The Florence tribune., 1898-12-17
PIGEONS CARRY COPY
How the Birds Are Employed in
 Newspaper Work.
The swift-Winged Messengers Per- form Good Service in the British PrOvinces-A Unique Com
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In the economy of an evening news paper, in the British provinces at all events, the carrier pigeon plays an i'm portant role as messenger.
 For newspaper purposes there is not much advantage in flying birds from great distances. The Edinburgh Even ing Dispatch has some notable birds. Except on rare occasions, these are never flown further than 20 or 25 miles. Their work, as rule, lies nearer home in carrying to the office in Cockburn street reporters copy from the many cricket, golf, football and sporting fields that encircle the city, and which, with one or two exceptions, are not in connection with either the telegraph or telephone systems. Every Satur- day, which is the great day for sports in the Edinburgh district, as many as 90 or 40 birds are requisitioned as mes sengers. On the morning of the days when they are to be worked the pig cons are sparingly fed. Like school boys liberated from school, pigeons, if they are hungry, will likely hurry home, and when they do arrive there is always a good feed of peas or maize awaiting them.
 The reporter writes his copy on what is known as "himsy"-a light oiled paper, and uses carbonized paper to obtain duplicate. The "fiimsy" is attached to the leg or legs of the pig con by means of elastic bands; and at football and cricket matches the toss ing of the birds from time to time is always watched by the crowd with great interest. The arrangement at the newspaper office for trapping the birds and taking the copy from them is rather ingenious. In the Dispatch office, for example, there is a clear fly in for the pigeons, through the GUS tomary arched opening, into a small, well-lighted compartment of their loft. The floor of this small chamber is a movable plate, nicely adjusted SO that the moment the pigeon alights upon it two things occur. The weight of the bird hberates catch and wire portcullis noiselessy falls and closes the entrance. At the same time, an rings in the subeditor's room 10 give notice of the arrival of the bird. The pigeon is thus its own jailor and her ald. On hearing the bell. boy iu at tendance runs to the loft trap, takes the copy from the bird, and, through an inner door, allows it to enter the loft proper, where it is at liberty to regale itself after its labors. Birds do not always come straight home, and even when they do so, they do not al- ways hurry into the trap. If the day is fine they will sit upon the roof in the sunshine and dress their plumage, and occasionally they will amuse them selves by picking the "fimsy" from their legs, that being done when it has been carelessly put on. In these cir cumstances, when the subeditor is waiting a racing or football result, his remarks on carrier pigeons and their playful ways are apt not to be of com plimentary character. It is then that the duplicate comes in handy, for, aft CT the pigeon has been dispatched, the reporter endeavors to send the copy of the message that it carries to the nearest railway, car or telegraph sta tion by hand messenger. In Edin- burgh, good newspaper work has been done by using carriers in connection with events occurring on the Firth of Forth It is obviously of great i'm portance for an evening newspaper to receive messages from reporter who may be several miles from land. When the czar recently came to Leith, re porter went down the, Firth to meet him, and sent intimation of the ap- proach of the imperial yacht by car rier pigeon.-London Sketch.