The morning news., 1892-03-16
MADE FUN FOR THE BOYS.
vo,ng Blsine's Early Efforts as a
Newspaper Reporter.
from tbe Chicago Times.

T. and ex-mother-in-Iaw over the divorce
-.,sntly granted 20 Mrs. James g. Blaine.
:. recalls some incidents of the young
..sn,s newspaper career in Pittsburg," (" said
former resident of that city yesterday.
.,Was young Blaine brilliant success as
.rewspaper manF
aWsil. hardly that; but he furnished a
.,,d deal Of amusement for the boys on
- naper He worked on the Pittsburg
inns. which is Chris Magee's paper.
1fsgae and the elder Blaine were great per-
so0sl and political friends at the time, which
yras in 1885 or 1885, Young Jim was living
,n Pittsburg with his wife and her people
.be Neyins family. His father was stump
;ng in the principal cities of the state for
Gov. Beavers campaign. When the old
Gentleman came to Pittsburg he made ar
ssngements with Magee to put his son on
,bs Times as a local reporter, with the pur-
nose Of making practical newspaper man
If him. 'Jamie's' advent into Journalism
was the topic of the newspaper circles and
rss teIegraphed over the country
"Hls debut was looked for with anxiety by
the other local papers. VINO were a little bit
snyious of Magee's latest attraction. All
the city editors gave general orders for their
rsnorters TO shadow Blaine and run him to
cover if they detected him chasing a piece
If news, so that they could get story out of
Jsmies maiden effort. But Jamie would not
have recognized legitimate news item IL it
had climbed on his coat collar and blown a
dinner horn in his ear, so none of the re-
porters were scooped on that assignment.
The city editor of the Times was very foxy.
and decided TO send Jim TO a big charity fair
N do his first work, telling him 20 look the
show over and write it up pdescriptively, but
not to take any notes and to appear as il he
was there simply as spectator, so that the
l.
Blaine followed instructions and wrote a
quarter of column about the fair,
which appeared in the morn
ing paper. The evening papers
of the same day had the item printed In
full, with comments by the funny men.
Blaine had an obscure paragraph In his
story about an antelope which was being
voted to the most popular young lady at
the fair. He got the antelope confused
with the society belle who was receiving the
most votes, and made it appear that the
young lady was being raffled off instead of
the animal. At least that was the way the
funny men on the rival papers figured it
out.
Did that discourage Blainew
10, no; that fired him up a little and he
rather liked the attention he was receiving
from the great dailies. He then started out
to make a general skirmish about the clty,
and see how many columns of news and
special articles he could dig I'D In a day.
His digging failed to develop much of pay
streak. and the city editor decided to put
him on the hotel route The city editor
reasoned profoundly that Jim would meet
many prominent public men at, the hotels
and that the public men would be delighted
with the sensation Of being interviewed by
the son of Americas greatest statesman
The men of fame failed TO appear as per
schedule, and after three days of toll, which
produced nothing but three-line personals
about men from the oil regions and coal
fields, Blame dragged himself wearily up the
stairs to the office Of his city editor, whose
name was Gramer. and delivered himself of
the following lamentations:
"'Gramer, don't believe any prominent
men ever came to this bloomin' old town
and by Jove don't blame 'em. Pm dead
sore on the place myself
"The city editor smiled and said: AN
right, Jimmie; I'll give you something else to
do We're going to make newspaper man
out of you If it takes all winter and uses up
all the routes in town. How would you like
to go up to the court house to morrow and
report Col. Moore's great speech in the pol
soning case9
'That night Jimmie's new wife took him
to big ball at the Pittsburg Club. They
were the social lioness and lion of the sea-
son, it being their first winter in PittsburR.
They stayed at the ball until late, and the
next day Jimmie was more drowsy than
usual He dragged himsel to the court
house to take Moore's big speech. The
colonel was one Of the crack criminal law
yers Of the Pittsburg bar, aud he was max
ing the effort of his life, defending a
prominent woman who was on trial
charged with poisoning her grandson
for the purpose OF getting his in
heritage 1t was a desperate case to de-
farA nd f,s Al
bis closing argument, which Blaine was to
report. But the preliminaries to the speech
made Jimmie tired and he fell asleep In his
chair The other reporters were too busy
to wake him, and he slept peacefully on
through the storm of eloquence aud showers
Of tears which the lawyers produced. His
paper would have been entirely scooped on
the speech had not the local news bureau
helped it out.n
What did he try nextg"
VI don't remember exactly, but think his
wife took him in hand and tried to teach
MIN to write magazine articles She was
disposed to be literary as well as dramatic
She persuaded Magee or the managing
editor or somebody on his guard to les her
write some special letter for the literary
page of the paper. This was strongly
against the wish Of the editor in chief but
II vent. She wrote her copy on tinted note
paper. in the latest Vassar scrawl. I forget
what it was all about. but remember that
ene used poetic pen name. The editing of
her copy was assigned to the assistant city
editor, Charley Bowman, VINO was nothing
not cynical. Bowman had orders to let
her articles go through at first without cut
tlng, and Mrs Blaine called upon him daily
70 warn him against mutilating her produc-
uons, which she assured him were literary
GEMS
Now. you won't leave any of il out,
VIII you, Mr.. BowmanP she would plead.
NO, indeed, won't, the obliging blue
pencil wielder would reply. its red-hot
stuff, Mrs. Blaine and we want all of 1t you
can give u.s.
Ihen when she was gone Bowman would
use profaue language and say he wished all
"omen writers were sure enough angels.
oue day after be had stood the literary
gems for about a week he cut the middle
Out OF her composition, pasted the ends to-
sether and sent them in. Next day Mrs.
Blaine was in a rage
why did you murder my best article
Iae wayP she demanded of Bowman. hold
Ik the paper In her hand and almost cry
"g with disappointment.
i ,r bowman looked innocent and said
ven, You see Mrs. Blaine. big rush of
sEertslDg came in late last night and we
uO1 70 70 make everything very brief
Then why In the name of all common
Slse didn't you hold my article for another
Say instead Of crucifying it in this horrible
~ Oh, couldn't think of leaving your ar
'Vle out altogether. even for a day, They