most
matter-of-fact and prosaic of men, and,
in an inoffensive way, told him so.
Really, had | been asked TO pick out
the least imaginative of things, l do
not know whether should have selected
Mr.. Haddock or the multiplication
table.
WELL he said, squaring himself
around SO as to face me and block off
retreat. II am not surprised, for /
firmly believe that the event which
drove me out of the profession drove at
the same time every spark of fancy and
imagination out Of my composition, and
filled me with such a dread ands horror
of such things that, if have ever in
dulged them since, it has been STEALTH
ly, like people sometimes indulge bad
habits on the sly
He paused, and his ewes assumed that
CLASSY, inward look. which / have
noticed always precedes a "reminiscences
with some people.
"a good many years ago. he went
on, II secured position on daily
paper published dwell, it doesn't make
any particular difference to you where;
it was in one of the large Eastern cities.
though. Before this all my newspaper
experience had heen in the West. Now,
you may happen to known that out here
there is not that morbid craving for
truth that characterizes Atlantic Jour
nalism, and had been taught that
straightforward, honest. candid lie.
well dressed up and tenaciously stuck
to, answered every purpose when news
was short. was young, then. enthu-
siastic, and full of grand, visionary
schemes of doing something startling,
that would make me suddenly famous.
At that time / was firmly convinced that
was remarkable genius, and that as
soon as the people in the East found it
out, l would have no difficulty in getting
a job as proprietor of one of the metro
politan dailies. Iwould not. ] thought,
suddenly, but daily with them for
while, and then, all at once, blaze out.
swell, found matters little differ
ent from what | had anticipated, and
had no difficulty dallying. The city
editor was cold, spulless crea-
ture, who did not have the least hest
fancy in boiling down two-column
fight of fancy to two-line item. and
seemed to take great pains to extract
all the bright, joyous little fictions out
of my manuscript and leave it barren
waste of facts. For instance, one night
when stable burned down he cut out
q column of splendid descriptive mat
ter about the fire fiend, the .lurid red
tongues of fame the department. be-
ing promptly on hand, and the alarm
ringing out on the midnight air, that
would have been considered superb out
West, you know, and asked me what in
the dickens meant by not telling what
street the barn was on and who owned
it. In that way he suppressed me and
kept me down, but III my heart of
hearts was convinced that it was only
fear, and that he had discovered my
genins and was aware if he gave me the
least show would instantly supercede
him. So | bided my time and watched
for an opportunity
1T 50 happened that in the latter
part of March the city editor went off
on visit and left in his place q very
slip-shod fellow named Perkins, who
let things take just about their own
course Here was my chance. and
while I was thinking in what particn-
lar manner to blaze, the idea of getting
No lst Of April hoax struck me like