The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-10-23
A "LUCK" BEAT.
The Intelligence and Nerve of Two Chicago
Reporters-How They Got the News.
Ero,,, tho Nh;nooo r;,rac

The Intelligence and Nerve of Two Chicago
Reporters-How They Got the News.
From the Chicago Times.
just as his paper was about to go to press
one morning, a city editor heard that there
had been sensational suicide at a leading
hotel. This was private information, which
did not come through the police, and, there
fore, there was chance that the other papers
would not hear Of it, If there is anything
that makes city editors blood run warm it
is an opportunity Of this sort. Hastily te1e-
phoning his might police" reporters, he told
them the rumof and babe them jump into
cab and get to the Il hotel as quickly as
possible, but TO make sure they were not fol-
lowed by other reporters. Then he whistled
down stairs to have the presses held a few
minutes. His two young men, after leav-
ing headquarters laZily and securing
cab a block or two away, drove
with all speed to the hotel. There was
little excitement in the office, though only
few persons were awake at that hour. The re-
porters entered and wanted to know whore
she was. The clerk met them with calm
gaze and fine bluff.
He did not know what the young men
wanted, and when told of the suicide denied
in the house. But the report
ers were not to be bluffed away.
They ran upstairs and found two or three por-
ters standing before one Of the rooms, whis-
pering mysterously. No policemen were on
hand. "Have the police been notifed?" asked
one of the reporters of a porter. yes" "But
we can't wait for the police" said the other
reporter, dor our paper must go to press III ten
minutes" "No, we can't wait, and WON'T"
replied the first SO they burst open the door
of the bedroom. A strange scene lay before
them. Every gas jet in the room was lighted;
in the middle of the chamber, in big
chair, sat young and beautiful woman, hand
somely dressed with her head bent forward
on her breast and the blood oozng from hole
in her head and trickling down her immaculate
garments and snowy skin, The reporters were
the first to touch her, They lifted her head
that they might see her face. They pulled
open her eyes to get their color. They pried
open her clenched fists to ascertain if any notes
were held therein. They pulled off her rings
and noted the initials engraved therein. They
searched her dressing case for proof of her
identity or correspondence which might throw
light upon the mystery. In five minutes the
scence was photographed upon their minds.
They had even the monogram from
the coroner OF her handkerchief which one
had drawn from her bosom--a bosom in
which there was yet warmth but no
life. The quick eye of the reporter had not
failed to observe that the dead woman wore
fine silk stockings, and that throughout her at
tire was of the richest and finest, as II she had
decked herself in her best before firing the
fatal shot. Just as the police arrived the young
men rushed down stairs. A few questions OF
the clerk and they jumped into their cab. On
the way to the office they agreed upon o diYis-
pencils flew over paper as rapidly as nervous.
eager men could push them. As fast as one Of
them wrote o dozen words tie city editor
snatched the sheet away and whisked it up
stairs to the printers. Another man wrote the
head lines. In ten minutes all had finished.
In ten minutes more the papers were rolling
from the press, papers which con-
tanned three-quarters Of column of double
loaded account Of the suicide. The first part
of that account was written by one reporter,
the other half by another Neither crossed
the track of the other. You could not tell
where one began and the other left off. 1t
was a spirited, graphic, factful narrative.
How did the city editor hear Of the case so
quickly2 BY the kindness Of night porter
whom he had once befriended. This porter
ran out Of the hotel to drug store and tele-
phoned the news while the woman was dying.
The reporters arrived before her body was
cold. That was called a luck beat" and luck
it was, but there was the intelligence, the
nerve the skill to take advantage of the luck
and make the most Of it, That is newspaper
genius,