Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1890-03-22
A NEWSPAPER IN THE ROCKIES.
HOW An ENTERPRIsISG BUSINESS
MANAGER GOT HIS SPECIALS
FOR NOTHING.

In the winter OF Iss4-s5 1 wa
managing editor, city editor aud IA,
entire reportorial eorIs Of s it'll,
daily paper in Colorado minin,
town. We also had three printers
a business manager and an ofiic,
boy, who acted As mailing clerk anC
canieT. The business managel
filled In his leisure time running ,
cattle ranch and q coal mine.
The town bad a "bOOm'' a wear OF
two before, but the 'sbOom;' was yuu,
and the place was left with two
uaily newspapers and hardly iusi-
ness Tor one weekly. IL was hard
sledding. Associated Press dis.
patches were out If the question.
We had to depend upon the Denver
papers, which reached US the same
evening, for our Geographic news.
Our readers didn't like this, OF
course, but II was the best we could
DO, and rs we were all holding on
like grim death for the return OF the
'bOom," which was always six
months ahead Of US, nobody cared To-
say too much.
But occasionally the trains got
ssowed up on the Pass for a week
or more, aud then we were In box.
On one Of these occasions We badu'
had Z mail for four days, am things
were looking blue. There wasn't
any local news 10 speak Of. The
business manager suggested a chap
ter from the Bible with a scare,
head. He thought il would be news
out there, and l guess he was right.
The town had gas and Waterworks
and a big hotel as reminders of its
departed boom, and II also had a
telephone line which connected
with another little town, thirty
miles further up in the mountains,
on a branch Of tine same railroad.
The telephone in tine ststion thirty
miles away was connected every
night with the one in our office be-
fore the central office closed, so that
in case Of an accident in the mines
we could get the news.
Several times, while using this
telephone, | had noticed that, late
at night when all was still, the
clickisg Of the telegraph instrument
in the station up in the mountains
could be distinctly heard over the
wire. This suggested an idea. The
railroad wire was used as news
wire late at night. five had any
body with an ear acute enough to
read that faint ticking in the tele-
phone instrument We could learn
what was going on over the
wires. The business manager
had been an operator, and
4 good one, back in the States. He
tried the instrument and found the
scheme would work. The next
morning we had n column Of ''spe-
cials," Including two or three items
Of Washington news, which were
Of special importance just then, a.
every second man in the town was
a candidate for some Office under the
incoming administration.
The editor OF the rival paper
rushed TO the Telegraph Office to in
quire what il meant. He was told
that we had received nothing over
the wire. With the train showed
up on top Of the pass taking from
the Denver papers was out OF ques-
ton. Yet there were the dispatches,
aud uumistaliabiy genuine, too.
The wires had been tapped, that was
certain, but where, when, how?
The railroad people ordered an in
vestigatiOn, but discovered nothing.
Nobody thought Of the clicking in
strument in the closed railroad sta
tion thirty miles away and the mar
velOus carrying power OF the tele,-
phone In that clear, still mountain
air.
Our brother editor on the rival
sheet thought it was Z dead cold
fake, - but he was afraid TO say too
much about it, as he had run out OF
paper and we had him at our mercy,
at least until "A train got in. or
course the secret was jealousy guard
Ell in the Office, but the Specials"
were kept up until the train got
through. Then we quit. The busi-
ness manager was a conscientious
man ami didn't believe in stealing
news when IL could be obtained any
other way. Besides, Ee objected 10
10 the wnrk.-M. G.. NJ. in NelC
York World.