The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-04-14

Stun Fellows Andy Richards Will
Make Boys Hard to Catch.
The story of the killing Of Charlie
Branscomb Of the South Haven New
Era in a duel between Colonel r. T. ST.
mons of the Caldwell News and a A
Richards of the Wellington Mail, was a
rank fake.
What could be the motive for it IS
hard to tell but it was probably the
spite work Of some man who had it in
for either one or both Of them
1t was a mighty mean thing to do
and there is no doubt but what the orig
inator Of it will be mighty sorry that
he ever did il; for both Mr.. Richards and
Mr.. Simons are men who viii not be tri-
fed with.
Charlie Branscomb has also some
thing TO say about it and there is no
doubt but what he will help to make
ii hot for the smart Aleck who did the
work
What is play TO one is death TO an
other" is the old story of the frog and
it nearly fits in this case. The Topeka
Capital, the Kansas City Journal, the
St Louis Republic and other papers had
specials on the fight giving much more
of the alleged details than the Associa-
ted Press article.
Papers, as rule, are very fond Of
getting the news, but no legitimate pa
per wants fake and there is no doubt
but what the victimized journals will
take hand in the matter
No paper can exercise personal care
over vast news field and, of course,
must depend on their correspondents.
Every correspondent is given implicit in
structions to be cautious. Accuracy is
the watchword of every respectable and
responsible journal. There is perhaps
more confidence placed on newspaper
correspondents than upon any other
class Of citizens and it is hardly ever
abused. One can readily see the en-
barrassment a paper may experience,
TO say nothing about the liability it in
ours, through a dishonest correspondent
The correspondents who sent the article
above referred to doubtless were honest,
but they may not have exercised the
proper caution. Good intentions are not
respected by a paper TO any great ex-
tent-it wants caution connected with
IL. The fact is that no correspondent,
by this is meant professional CORES
pondent, is worth a straw who cannot
tell by a kind of intuition that a news
item is true or false. Every good cor
respondent has that faculty. He is
able to put two and two together and
get a result. When that shooting fake
came in over the Associated Press wires
Saturday night every man in the Eagle
office suspected it. 1t did not inspire
that warming up feeling peculiar to
hot true item which newspaper men Of
average experience and professional
devotion, experience. The telegraph
editor did not stand on the top of mis-
head or throw a handspring as he would
usually do over hot stuff. On the con-
trary he pushed il over TO the other cor
ner of the table and would have forgot
ten it but for certain reasons. The re-
suit was that it came within an ace OF
going into the waste basket and as it
was it had to be fully investigated and
printed with a profound doubt of its
accuracy.
There is no doubt but what the fake
originated at Wellington. but owing to
that town being comparatively small,
where everybody knows everybody eles'
business, it was sprung in Wichita
where correspondents are as thick as
bees.
The bait was judiciously thrown out
for all, most of them nibbled at it but
only one or two of them took it in their
mouths and swallowed it. None Of the
men on the regular daily papers bit and
they are mighty glad of il. They are
trained to be more cautious than the
others and that saved them Those
who didn't bite are scared because they
came very near it and are not Growing
a, little mite over the scoop Of their less
fortunate brethren.
1t is said that Mrs. Branscomb receiv-
ed about 100 letters Of coincidence from
friends, Andy Richards got ten tele-
grams and it is said that Colonel ST.
mons got five early in the day..
There is no fun in causing lis people
pain over the death or trouble Of friends
A a Richards, editor of the yelling
ton Daily Mail, was in the city last
night looking for the author of the
fake Geographic reports sent TO the To-
peka and Kansas City Sunday dallies,
in reference to an alleged shooting af-
fray between him and Hon. r. T. SIM
ons of the Caldwell News at South
Haven on Friday in which Charles
Branscomb was said to have been kill
ed. The facts are that Mr.. Richards
spent Friday with his friend SuDerin-
tendent Morse at TIE Hutchinson re-
formatory. Mr.. Bra n>comb was at his
present home al Oxford, where he is
editor of the Register. Mr.. SimOns was