The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-06-24
OUTWITTED A PREMIER.
How Sir John Mcdonald Was Scoop
ed" By an American Reporter.
Chicago Inter ocean,
when a live newsDaDer reDortsr start

(ChicagO Inter ocean,
When a live newspaper reporter starts
out to get a story, he's pretty sure to
succeed, no matter what the obstacles he
official of the Dominion of Canada. who is
located in Chicago After a moments
pause ne continued:
And when it comes to downright hustle
and fertility of resource, the American
reporter takes the whole bakery"
We'll, spin your yarn, said one OF his
listeners. You seem to have expert in
formation on the subject"
Along about 1884,, said the Canadian,
4 was stationed in Ottawa. Among the
newspaper men there was a young man
from Boston. who represented several of
the great American daiiieS, among others,
the Chicago Inter Ocean. The Dominion
government was then conservative and
one day this young man got a tip that it
was about to introduce a bill in parlia-
ment raising the tariff on American goods,
He wired his papers the facts as he IN
derstOod them, and received orders from
all to get the bill at any cost and wire it
in .. full -.
and was driven from one minister to an
other. CaTOn absolutely knew nothing of
it; Pope ridiculed the idea; Chapieau pro-
fessed the deepest ignorance. Finally,
after having gone through the entire list,
Senator Abbott of Montreal, president of
the senate, suggested to the young man
he consult with Sir John Macdonald.
But he's the hardest man in the house
to get anything FROM answered the
scribe
Your last and one resort, said the
senator.
The reporter finally called on Sir John
and stated his mission Sir John laughed
and said;
g If it were so l would be bound not to
know it, sir-not to know anything of it.,
ana, In fact, 1 don't. Ii you ind out any
thing about it, that is reliable, just let me
know-you know / like to keep posted on
such important matters He smiled as he
said, Come again any time. Good night.
THE reporter left Sir John uncertain
what to do. He finally thought of an un-
der secretary in the department of state,
who was likely to be pTivy to the matter.
This secretary had an inOrdindte fOndnesS
for whisky and poker, and could always
be found in 4 certain Ottawa resort. The
reporter hunted him up, and began TO
order the drinks. In two hours he had the
secretary in such a condition that the lat
ter boastingly told all he knew, and said
| he had copy of the bill in his room at
| the hotel. In another hour the secretary
was asleep in the cardroom, and the re-
| porter, taking his keys from his pocket,
/ went to the hotel and secured the bill. In
another hour the papers he represented IN
America were putting it in type.
| Next day there was a terrible row in
| Ottawa. The wires between every i'm
portant city in the United States and OF
/ tawa were busy. The reporters for those
! papers who had been scOoped wired their
/ Journals Ihdt the StOIy was d 1dhS. Oh
! John sent for his visitor of the preceding
evening. When the interview was over
| the correspondent sent to his paper the
! following:
4" Report published this morning by you
was correct in being copy of proposed
| change in tariff by government. 1t Il
not. however. the bill which will be intro
duced JOHN A. MACDONALD.
There had been a lively time between
| the premier and the newspaper man, but
| Sir John did not find out that any OF hel
| majestys servants were to blame From
that day on the reporter was nearer to Sil
John than any other newspaper man II
! Ottawa.