Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-12-26

How Certain Important Governments Matters
Are Kept From the Public.

Il
| A PRESIDENTS MESSAGE THAT WAS STOLEN AND
| PUBLISHED IN ADvAScK-rHE CARE TAKEN IN
| SETTING THE MESSAGE IN TyPE-PRooF READER
BROWN AND HIS REVISION OF THE DICTIONARY.
"HEN PRESIDENT HARRISONS RE-
| w cent message was finally published q
weight Of anxiety was lifted from the minds Of
the public printer and his foreman. The an
nual addresses of the chief executive to Con-
gress are always Nightmares to the government
printing Office, and until they are formally re-
ceived by the national legislature there is no
sound sleep for the officials in charge. Their
task is like the guarding Of treasure, for the
Possession of which few hours in advance
eager newspapers are ready to pay fortune.
Once, and only once, was a message stolen, and
the incident has passed into history.
Sixteen picked compositors set up the last
message. They we're chosen as usual for their
trustworthiness. So secret was their task that
if one of them had even said when the job was
done, 81 have been working on the Presidents
message today" discovery of the fact would
have caused his discharge. Four hours were
required for putting the document into type,
and during that time the selected men, grouped
by themselves were held under the watchful
eye of the foreman. The copy, received in
| type script from the White House, was cut up
| into e(kes" so small that no individual could
make head or tail Of his own. No one was al
| lowed to see any proof of other takes than
those which he himself handled, and all the inn
perfect proofs taken were gathered into bag
| as carefully as If they had been so much gold,
and burned in the furnace. Not o scrap was
permitted to escape.
| GALLEYs PUT IN A SAFE.
The galleys full of type, as fast as they were
! made up, were placed on shelves in an iron
| room built like a SAFE. Whenever one was taken
out a receipt was given for it. which was torn
| up when 1t was put back. Not less than two
men were permitted to move q galley. Two
proofs were taken finally of the completed mes
sage-one for the Office and the other on fine
| paper for the President. The final proof was
read by Arthur H. Brown. Dictionary Brown"
he Is called. because of his marvellous accuracy
about words.
Sometimes compositors in the government
printing office have kicked at Browns correc-
lions or their work. Repeatedly they have
| called his attention to the dictionary and have
shown him that Webster Endorsed their own
judgment. $50 it does" Brown would say,
calmly. Then he would correct the dictionary
| with pen and ink. His corrections were al
ways right, too. Once he sent about twenty Of
them to the publishers of the dictionary, who
| accepted all Of them and made him present
OF an elegantly bound copy. He suggested, it is
1 Il.
recent message and they were adopted by the
| author. Any President is fortunate in having
such critic Of his work before it reaches the
public.
| When Mr.. Arthur was President Public
| Printer Rounds was SO anxious about the
| secrecy Of the message that he took one of the
cases himself. under orders from his own fore
man. On the occasion referred to the manu-
| script OF the address to Congress came into the
Office In scraps. 1t kept arriving pieeemeal
tr1r6u Of IN
The chief magistrate presumably wanted to
see how 1t looked when pretti!y printed, as he
proceeded with his composition. With kindly
consideration for the printers, he provided
them while they were engaged upon the task,
| with what they described as elegant grub"
| sending his own steward from the Executive
Mansion to serve it.
THE STOLEN MESSAGE OF HAYES.
The message which was stolen was the last
one written by President Hayes. 1t was not
obtained from the government printing Office.
For the sake Of extra precaution it was set up
| III the branch of1ce Of the Treasury Depart
ment Rumors that it would be obtainable in
advance got about Newspaper Row somehow
and combinations were formed to purchase it
| In case it should be offered for sale. The pI ice
in such an event would necessarily be large
and 1t was worth while to divide it.
One of these combinations was formed
by the New York Times. Cincinnati Commercials
Gdxette and Chicago Times. On the aftern Don
OF the Saturday before the Monday on which
the message was to be placed in the hands Of
Congress the correspondent of the New York
Times was sitting i'll his Office on the row read
ing the evening paper. He had pretty well
made up his mind by that time that there was
nothing in the report which had been cir
culated.
A young man, but slightly known as a news
paper correspondent, walked in aud asked in a
jocular way what was the latest intelligence
about the message.
Nothing that know Of" was the reply.
DO you care to buy it?' asked the youth.
Il shouldn't mind" said the Tunes man,
imagining that the visitor WAS joking
10 ms surprise the young man drew out from
his pockets package, which proved on inspec-
ton to be the much-desired document.
How much do you want for this:' was
asked.
How much will you give?' said the youth.
"Ill give you thousand dollars for it. +" said
the Times correspondent
The young man said that he thought he
could get more than that, and, after u brief
haggie. Il 200 was agreed upon as the price.
II was understood that the money should be
paid only on condition that the message reached
no other hands.
No time was lost in communicating with the
correspondents Of the Cincinnati Commercials
Gazette and Chicago Times, and the representa-
tlyes of the three papers hired room in the
Ebbitt House, procuring telegraph instruments
and operators to send the dispatches from
thence This was done with the utmost secrecy.
not q word being breathed to ANYBODY, for
fear lest some untoward accident should spoil
the biggest scoop that was ever made from
Washington.
So far as this end of the business was con-
cerned things went admirably. During all that
evening the telegraph instruments were busily
ticking in the room at the Ebbitt House and
the message was sent flying simultaneously to
three cities. None of the other correspond
ents here had any notion of what was going
on, but in New York word got out in some way
that the message was coming over the wires.
No one could tell what paper was getting it, but
the rumor set the correspondents there on the
alert The men who represented Chicago
papers in the metropolis wired 70 the home
| offices warning. To prevent the happening
of just what did occur the New York Times
was held back from the presses for forty-fye
minutes after the usual time. As quickly as it
was issued, however, it was seized and the en-
tire message of the President. covering more
| than page and half, was telegraphed to the
Chicago Tribune, the Inter Ocean and other
dailies in the same city. 1t is not surprising
that the Chicago Times, finding its hoped-for
scoop" gobbled by its rivals, should have de-
clined to pay its own share, $500. of the sum
due as purchase money for the message.
OF course there was tremendous official agi-
tation in Washington over the occurrence. 1t
was proposed to prosecute the newspaper cor
respondents concerned rs accessories after the
theft, but that fell through. Skilled detectives
were employed upon the case, and they de-
clared that the printer in the treasury office
who took the Droofa Of fha ,poasog. me-. AZ.