The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1884-02-14
AN EX-REPORTER'S STORY.
why Mr.. HaddOck Went into the Coal
RusIneSS.

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 a large coal yard
on Larimer Street, in Denver. | 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 ears, found him a 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 a way as to
strip all the picturesqueness off land
seape and leave nothing but a dry
skeleton of facts and figures. Still, with
all this, he was, as | have said, a very
pleasant and agreeable gentleman.
Il was a newspaper reporter at the
time, and our conversation happened to
DRIFT upon my profession. Mr.. Haddock
remarked:
4 was newspaper reporter once
myself, although, perhaps, you would
never have thought it..
10 tell the truth, | never would, for
believed Mr.. Haddock to be the most
matter-of-fact and prosaic of men, and,
N en- inofensiye way, l told him so.
Really, had been asked to pick out
the least imaginative of things, I do
not know whether should have selected
MI. Haddock or the multiplication
table.
well, he said, squaring himself
around so as to face me and block off
retreat. 81 am not surprised, for |
hrmly believe that the event which
aroEe me out of the profession drove at
!he same time every spark of fancy and
imagination out of my composition, and
Aaea NE with such a dread and horror
u such things that, if | have ever in
suiged them since, it has been stealthi-
v Ike people sometimes indulge bad
habits on the sly"
he paused, and his ewes assumed that
grassy, inward look, which [ have
aoleed always precedes a "reminiscences
with some people.
a good many years ago." he went
W. I secured position on a dailv
paper publiShed-well, it doesn't make
ly particular difference to you where;
was In one of the large Eastern cities,
uough' Before this all my newspaper
experience had heen in the West. Now.
.Uu may happen to known that out here
mete Is not that morbid craving for
s.n ~S.a mat characterizes Atlantic Jour
sts sa'sul' and l had been taught that
@ @anshIorward, honest. candid lie,
= 'n dressed up and tenaciously stuck
W., N, answered every purpose when news
W. snort | was young, then. enthu-
sasllc' and full of grand, visionary
sas aeales OF doing something startling,
4. A.. .sh would make me suddenly famous.
r. siat time Twas firmly convinced that
.o.a "as d remarkable genius. and that as
a,t rtu as the people in the East found it
AL would hayeno difficulty in getting
gu as proprietor of one of the metro
braaa oa,'an !, dailies. | Iwould not, thought.
mSaai JSS tae news to them too harshly or
SSa, SIeRiy' but daily with them for a
iS, ..1T ana then, all at once, blaze out.
ent I'LL t.l found matters little differ
Sss Ss''om what [ had anticipated, and
e5i,,n 5 no difficulty dallying. The city
hre was cold, soulless crea-
tsoa. s' VINO dld not have the least hesi
sirS. IN boiling down q two-column
sesra9 y ianey to two-line item, and
III H. k . take great pains to extract
# ny T pllght, Joyous little fictions out
Ea,,s ~ manuscript and leave it barren
Kban u iaets. For instance, one night
seol.,e stable burned down he cut ont
Ar ala ,eana OF splendid descriptive mat
toncpoa tous she lire tiend, the .lurid red
mo 49,. W. oi hame, the department be-
,ipolns laohiptly on hand, and the alarm
would bo out on the midnight air. that
ReS ro,. lave oeen considered superb out
lie d;e,.5u ~ know, and asked me what in
street raehs .es1 meant by not telling what
ale barn was on and who owned
kept IN saat way he suppressed me and
Aesf.s Ile down, but in INV heart Of
was convinced that it was only