The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1884-03-22
AN Ex.REPoRTER's STORY.

-PT0Utdencc Press.
AN Ex.REPORTER'S STORY.
why MIR. MADDOX went into the coal
Business.
While I was on the train going from
Leadville to Colorado Springs, couple
of years ago, chance threw me into the
company of 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 I have said, q very
pleasant and agreeable gentleman.
1 was q newspaper reporter at the
time, and our conversation happened to
drift upon my profession. Mr.. Paddock
II was . newspaper reporter once
myself, although, perhaps, you would
never have thought 1t. ~
To tell the truth, never would, for
! believed Mr.. Haddock to be the most
matter-of-fact and prosaic Of men, and,
in an inofIensive way, 1 told him so.
Really, had l been asked to pick out
the least imaginative of things, l do
not know whether should have selected
Mr.. Haddock o. the multiplication
table. atfij< sitf AtIp .ssffDog.- ls3i'
"Well,' he said, squaring himself
around so as to face me and block of
retreat. clam 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 and 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 eyes assumed that
CLASSY, inward look, which | have
noticed always precedes "reminiscences
with some people.
"A good many years ago." he went
on, II secured position on a daily
paper published well, it doesn't make
any particular difference to you where;
1t 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
naiism, and i had been taught that a
straightforward, honest, candid lie.
well dressed up and tenaciouslv stuck
70, ANSWERED. every purpose when news
was short l was young, then, enthu-
siastic, and full of grand, visionary
schemes OF doing something startling,
that would make me suddenly famous.
AT that time Twas firmly convinced that
was a remarkable genius, and that "a
soon as the people in the East found Il
out. l would have no difficulty in getting
. job rs proprietor of one of the metro,
politan dailies. Iwould not, / Thought.
break the news to them too harshly or
but daily with them for n
while, and then, all at once, blaze out.
well, found matters little differ
ent from what had anticipated, and
had no difficulty dallying. The CITY
editor was cold, soulless crea-
fure, who did not have the least hest
fancy in boiling down .two-colnmn
fight Of fancy to a two-line item. and
seemed to take great pains to extract
All the bright. joyous little fictions ou{
Of my manuscript and leave it a barren
waste of facts. For instance, one pioht
when stable burned down he cut ont
, column Of splendid descriptive mat
'er about the fire fiend. the 'lurid red
,ongues of flame, the department be-
ng promptly ON hand, and the alarm
'inging out on the midnight air. that
would have been considered superb out
Vest, You know. and asked me what in
he dickens / meant by not telling what
trcet the barn was on and who owned |
I. In that way he suppressed me and |
,ept me down, but in my heart of |
learts was convinced that II was only |
ear, and that he had discovered my |
enius and WAS aware II he gave me the |