, 1889-08-10
NEWSPAPER SCOOPS"
spne of the FeRts Performed by wide
awAke and Ambitious Reporters.

Awake and Ambitious Reporters.
A history of scoops would form n very
good history of journalism from the time
newspapers first began to be issued. One
Of the great scoops of history was a pre-
diction- The particulars of this scoop
are so historical that they can be found
in "Kinglake's History Of the Crimean
War" The London Times predicted the
battle of Alma 1t called the battle that
had not yet been fought by the name it
has been known in history. 1t pointed
out where 1t would be fought and pointed
out what would be the result. This re-
markable prediction was verified in every
particular, and, although The Times
afterwards kept on the predicting bust
ness as to the fall of Sebastopol none of
its other predictions came true. This
shows the beauty of stopping predicting
when you have made one big success.
A scoop which involved a good deal of
personal danger was accomplished a few
years ago by the correspondent of The
New York Times in London. Mr.. Harold
Frederic went through the cholera smit-
ten districts of France and Spain and
cabled n page to his paper, giving an ac-
curate history of the plague, and show
ing for the first time what was to DO
feared from the cholera epidemic and
what was not. In fact, it gave people
for the first time an accurate estimate of
the situation.
When the Prince of Wales visited
America, the New York Herald man got
n scoop on all his esteemed contempora-
ries by holding n wire against all corners.
h was at Niagara Falls and there was
but n wire at that time to New York.
The Herald reporter started sending in
his messages, and, until he had finished,
none of the other men could send in
theirs. He telegraphed every mortal
thing that he could think of, described
all the suits the Prince of Wales wore
n what the Duke of Newcastle said and
did, and what every member of the suite
thought and were likely to think about,
n finally he had to fall back on the
only book available, a copy of the New
Testament, most of which was tele-
graphed to The Herald in New York.
By the time he had finished with the
volume it was then too late for any of
the other newspaper men to send in a
special. If the men in The Herald Office
read all the dispatches that came in from
the New Testament, the big sum of
money paid for the telegraph bill would
not have been altogether wasted.
M. Quad, in his younger days, char
tered a locomotive to bring in the gov
ernor's message to The Detroit Free
Press. He had n wild ride against time,
and not only delivered the message in
good shape, but wrote an account of the
affair which, it is not too much to say,
was infinitely more interesting and very
much more widely read than was the
message of which he was the carrier.
In a recent issue of an American maya
zinc. Mr.. Blowitz, the Paris correspon-
dent of The London Times, gives a very
interesting account of how he scoopsd
all his esteemed contemporaries by tele-
graphing to London a copy of the Berlin
treaty. Not the least difficulty which he
had to overcome was the getting of a
permit to send by telegraph the matter
which he had the good luck and good
management to secure. He had to get
into Belgium to do it, and even her he
had to have an order from a very high
authority or otherwise his message would
not have been taken.
In America the only trouble that CORE
5pOLuGuIS nave Is 70 Beb Ine ueWS. OnC9
they have that, there is no doubt about
its being telegraphed. In Europe the
correspondents have another difficulty
TO contend with, and that is, even after
they have their special information, and
after they hand it in to the telegraph
office, it is sometimes not sent. During
the troublesome times in Spain awhile
ago, n newspaper correspondent found
that II 10 matter what information he man
aged to get it was never forwarded from
the Spanish telegraph office. The gov
eminent of the day took care that no
news that it did not wish to 20 abroad
should be sent This correspondent then
wrote to his friend in London that when
he received the mex dispatch he was to
count every fifth word and cable only
every fifth word to New York. He wrote
his dispatches after that ON this principle.
Whenever he got a good piece of news
he telegraphed a long rigmarole to his
friend in London, which when read as
it was sent appeared to be n long talk of
financial and domestic troubles which
were bothering him at that time, but
when every fifth word was taken out II
gave the ews he wanted to send. This
the Spanish people never got ION to-"
and SO the correspondent secured many
g,nnnz enr III. ,Dorn- n,%-o;t H. D.