The evening times., 1898-06-11
A Gigantic Journalistic Joke.

1t sometimes seems as il Mr.. Pulitzer.
of the New York World. proceeded on
the assumption that Mr.. Hearst. Of
the New York Journal, occasionally
took maps In this he is totally mis-
taken.
At least three times in its history
the Journal has caused the proprietor
and staff OF the World to feel very
much surprised and very sick. The
first time was on the occasion of the
rescue of Miss Cisneros. now Mrs.
CarbOnnel, from a Cuban prison. The
second was about midnight on the
when Pulitzer's intended celebration
was drowned out with searchlights,
which caused the whole World Build
ing quite involuntarily to serve as a
Journal bulletin-board. And the third
crushing blow came last Thursday
For some time the World has been
getting all the news it could from Cuba
by means of its dispatch boat. and the
cablegrams from that boat have occa-
sionally contained news which bore the
earmarks of the Journal, and had ap-
peared the day before in that paper.
This is annoying. for if there is any
thing that newspaper man does he
sacred it is his exclusive war news
Steal his clean shirts. or his evening
clothes. or his handkerch:efs and tooth
brush. if you like. but if you do not let
his news alone he will call you a thief
or nf har paY in Nau- VnrL
were also bothered by the Worlds
new methods, notably the Herald,
which almost lost its temper over
some especially daring peculations.
Finally the Journal laid a trap for its
contemporary, and, with a wicked grin.
porary walked into it like lamb. A
bogus dispatch appeared in the journal
on Wednesday. June 8, to the effect
that Col. Refiipe w. Thenuz, an Aus
trian artillerist of European renown,
had been killed while gallantly defend
two details of innocent and picturesque
appearance. That was the bait, and
the World bit promptly. Without stop
ping to reflect on the circumstance
that an Austrian officer seemed to have
Spanish front name, it reprinted the
item. with trimmings. in it's column
of special news. supposed to have been
written by it's devoted correspondent
under fire on the Three Friends. Then
the trap was sprung. Thursday morn
ing all New York chuckled over the
Journals explanation that. when you
spell Col. Refipe w. Thenuz's first
names backward, and pronounce his
last name, phonetically, you have the
information. I'VE pilfer the news" In
the language of Dickens, There amt
no sich a person.
Uncle Remus once told a story Of
fox who was entrapped by a bait Of
live chicken. and, when caught, tried to
explain that he had heard a poor little
chicken in trouble and wanted to save
1t. Said the owner of the trap: ''Fn
be boun' ef you heah dat chicken
squawk now he'd skeer you-he SO
close ter you" The stolen chitNen il
the case Of the World seems to have
squawked, and it is hard to see what
that enterprising but unfortunate pa
per is going to do about 1t. 1t will
be rather hard to have to employ
set of puzzle editors to search all the
news from Cuba for evidences Of re-
buses, or acrostics. or other traps, and
1t will be a good deal harder to explain
how the correspondent on the Worlds
special dispatch boat came to know
about the gallant career and personal
characteristics of that April 1st hero,
Col. Reflipe w. Thenux.
There Is 2 moral in this joke. and
the subscribers of the World will prob
ably see 1t. and cease, to subscribe
There is another moral in it. which it Is
to be hoped some other papers will
detect before It Is too late. The World |
It not the only paper which 10 enter
prising enough to borrow news with