Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-09
TOLD BY A NEWSPAPER MAN

Slttlng IN the press gallery OF the House
the other day, at q time when little of in
terest was taking place to need their at
tention. was a group Of Washington news
paper correspondents They were swap
ping stories Of their early days in news
paper work in various cities and towns Of
the country, and the most of them looked
back to those days as the most pleasant
and happy in their lives The ambition of
the majority Of the group had led them to
come to Washington as the correspondents
Of large papers, to mingle with statesmen
and to handle news pertaining to the wide
field of national affairs, but they looked
back with satisfaction to the days when
they had pushed the pencil on local
news" and when the city editor had
pushed his blue pencil all over what they
had written.
Each of them could recall with degree
of horror the manipulations of the blue
pencil on some favorite article, in which
the writer had thrown his whole soul and
mind and attention. Then they remem-
bered that after several years OF hard
work the strokes of the blue pencil be-
came fewer on the manuscript, and in the
course of time the copy went into type
II was written.
TN tell you, boys said one of them,
there's nothing sweeter, If l may use the
word, than being the local man on daily
paper in city of from 1000 to $4,000 peo-
pie. Everybody knows you, and you know
everybody, and you amount to something
all the news and all their secrets, and you
are the custodian of many important mat
tiers. You amount to something. It's not
like in big city on big daily, where
your identity is lost, and you are nothing
more than one of the ordinary herd OF
human cattle. AS local reporter on
small daily, everybody knows what you
write, and they get accustomed to your
style.
while this is pleasant at times, it occa-
sionally results seriously. or course, you
have got to write up all the scraps, as
we'll as the social, financial. agricultural
and other matters of the day. You must
try to puff everybody. and never say any
thing mean of person, unless it is the re-
porter or editor of the rival paper. Wen,
as l was saying, it Is this business or
scraps that once in a while gets you IN
trouble Col. Sellers and Maj. Smith will
meet on the street, have few words and
go to fighting or shooting, the latter more
often the case in southern cities. 1t Is
in writing up these affairs that you must
be very careful.
If Major Smith RECEIVERS from the diff
Guilty and doesn't like the style in which you
reported the affray he is almost sure TO try
to get satisfaction out of you. OF course
if you can't satisfy the major by apology
or otherwise you will have to fight. II you
are whipped you lose your grip on the re-
spect and esteem of your constituents, and
might as well emigrate to another coun-
try"
.Oh, don't bother about all that. We
know good deal OF that ourselves II
some of US didn't work in a small city.
Tell some of the incidents and fun OF
the work.
There's not much fun in some of it.
Did any of you fellows ever attend lynch
ing to write it up?' Most of them shook
their heads. We'll. I've seen good many,
but I'll tell you one where | had a close
call myself. 1t was in southern state. A
white girl had been assaulted Somebody
must be lynched for it. Three or four days
afterward a negro who had been in the
neighborhood of the crime came struggling
into the capital of the state saying he
wanted to surrender. as he understood he
was being hunted He declared that he
was innocent. The governor of the state
kept him in the penitentiary until the au-
thoritieS of the county i'll which the crime
occurred sent a regular warrant for him.
The negro was to go back to the scene Of
his crime
The three daily papers of the town
knew that lynching was almost sure, and
each sent its best reporter to take in the
proceedings. The reporters accompanied
the prisoner and officers to the town where
the crime had been committed. 1t was
long journey by train. and they interviewed
the poor fellow often, gave him tobacco
and whatever he called for. On reaching
the town We found that mock court had
been organized to try the negro, whose
name was Ike Peterson. The trial took
place. There were some suspicious cir
cumstances, and the crowd wal ted to lynch
Peterson at once. Cooler heads advised
that the poor devil be taken before the
victim of the assault for Identification.
This was done. the negro. newspaper
men and the excited crowd walking and
riding two miles to the home of the girl.
She positively stated that the negro was not
the right man. Peterson was returned to
the town and put in lookup. a few hours
later it was rumored that the girl had
changed her mind, and we knew it was all
up with Peterson. Some of us didn't like
to see l man butchered in that way. and l
said so to a small party of excited men.
They got mad at me, and one of them
said, wen fix you first They started to
seize me- I became somewhat frightened.
but, before the matter had gone any fur
Their. the Senator representing the county
walked up and said, That mans all right:
don't one of you touch him. After that l
kept my mouth shut. Just at dusk the
bowling mob broke in the small lookup,
seized the covering prisoner and marched
him down railroad track to within few
yards of where the crime was committed.
There was some delay about getting d
sapling bent down and rope adjusted. 4
passenger train was due along the road in a
few minutes on its way to city from
which one of the reporters came. He want
ed to get to town to write long report Of
the lynchinS instead of having to tele-
graph it, He hurried the crowd up. Find
ing that they didn't know how to fix d
moose. and time being lost, he made
the moose himself, adjusted it over Peter
sons head and gave the order to let the
sapinG swing upward.
The order was obeyed and the writhins
body of the negro shot into space. 1t was a
weird scene. new moon gave just enough
light to see the body. Then there was a
fusillade of pistol shots, the body was rid
died with bullets. Before the man was dead
the passenger train rolled in and was stop
ped by the crowd. The reporter got aboard,
wrote good story for his paper next morn
ing, but didn't mention his own part in it.
was standing right under the sapliny
lnnSpna1 no hrin ,o
gan had to lie down to get out of the way
Of flying bullets"