The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-01-19
Europe's Great Reporter.

Europe 0fSdl hOpOil0is
The newspaper reader who follows the
news OF Europe will frequently see
telegram commencing: Reuter- says
or "a telegram TO Reuter- contains the
following and the reader is led 10 won
der who is Reuter-? Baron de Reuter-
is at the head of the greatest European
news-gathering and news-dispensing Or
ganization. He has agents and cores
pondents all over the world, and at eve
ry war cloud Reuters man Is the f1rst
on the scene. The Baron is now eighty
years of age and has really retired from
active service, but the forces which he
set in motion are yet growing day oy
day.
julius Reuter- is a German, and was
born at Cassel in 1916. AT Is he entered
his uncle's bank as clerk, ana stayed
there several years. He became acquainl-
&c with the famous Professor Gauss, ana
rendered him some small service inns
led the professor to take an interest In
him, and to invite him TO see his expe-
riments in biography. In this way young
Reuter- became familiar with its progress
and possibilities. The first telegraph on
the Continent was that between Berlin
and Aix-la-Chapelle. opened In 1919. Inc
practical success of this line convinced
ence had arisen. and he determined to
avail himself of its facilities for the pub
hc-and his oWn-advantage. He there
fore opened an Office in AiX-la-ChapelIe'
but he had to supplement the wires with
contrivances of his own TO join together
those places between which there were
no wires; otherwise the area or his held
would have been very limited. Between
AK a-Chapelle and the German frontier,
for instance, there was no telegraph. Inc
correspondence therefore. had TO be work
ed up in the train in readiness Tor the
wire when it was reached.
To communicate with Brussels from
Aix.la-Chapelle, Mr.. Reuter- employed
carrier-pigeons, and by this means antic-
ipated the mail train by some six or eight
hours To ensure regularity and swift
| ness in transmission each message was
dispatched hy three different pigeons.
which made the passage between the two
cities in about an hour.
Bit by bit the telegraph system grew,
| It'll there was 4 wire between Paris and
Berlin, except for short Instance OF five
miles. But that was fatal break, and,
to avoid DELAY in getting his messages
| through Mr.. Reuter- had relays of horses
| ready to carry the messages between
| these two points. When the Calais-DoVer
| cable was laid in 1851, Mr.. Reuter- re-
moved his Office to London. Before then
he had become a naturalized British SUD-
| ject.
On October IA, 1851, Mr.. Reuter- opened
| an office at No. l Royal Exchange. AT
| first his business consisted of circulating
commercial news to and from abroad
His principal clients were Greeks, be-
| cause he could supply them with informa-
| ton about the wheat ships from the Da-
| nube III those days it required some spe-
| cial knowledge to get messages quickly
to and from Eastern Europe, for there
was no through line. But Mr.. Reuter-
| had agents at various points, and this
gave him great facilities for obtaining and
dispatching news.
At that time the powerful London
morning papers furnished the public with
very scanty and incomplete foreign in
| tcliigence, which was reproduced by the
| provincial Papers. What foreign news
| they did get was obtained at considera-
| BILE cost. The Times possessed a fast
| steamer, which conveyed news to Eng
| land from Calais the moment it arrived
| from Paris. Mr.. Reuter- thought out a
| plan for supplying more frequent foreign
| news and TO reduce the cost of 1t. First
| he went to the Times; but they declared
| that he could not do it better than they
did it. But Mr.. Reuter- was of another
| opinion
! Oae morning in October. 1858. he walk
| ed into the office of the Morning Adver-
| tiser, then edited by Mr.. James Grant.
"My name is Reuter-" he said. Il am
| a Prussian, and have been employed for
| many years as a courier to several of the
| Courts of Europe from the government
of Berlin. and in that capacity have form
| tIav,,
connected with cost of the European gov
| ernments. 1t has occurred to me that
might be able to supply by telegraph the
daily press Of London with earlier and
| more accurate intelligence of Importance
and at the sine time at a cheaper rate
| than the morning journals are now pay
ing for their Geographic communications
from the Continent.
| Mr.. Grants paper was then paying
about $500 a month for foreign kilograms.
| but Mr.. Reuter- offered to send better and
| fuller kilograms for less month And
| to show what he could do, he offered to
send them, for fortnight free on trial.
| Six other papers accepted this offer, and
| the result was so satisfactory that all the
great London dailes-the Times excepted
became clients of Reuter-. And even the
| Times was soon after compelled to use
| tie kilograms.
That visit to Mir. Grant was critical
one, for Baron de Reuter- confessed that
| if he kad not accepted the offer he made
he would have abandoned the idea.
| Without the Times or the Advertiser
there would not have been enough papers
to make the scheme pay. But from this
time Mr.. Reuters fortune was made. He
soou monopolized the world for news our
poses.