The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-04-19
WAR CORRESPONDENTS
Newspapers Besieged by Men WhS
Want to Go to the Front.

(From the New York Press)
Fourteen thousand persons, it is said.
make living in this city by literary eff
fort Nine hundred of these are active
Iy employed on newspapers. and every
blessed one of them wants TO go to the
front as war correspondent. Even the
girl reporter has volunteered. Nelly BLY,
got married little too soon and is
missing the chance of her life. I am not
sure whether it was Nelly or the Swan
who sat in the whales belly to vindieate
Jonah, but I am sure that either could
have dived under the Maine and brought
up as much of the keel as was needed 10
convict the Spaniards.
What a strange craze this war CORE
spOndent business is I have had twenty
one men, by actual count, 20 beg me 10
present their names TO my editor as vol
unteers. and not one of them ever wrote
a line for a newspaper. They are men
of means. and all they care 10 go for is
glory. They viii pay their own expenses.
/ think some of them would give SO, 900
for the privilege of representing the
press, as it would enable them 10 get
well up with the first gun and see the
racket at a safe, close range. But edi-
is crazy TO go. and so is his youngest Of
flee boy. but somebody must remain here
10 run the office. Already we have the
cook and the king in the field, and the
rest of US are drawing straws-
There are enough war correspondents
now actively engaged in the manufacture
of belligerent news to whip the whole of
Spain, and I regard il as the duty of
the Government TO give them the best
ship in the navy and let them go out To
fight the armada If this is not done we
shall have a marine view of a feet OF
tugs laden with correspondents interfer-
ing with the maneuverS of any Spanish
warship that dares threaten II "OId
Sagacity'' only knew this he would think
three times before turning loose his flock
of sDarrOws. 1t is bad enough TO fight
the United States navy, and when 1t
comes down to the war correspondent
Lordyi
Gen. Tecumseh Sherman had fun with
the rebs down in Georgia and elsewhere,
but he had to fight WhiteIaw Reid. war
correspondent, for twenty years after. He
said that Reid was the biggest liar he
ever knew. and Reid said the same Of
him. Sherman died under flag of truce
Gen Hancock fought Charles A. Dana
until he died. And il was pretty much
the same with all the war correspond
ents. not because they lied, but because
no two men can possibly see things in
the same light. When Spain goes against
our brigade of war correspondents let her
pray
War has made the fortune of many
newspaper man. Perhaps the ablest OF
recent correspondents is Archibald
Forbes. who did the FraneO-PrusSian
war for the London Daily News. Junu-
arius AlOysius McGahan. an OhiOau, serv-
ed the Herald In the same war, but af-
terward worked for the News. doing eX-
cellent service George Augustus Henry
Sala was correspondent of the London
Telegraph in our civil war, which gave
him fame the world over. Frederick
Palmer wrote some readable articles from
Turkey and Greece but that war didn't
amount to a row of pins. The fakirs who
described Port Arthur in the ChinO-Ja-
panese war are still taking Cuba has
been alive with fakirs- Key West haS
them now