Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-04-17
HARD WORK SOMETIMES.
Two Striking Instances Of Almost
Superhuman Physical Effort.

Two Striking Instances Of AlmosI
Superhuman Physical Effort.
The story of the soldier and the ex-
perience Of the spy contain no greater
records Of the triumphs of physical and
mental strain than does our daily press,
said E. ]. Edwards In his address on
journalism. When Daniel Webster
died Henry ]. Raymond, then editor OF
the Times, shut himself In his private
pnice, giving orders that he should not
be disturbed until the work he had in
hand was finished. He proposed to
write q life Of Webster, and he wrote
steadily for more than fifteen hours
4 mastery, comprehensive, and, for q
newspaper, an exhaustive sketch and
study of the departed statesman. That
exploit was for many years regarded
rs one Of the greatest personal achieve
men4 Of Journalism. 1t was always re-
ferred to when the endurance Of the
newspaper man was the theme. But it
was conspicuous because 1t was one OF
the first. 1t is so frequently matched
nowadays that the achievement eXcites
no especial interest in newspaper Of
ices. Take, for instance, the report OF
the hanging Of Guiteau, which appear
ed in one Of the papers. The editor had
Instructed his Washington correspond.
ent upon three points only-one, that
it was desired that the correspondent
should write the whole account himself,
so that 1t could be consecutive, SYM
pathetic and free from the raggedness
which is inevitable when two or three
men are engaged in preparing q lengthy
report. Next, the editor wanted 1t put
upon the wire sheet by sheet; last Of
all. he was anxious to have 1t complete
In the home Office by 10 o'clock at night
Mr.. Raymond's achievement did not
eompare either with endurance or swift.
ness Of work with what this CORE
spondent must do if he were to meet
the requests Of his managing editor.
The jail where Guiteau was to bt
hanged was three miles from the tele.
graph office. The execution was to be
done between the hours Of IL and 1.
Certainly a half hour would elapse af-
livered to the surgeons. and after that
there would be the ride back to the
correspondents office. At the earliest
moment possible the correspondent
could not see how he could begin his
work before 3 o'clock, and between that
time and 10 he was expected to write
about 1900 words, send it at white
heat c~er the wires. and have 1t COM
plete in the newspaper office In New
York. 1t would have been a physical
impossibility to have written that re-
port under those conditions. There
fore, the correspondent employed three
stenographers, instructilg them to
mark their copy "A" "B" and &C." 4
little after 3 he began work with them.
First, he dictated to stenographer A
for some twenty minutes; then, leaving
the stenographer to write out his notes,
the correspondent went to stenographer
B, debating to hip twenty minutes, and
then to G. When he had finished with
stenoSrapher G he returned to Stem
Ographer A, who had by that time writ
ten out his notes, and they were put
upon the wires, and SO the correspond
ent went on sort Of treadmill expedi-
ton, making the circuit of those three
stenographers for seven hours. Ten
minutes after he had sent the last page
he received a dispatch from the home
office stating that the account was all
in typa- 1t had been put In type almost
simultaneously with its dictation, but
1t was most exhaustive piece Of work
for the correspondent He had not only
to speak without interruption for seven
hours, but he had to bear in mind the
faithful sending Of the sheets as they
were written out The achievement Of
Senator Allen, of Nebraska, In speak
lng all night in the Senate chamber has
become tradition, but 1t was really no
greater exploit than was that Of this
correspondent
might tell you Of the courage re
luired to obtain the document which
exposed the Credit Mobilier scandal, Of
t.r courage and endurance which were
ncc; ,sary in order to secure the infor-
nation upon which that latest of na.
tional scandals was based, that which
was called the sugar trust conspiracy.
But time fails. These illustrations viii
show Of what service these qualities
arc for you and for the great public,
and how they are always to be conn.
IDENTITY called upon and relied upon
when 1t IL necessary to obtain the great.
er news which, after 1t has been print
Cd, enables you to base your judgment
upon events. their causes and influ.
ences, and thus forms public opinion.
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