Daily Kennebec journal., 1898-03-01
he SPOILED HIS STORY.
Zeal Tor Truth WaslThis Chicago Reporters
Ruin.

Newspaper reporters are sometimey
.Wn .nIoWn against strange experiences Il
se.iihg the news that other folk con
iortabiy read next morning But beIeg
ing himself in a fair way to obtain Il nar
ratlve which no other news writer IL
aware or, the reporter is willing to 20
fSleeplesS and foodless and to undergo an
kinds of peril in order that by all means
he may get his piece of exclusive news
Such man was Ezra Hemmine, wlf
worked ON Western paper-one of tn
kind which would now be denominated aa
| yellow and frequently thrilled hE
town with startling stories of fact. Hem.
ming had reputation for alertness
which was second to none. and as he had
| large circle of friends who made it
| their business to inform him upon pri-
| vately known affairs he was seldom at
| the short end of an exclusive story.
| One day John Boyd, who was the sheriff
| of the county, captured a horse thief who
was badly wanted by community in
the interior of the state. The deputy
from the county the officials of which
were after the thief came down to the
metropolis. and in his conversation with
Boyd ntmated that there would be a
lynching when he got home with his
prisoner. Boyd told Hemming of the
threatening aspect of things. and the re-
porter had a long talk with the deputy
To his dismay he learned that the pris-
oner would not reach the rural commu-
nifty which wanted to do business with
him until 2i5 in the morning, an hour
story. Hemming was a man of resources.
though, and as there seemed to be little
question. of the details of the coming
event he went TO the office and wrote a
three-column account of the lynchng
mentioning the names of prominent cit-
zens present and adding tlourishes and
ornamentation. TO stretch out to impos-
ing length he caused one man. whom he
was prudent enough to designate as "un-
known. to mount box and make an ap-
peal in behalf of the culprit.
despite the prayer of Higginson's ten
der-hcarted advocate. however, Hem
ming wrote. the farmers who had suf-
fered from his depredations insisted on
wreakinS vengeance. And he went on
IN that strain for several pages, making
the intercession a strong point.
He explained to Crawford the city ed
itor. that there was no doubt of the thing
coming out Just as he had written IT, hut
70 be sure he would wire a Yes or
NO from the station when his train
reached the town. for he planned to ac-
company the deputy.
AT o'clock in the morning Crawford
received this jubiant bulletin:
Big thing. Five hundred people Mile
or more of rope. Now headed for tall
sycamore tree
And lust as the foreman was sending to
the preSsroom the page with Hemming's
glorious exclusive story, came this an
npuncemcnt:
ITS an off. They're not going to do it.''
ltenning came back looking like
rladman. For two days he rOved around
stopping AT odd times to butt his heaG
against something hard. At last h. was
Induced by Crawford to explain.
when "" got there" he said. 1t was
a sure thing. They had il all ready and
took lIiGginSQn away from the deputy
with q yell Then | sent my first bullc-
tin. They rushed him to the sycamore
ana were lust about to swing him un
when u occurred to me that it would
spoil the story if somebody didn't rise
up ana make an appeal for mercy for the