The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-07-02
GETTING UP THE NEWS.
SOME OF THE THINGS THAT RE-
PoRTERs MEET WITH.

|
The Night Round and What 1t Reveals
to the Newsgatherers-Lo Tramps
and Careful Investigations that End
in "Water Hauls"-1he Pleasant and
Unpleasant Sides to the Reporters
Work.
"You reporters do not publish all you see
and know, do you?" asked gentleman of
one of the MORNING NEWS reporters the
other day. Well, hardly. The reporters
are indefatigable in the collection of news,
but their zeal is sometimes eclipsed by the
efforts of Others to have an unpleasant
episode suppressed. first offense, a clan
destine marriage 'only one leetle offaire ov
re heart, " as Sara Bernhart expressed it,
and various other slips are often carefully
noted and reported, only to find their way
to the dead galley" after being put in
type, by the persistent pleadings of some
member Of the family, perhaps a mother,
wife, sister, or daughter, to whom recital
Of facts in the public prints would be mort-
| Tying, and cause the innocent added suffer
ing for the misdeeds of the guilty. Thus it
is that such applications run the gauntlet
| from the reporters desk through all the
! higher departments of the editorial rooms
to the editor himself What not to put in
a newspaper requires even greater judg-
ment than any other of the multifarious
questions which obtrude themselves up-n
the attention OF the much abused newspaper
man.
IN QUEST OF NEWS.
The reporter on his midnight quest for
news finds much that is interesting and
much that is calculated to nauseate him
with the character Of his work. Some
times the night is beautiful, and the moon
and the lesser luminaries vie with each
other III the splendor Of their borrowed rays.
Meteors dance along the sky like children
at play. The city seems hushed into a
profound stiffness broken only by burst of
music from the meodious throat of the
southern nightingale piping out symphony
to the hushed night The reporter pauses
in contemplative mood forgetting in the
rapt silence of the hour that he is on the
scent for an ''item," when policeman's
shrill whistle, the clang of the fire-bell,
pistol shot or woman's shrek, awaken
him from his lethargy, and he is off and
alert.
Thus it is he may be suddenly aroused
from the sleepless dream to the more practi-
cal work Of his calling If it is a police
mans whistle that means help wanted and
wanted quick, and often the reporter is on
the ground before the aid that has been
summoned, for it is essential TO be early,
and il there is anything in the alarm to
work it from the beginning 1t may be
| case OF burglary under the bluff on the
Bay, or it may lie an incipient riot requir-
ing more than one officer to quel. or some
young bloods painting the town brilliant
carmine and defying the officer who eau
tions them to go home quietly, or some one
may have lunged with the deadly knife in n
| drunken ARRAY, and under the shadows of
street and lane fled from the scene of his
lawless act, leaving the victim on the
ground.
WORKING A PISTOL SHOT.
II it is pistol shot it may be an effectual
shot at a retreating fugitive, and often the
pistol shot Is but prelude to the splash of
water in the western part of the city by
| the plunging in the canal of some principal
| i'll a bloody affray in Yamacraw or Frog
town, and a skurrying off in the darkness
to the swampS to hide until some trusty
friend tells him that all danger is over, or
his victim is dead. If the latter tue fugi-
tive makes his way to the turpentine camps
and is lost to sight.
II the sound is woman's shrek, it usu-
ally means that drunken husband has laid
his brutal hand i'll violence upon his wife
and with disheveled hair she will give her
statement in at the police headquarters to
the sergeant on duty, the wife beaten will
be locked up for the rest of the night and
| tho next morning, in ninc cases out of ten
the injured wife will refuse to prosecute, and
that ends the matter until her ruffian hus-
band gets on another spree.
DON'T GO THROUGH MY CLOTHES"
1t was only two or three nights ago that
young man almost in the last stages of
inebriation braced up against the outer
wall of a building and was making this ap-
! ~ 90
my clothes.n
There are some busy midnights and wee
sma hours in the morning when the vicious
ply their trades and the depraved are
| spinning their webs to entrap the half
drunken and unwary. Here, as in all large
| cities, are all the constituents that go to
make up the various vices. Drunkenness in
| all its shapes are met with from the rollck-
ing song and the disposition to fight, until
at some dark and secluded spot the reporter
| stumbles over some victim hOrS dh combat.
the last stage of inebrity, thus
recalling the fable appropriate
enough to be true, how Bacchus
in his sylvan strolls found tendril so small
| that he sought to carry it home in the skull
of canary. Finding that it grew 50 rap
idly he was obliged to put it in hons skull. 4
and the growth continuing he lastly took
the skull Of an ass from the roadside, and
| in this way was able to get his vine home to
| be planted. From it came the grapes. and
| then the wine, which when men first drank,
they were inspired to sing, and drinking
| again, grew strong like the lion, but after
| deeper draughts became stupid like the ass.
HE reporter sees much on his nocturnal
| rounds. Carriages fronting resorts where
women fit in and out in Scant array. or
| from window and balcony when the eve of
the police is not on them coquette with tho
passing stranger. Who rides in the car
rlages at midnight and wine ana dine with
the class under the ban is not one of the
duties of the reporter to note, and thev
pass before him only as in a Kaleidoscope,
and the incident, not the individuality of
the occurrence, is retained in the memory.
POINTERS TO LOOK UP
The hurried trampling of feet, the gallon
OF horse is pointer. 1t may lead up to
| a tragedy, or it may be that it is only a
hurried visit for the family physician. In
either event the reporter follows the trail.
and half an hour, or maybe an hour is
| spent t. find it labor in vain. The gameis
not worth tho hunt. If he sees a man with
a lantern drumming up relay of railroad
men from their sleep, that means an acct
| dent on the rail and tiresome tramp must
| be made to the extreme eastern OF western
| limit of the city and sometimes to both. |
Death in all shapes and suffering in all its
phases must come under his observation, |
| and the reporter has hardly time to
express sympathy or pity But if he must |
brave rain and storm, and see human ma |