The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1889-08-29
NEWSPAPER: SCOOPS"
Some OF the Feats Performed by Wide
awake and Ambitious Reporters.
detroit Free Press.

A history ofscoops would form very
good history of journalism from the
time newspapers first began to be issued.
One of the great scoops of history was
a prediction. The particulars Of this
scoop are so historical that they can
be found in "Kinglake's History of the
Cri1nean War" The London Times
predicted the battle of Alma. 1t call
ed the battle that. had not yet been
fought by the name it has been known
in history. 1t pointed out where it
would be fought and pointed out what
would be the result. This remarkable
prediction was verified in every partic-
ular, and, although the Times after
wards kept Oh the predicting business
as to the fall of Sebastopol none of its
other predictions came true. This
shows the beauty of stop predicting
when you have made one big sue
cess.
A scoop which involved a good deal
of personal danger was accomplished
few years ago by the correspondent of
the New York Times in London. Mr..
Harlond Frederic went through the
cholera smitten districts of France and
Spain and cabled a page to his paper,
giving an accurate history of the plague,
and showing for the first time what was
to be feared from the cholera epidemic
and what was not. In fact, it gave
people for the first time an accurate es-
innate of the situation.
When the Prince of Wales visited
America, the New York Herald man
got scoop on all his esteemed conten-
poraries by holding wire against all
comers. This was at Niagra Falls and
there was but one wire at that time to
New York. The Herald reporter start
ed sending i'll 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 and what the Duke of New
castle said and did, and what every
member of the suite thought and were
likely to think about, and finally he
had to fall back on the only book avail
able, copy of the New Testament,
most of which was telegraphed 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 news
paper men to send in Especial. If the
men in the Herald office read all the
dispatches that came in from the New
3 ~ ;sogesst. the big sum Of money paid
.se : laSss from asaEasld not have
Testaniers5 ts.,t, uiiSs
for the telegraph biz fSs
been altogether wasted. ..
NJ. Quad, in. his younger days, chaS4Ess
tered a locomotive to bring in the gov
ernor's message to the Detroit Free
Press. He had wild ride against
time, and not only delivered the mes
sage in good shape, but wrote an ac'
count of the affair which, 1t Is no
too much to say, was infinitely more
interesting and very much more wac
ly read than was the message OF "hic'
he was the carrier.
In recent issue Of Harper's Mag
azine, Mr.. Blowitz, the Paris CORES
bondent of the London Times, gives
l verv interesting account OF how L
1 scooped all his contemporaries by tel
,. Grabbing to London copy Of the Be
lin treaty. Not the least dlthcnl'
which he had to overcome was the &c
!; ting of a permit to send by telegral
u the matter which he had the good lu'
and management to secure: he nj
TO aet into Belgium to do it, and eV'
then he had tc have an order from
). very high authority or otherwise
message would not have been taken.
o. In America the only trouble I'll
ID correspondents have is to get the ne!
re Once they have that, there is no DOT
n aboutits being telegraphed. In Euro
r. the correspondents have another {
of 6cultv to contend with, and that
even after they have their special lnf
v. nation, and after they had it in to
" telegraph office, it is sometimes
le- sent. During the troublesome tir
he in Spain awhile ago, newspaper
IRE respondent found that no matter "
M information he managed to get, II
ere never forwarded from the Spanish t
lis graph office. The government OF,
ley dav took care that no news that IL
de- not wish to 60 abroad should be s.
nat This correspondent wrote his III
top in London that when he received
rts. next dispatch he was to count e'
ose fifth word and cable only every
word to New York. He Wrote MS
matches after. that on this primo
Whenever he got good piece OF i
he telegraphed long riganlaro''
- his friend in London, which "
of Of read as it was sent appeared TO
or a long talk of financial and dom
,an- troubles which were bothering hlf
oy that time, but when every htth
Cd . was taken out it gave the ne"
ave wanted to send. This the ops
, Sssaaple never got "on to-" and sc
ling t..sssssdents secured many 81
! % et for his paper:
,ous,
eyes Fodder
horp Captured Ia -