The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-07-05
OUR NEW YORK LETTER
SOME INSTANCES OF CORRESPOND.
ENTS WITH PLENTY OF NERVE.
The Achievements of Messrs. Browne and
Richardson In the Civil Wharf.-The Gener-
al Commanding Versus the Correspond

has not been all pleasure for our war cor
respondents since serious fighting began |
In Cuba, as all the world knows. The |
bullet, imprisonment and wasting illness !
have been melted out to some of them as |
well as to many of the fighting men. In |
fact, the lot of those who report real bat |
ties is never enviable. In the very nature |
of things correspondents are sure to share |
the risks of those who pull the trigger and !
flourish the sword.
1t is true that there is difference. The !
soldier Is expected on occasion to get in
, the way of bullets and shells and whatever
other destructive missiles may be flying
through the air. That is part of his busl-
ness, and the soldier who takes undue care
of his own safety is despised by his COM
rades and all the world besides. On the
other hand, while the war correspondent
is constantly taking certain unusual risks,
by reason of his calling, he is neither re-
CURED to expose himself on the field nor
could he be coerced into doing SO. His
mission is TO get the news of the fighting,
and he is quite justiflable in smelling as
little powder as possible in the operation.
The Nerve of War Correspondents.
Yet In actual practice war correspond
ents have been making excellent records
for themselves as men of nerve and daring
: ever since the profession of war CORE
spondence was invented The cowardly
correspondent has been almost an un-
known quantity. The correspondent who
has been ready and eager to assume I'M
known risks that he mil ht the better serve
his paper has been in evidence in every
war.
~. ~. Iii Il al
ventures ever undergone by war reporters
fell to the lot of two New York Tribune
men, Junius Henri Browne and the late
Albert ID. Richardson father of Leander
Richardson, in the civil war. They both
Joined sort of forlorn hope expedition
whose members foated down stream at
night past number of Confederate forts,
hoping thus to open communication be-
tween Federal forces located both above
and below the forts. 1t was well under
stood that the expedition was most dam
gerous one that it might fail altogether
and that some loss of life was almost GER
tain. AS matter of course the war de-
partment desired to keep this loss as low
as possible and naturally objected seri-
ously to any save soldiers going along.
That there should be more than one CORE
spondent was most strenuously objected
to. But both were bound to 60 and go
they did AS result while neither was
killed, both were captured and both put
in long and disagreeablc service as prison
ers of war, both finally escaping together,
each with enough strength left to write q
book about his adventures. Richardson s
was entitled "The Field, the Dungeon
and the Escape" 1t had big sale, much
bigger than Brownies less happily named
mi. do hnn oh
Brownies was probably the better written
of the two productions.
Forbes, McGahan and Others.
The annals of war correspondents are
filed with instances of personal nerve and
bravery. 1t was Archibald Forbes, one of
the most famous correspondents living,
no more doing war work, by the way, and
long since made doctor by some univer-
sity in recognition of his splendid work,
who saved the life of soldier shot through
the thigh and rapidly bleeding to death by
holding the severed artery till help arrived
in sublime defiance of the storm of bullets
that were flying around him.
The brave acts of j. A. McGahan, the
Ohio boy who served the New York Herald
and London News in the Franco-Prussian
| war and afterward did good work farther
} east, were too numerous to more than
barely suggest Mr.. Knight of the Lon
? don Times, tho same who recently went
l to Cuba in a small boat landing in the
l surf to the boundless astonishment OF the
) Spaniards, distinguished himself on one
occasion in the Greco-Turkish war by
/ writing the whole of long dispatch un
. der fire of the Turks and behaving so cool
ly the while that the Greek officers ane
men seized the opportunity afforded b.
3 the first lull in the fight to cheer tumul
: tously. l might fill columns with such In
D cidents.
D Generals and Correspondents.
= General Tecumseh Sherman was tremen
= dously bitter about the correspondence
Q sent from the front in the civil war b.
Y Whitelaw Reid, which started him on hi
a long successful journalistic career Tn
0 antpathy felt for gentlemen of the pen
Q by Lord Wolseley is we'll known by mos
Q members of the fighting and writing pro
t fessions. The passage in the general
e "pocketbook" referring to war CORE
8 spondents has often been quoted, but a
8 it is short quote it again, from memory
f as being pertinent just here:
q "Traveling gentlemen, newspaper cor
r respondents and all that clan of drones ar
8 an incumbrance to an army. They ca
h the rations of fighting men and do n
: work whatever"
1t must not be understood, however
a that commanding officers generally tax
a delight in making life unpleasant for tn
: correspondents. Quite the contrary, as
rule, the exceptions coming when there
= important news afloat the immediate put
:, LEGATION of which in the opinion OF tn
:. officer could do the government harm.
= is at such times that the government
- right of censorship comes in.
- But censorship in general Is not ike
:, by Anglo-S axons, and that Is why the III
y doubted right of the government to appi
le It In time of crisis Is rarely taken adyar
=, tage of either in the United States or Ems
Is land. The suppression of newspaper &c
lie the publication of matter thought damat
le ing to the government has not been con
II passed in the United States for nearly
Re wears, the last instance occurring In tn
IL civil war. Yet, II my information be col
"a rect one of the best known dailies OF TN
g. | - -.1v rarroxylv ascapa6 SupprpsSiO