Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-12-08
ANIGHT WITH BOYTON
AREP0RTER'S ADVENTURE IN ACCOMPANY
ING The DARING SWIMMER
Ga 3 Psrlo1s. Adveaas-HJw They Placed a Tor
bvdl Shell Under the British Wa Vessel
Garnet and Were Caught
CDRgir JRTJ0L


Ii the labor of reporting for a m%etrOpOli-
tan newspaper were m~onotOnous, ii is quite
I sale to predict that the reporters would 90
into some other business as Oon As the
chance was offered them. But the fact
| that the work is varied and interesting
and occasionally adventurous lends to it q
| charm that is fascinating to young men;
/ hence they are willing 20 work hard, run
almost any risk and get news IN spite OF fall
hazards. \ reporter who was a physical
coward could not hold his place long, but,
rs we are told that cOurageIS the most uni
I yerSl metaphysical or perhaps psychology
/ cal attribute, that Is not much TO brag OF.
The occasion when the New York morn
I inc paperS ran the closest chance Of each
/ losing a reporter that l can recall was on
/ the night of Paul BOytOn's fOOlhardy eN-
/ plot in MAY, ISIS. in attaching an empty
/ torpedo case to the keel of the English
mad-oE-war Garnet, which WAS anchored in
the bay, off Staten Island, watching the
/ Russian war vessel Strelok, which lay of
the foot OF T~weuty-third street. in the
| Hudson river. Ii will be remembered
4 that war was then imminent between
England and Russia over the Central
/ Asian boundaries, and the Garnet had or
ders to follow the Strelok and keep the
admiralty posted upon her movements.
Boyton had an old grudge against
the English admiralty by reason of
the fact that he had once gwen an exhibit
ton before it of his ~life-Saving rubber suit,
| with 4 view to supplying them to the Eng
liSh navy, and the British tars had laughed
/ At il. To heal the laceTatiOn Of his tender
senSibihties, brought about by their ridi-
Guile. the reckless swimmer decided to give
the English nation a practical illustration
| of the utility Of his rubber suit by going
out in il 10 the Garnet and placing an
empty torpedo under her. the lesson being
that, had the torpedo been loaded, the
| man-of- wars men would have been scat
| tered along the coast from Fort WadSwOrth
to Port Amboy, and from Bay Ridge to
Coney Island.
NOW, CAPT. PAUL BOYNTON
is not the kind of a man who is inclined to
/ hide any light that he may generate, under
a buShel. He takes extraordinary care TO
/ keep his left hand informed of what his
/ right Is doing, and has a full realization
/ ofthe assistance which the newspapers can
lend him in this direction. Moreover, the
gallant Captain had Just then opened a
chop-houSe in Twenty-ninth street, which
he called The Ship" and he knew well
that any glory which he might
obtain by the hazardous ex-
plot he contemplated might reflect a
financial luSter upon this culinary enter
prise. Right here il is perhapes as well
10 draw ~atteltiOn to certain miSapprehen-
sions concerning the am of gathering
news for the daily papers that exists among
those who are u~nacquainted with the de-
tails of the business. A great many news
paper readers have an idea that a reporter S
duty is to wander about the city in search
of items and, having found one TO rush
forthwith 10 his office and write 1t up
The Lady who reads the details of a burg
larry. shoulders over the recital Of a trage-
DIV, or scans the columns devoted to IN
account of n great fire, wonders how the
reporters always happen to be on
hand in such emergencies; and, if she hap
pens 10 witness \ runaway. or any other
accident in the street, she Involuntary
looks about to see a reporter pursuing the
fleeing horse with a note-bOok,Or %prodding
an injured man with his lead pencil to re-
vive him sufficiently to tell his name.
Now a newspaper that depended upon the
chances of its reporters running across
everything by accident would not print
much of the news of the day, for the re-
p~orter's work is syStematized 50 that every
part of the city is covered. and ninety-nine
one-hundredths of the news is obtained
through organized channels of investiga-
ton.
TIE connection between this information
concerning the gathering of news and
II BOYroN-GARNET EPISODE
lies in the fact that, on the afternoon OF
Tuesday, May ), the captain called at the
offices Of various newspapers, and informed
the city editors thereof, with much nays
terry, that he was going to perform a feat
that night that would eclipse the achieve
ments ofall the dare-devils of ancient OF
modern times, and that he desired n re
porter from each paper to accompany him,
in order that his exploit might be properly
ehronicled. What this feat was he de
! clined to state until Later in the day; but
he assured the startled editors that the
revelation would have much the same
effect that the ghost of Hamlet:
father predicted wound follow the
unfolding Of THE lightest word of his tale,
The consequence was that, at 8 O'Clock
that evening, a reporter each from the
Times. the San. the World, the Herald, TIT
Tribune and the Journal assembled a