The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-09-05
NEWSPAPER SCOOPS"

Some Of tho Feats Performed by Wide
| awake and Ambitious Reporters.
A history of scoops would form very
good history of journalism from the time
newspapers first began to be issued. One
of the great scoops of history was 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 it 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 good deal of
personal danger was accomplished 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 page to his paper, giving an ac.
curate history of the plague, and show
ing 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 estimate of
the situation.
hnr t,o - NnI1
America The New York Herald man got
a scoop on all his esteemed contempora-
ries by holding wire against all corners.
This was at Niagara Falls and there was
but one wire at that time to New York.
The Herald reporter started sending in
his message. 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 Newcastle 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 available, 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 1t was then too late for any of |
the other newspaper men to send in |
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.
NJ. Quad, in his younger days, char
tered 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 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 recent issue of an American maga-
zine, Mr.. Blowitz, the Paris correspon-
dent of The London Times, gives very
account of how he scooped
all his esteemed contemporaries by tele-
to London a copy of the Berlin
treaty. Not the least difficulty which he
had to overcome was the getting of
permit to send by telegraph the matter
whicn ne naa 'ne good ,qck ana good
management 10 secure. ne had 10 get
INTO Belgium TO DO IT, ana even then he
hao 70 nave an order from very high
autnorl'y OF otner"ise MS message would
not have been taken.
IN America the only trouble that CORE
sponoents nave is TO get the news. once
they nave that, tnere Is no doubt about
It's oeing teiegraphed. In Europe the
correspondents nave another dlfhculty
70 contend WIN, ana tnat Is even after