Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1900-07-07
NEWSPAPER SCOOPS.
TIE BANE AND THE NIGHTMARE OF
A JOURNALISTS LIFE.

What a "Beat" Means to the Man
With a "NOse For News'-The Pc
culiarities of Securing Inside News
by Washington Correspondents.
They were all newspaper men, and
they were all so united on the PROPOSE
ton under consideration that they did
not interrupt the man who was doing
the talking.
Scoops" said the sharp nosed re-
porter to the others, care the bane and
the nightmare Of a newspaper mans
life, from the proprietor and managing
editor down to the Maltese Office cat
Many man occupies a desk today
because of a good beat and many an
other man is engaged in a more humble
occupation because he failed to see
one. Scoops constitute the seesaw of
journalistic life.
"a newspaper man is as touchy on
this subject as woman on her back
hair; justly so, because a standard is
formed by which his journalistic tai
ents are largely rated and his salary
in accordance If the city editor asks
him too often why he didn't get it, he
finally gets it. where the fowl gets the
ak, and a new man appears on his for
mer assignment.
Editors, however, are usually con-
siderate with good man, for the lat
ter will scoop his rival as often as he
himself is, scooped perhaps oftener-
and it thus evens itself up. Sometimes,
however, the wielder Of the blue pen
ell has an attack Of acute Indigestion,
like the rest of us, and things are apt
to be unpleasant.
ga good, big beat fills the entire Of
fee with hilarious joy, and particular
ly the lucky reporter rejoices. 1t Oft
times means an increase in salary The
Office of the chief rival contemporary is
thrown into corresponding gloom.
'"The city editor is the adjutant gen
eral of the force. Usually he is as
considerate as bis duty to the proprie-
tor permits. Nearly all are graduates
from the ranks. Where the magazine
story writer finds the city
editor he usually portrays has always
been deep, dull mystery to me. He
may treat outsiders Ito be kind to the
story writer) as their stories
sometimes relate, but to his force he
does not carry a drawn sword in his
eft hand and pen dipped in redhot |
caustic in his right. He knows that |
IF the men under him many are his
peers, capable ofNtaking his desk at a
moments notice and running it as well
Is he.
'"The now you have it and now you
haven't it in our profession is we'll il
ustrated by little occurrence that
happened in Washington a few years
lgo, and it proves the element Of luck
n the matter of securing news.
ut was undecided whether congress
would pass as read certain very i'm
)ortant national measure. The New
York papers were especially anxious
bout it. The drift of opinion among
he correspondents was that it would
lot so pass. On Monday night, say,
he correspondent of one of the metro
olitan morning dailies wired his paper
hat it positively would not go through
his paper had been talking that end
f the bill all along.
s'The correspondent Of a rival morn,
lg paper had drawn the same conclu-
ions from his days Investigations at
he capitol. He was on his way down
be west marble steps when he met a
lember to whose opinion on the prob
BILE fate of the bill he attached great
veight. The member declared that the
ill would positively be passed, IN
mended and unchanged, at the open
lg of the session the following day.
'"The correspondent cast his own con
AIRY opinions and those Of the mem
ers he had interviewed to the winds.
-e wired that night that the bill would
ertainly pass the following day. 1t
id. Its passage was surprise to the
ountry.
Before night the. 9th