The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-01-11
THEY WERE HUSTLERS.
How Two New York Newspaper Mer
Sought TO Get "a Beat"


The New York World of Tuesday con-
tains seven column dispatch sent from
Savannah the night before The article
was descriptive of visit to Port au Prince,
the seat of the Haytien rebellion, by a
World correspondent. The dispatch coz
tanned 1900 words and was turned into the
Western Union telegraph office here early
in the evening. Four wires to New York
were required to send it. 1t is probably
the longest message that has passed through
the hands of Savannah operators, with the
exception perhaps of the Presidents mes
sage, in long time.
-Four operators worked" the message
until the early hours of the next morning
and when the lest word had been clicked
off" the telegraphers considered that they
had done big nights work,
dapper little man, neatly dressed in a
Prince Albert suit and silk hat, filed the
dispatch. His name was Charles c. Roeder
He Was direct from Hayti via Cuba and
jacksonville. He intended to go direct
to New York and carry the message which
he sent from here, in order to save tee
graphic tolls, but on the trip, while he was
CHANGING over his notes taken in the country
of the black rebels he caught the eye Of
another dapper little fellow sitting opposite
him IN the car. They eyed each other in
manner that attracted the attention of the
passengers on the train. Some said tuat
they were PinkertOn men, while Others
suggested that they were defauiters, One
of the mysterious men was the Worlds
correspondent and the other was the special
correspondent of the New York Sun. They
had both been sent on the same errand, but
neither knew the other, and notwithStand-
ing that they had come across in the
same steamer, neither mistrusted the
others mission until they had
cot nearly to Savannah. They watched
each other closely until the train reached
here, when the WOYid correspondent
eluded the san man, and instead of contin-
uing his trip to New Yofk, with the roll of
manuscript in his pocket, he hurried to the
Western Union Office, and before the Sun
man had dreamed of what his contempt
rary had done, The message was flashing
over the wire to New York. The World
ma complimented himself on scooping the
San, but in few hours the little office at
Florence, S. c., asked New York for two
through wires.
What did it means Florence had a big
budget for New York, and it had to go.
The wires were given the little office and
shortly after five column special, dated
Port au Prince, began to flash into the New
York office. The Sun man had searched
the train and failing to find his contemno-
| rary he had a misgiviug and decided
that it would not do to carry the
| special any longer. The World
| CORE pondent spent happy night in Sa-
vannah, and opposite his name on the
Pulaski house register is marked wine
81 rs" 1t cost the World a round sum for
the Port au Prince dispatch from Savan-
nah, but the u 0rid man consoled himself
on being able t. get in the first report. He
was none tine wiser until Tuesday evening,
when he secured a copy of the Sun in a
Tennessee town and read the fige-coumn
message from Hayti. Then t is said he
gritted his teeth, punched the paper, cursed
his contemporary and was in a state of alb
sOlute unhapDiness.