Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1900-11-13
THE STD IN OF a BEAT.
HOW a NEW YORK NEWSPAPER Sc
CURED a BIG SCOOP. @2

Five HuAdred Dollars was Paid For
Corr, Of the Testimony In the
Credit Mobilicrf Inve IA xation - A
suicide's story Or HIS Act. h ~. VI N.
Back In the seventies the, newspaper
boys called them beats, !" hut nowadays
they are known as Scoops A SCOOP
~ 2 story Of some Importance published
4 exclusively In one newspaper good
piece OF news that no other paper has
]. managed to get hold Of. The reporter
Who turns in many scoops during the
year Is looked favorably on by his city
4. and managing editors and, II he writes
fairly good English, has splendid
chance for promotion, for the newsgath-
7 erer who gets the scoops Is q man who
has an eyesf for news, and it Is that kind
Of q man who eventually sits in the man
aging editors chair and looks after the
destiny Of the paper. {@st .slt, lf%@.# 81
IA In the good old days before the Asso-
ciated Press service, when every paper
had Its own correspondents throughout
the world, scoops Of an International
y character We're more numerous than they
are at present. Now, with news agency
In the world, 1t is difficult for paper to
obtain u really big exclusive piece, of
news. ,,gs& 6x.'s:- '.-a.s, ~: 3. %EE-5
One Of the most famous beats Of the
old time days was the exclusive publica-
ton by the New York Tribune of the full
report of the Credit Mobilier committee,
with all the testimony verbatim.
Although reporters had been admitted
to the sessions Of the committee and the
papers had published summaries Of the
proceedings and testimony from day to
day during the long and painful investi-
CATION. the testimony in full had never.
been printed. People evinced great in
terest to read the entire testimony. They
wanted to be able. to judge for them
selves how far the prominent statesmen
involved were actually inculpated. Great
public curiosity was also shown regard
Ing the report of the committee.
When the chairman, Judge Poland Of
Vermont, very dignifed, white haired
old gentleman, who always wore a blue
swallowtail coat with brass buttons, pre-
sented the report to the house. all of the
boys in the press gallery made an imme-
date rush to the clerks Office to get hold
Of the document and send as much Of it
as possible over the wires that evening.
- The Washington correspondents of The
Tribune were then 2. L. White, Homer
G. Ramsdell and e. V. Smalley.
Mr.. Smalley had been assigned to fol-
low the daily work Of the Credit Mobolier
committee and had received orders to get
that report. cost what it may. How well
the correspondent followed out his orders
was shown by the fact that within ten
minutes after the report had been de-
posted with the clerk Mr.. Smalley had a
copy of it under his arm and was rush
ing down Pennsylvania avenue to the tel
egraph station on the corner OF Four
teenth street. There Mr. White was
holding three New York wires by sending
lot of stuff, most of which was never
intended for publication. The miscella-
neous stuff, however, served as an effec-
tual means Of preventing any of The
Tribune's rivals capturing the wires be-
forehand. .. r
y Next morning The Tribune came out
with five pages of agate type: comprising
the full report of the committee. It was
at that time the longest special ever sent
to any newspaper. and has seldom been
Axsaled since. -"
The fTribune's contemporaries were
naturally disgruntled at the beat and at
once queried their Washington repre-
sentatives for an explanation. They were
never able to fathom the mystery, and
this is probably the first time the riddle
has been solved.
Mr.. Smalley/had arranged with the Of.
fetal reporter of the house for complete
copy of the investigation. The copy was /
made secretly from the official reporters
notes, copied as the investigation pro-
crossed and handed to, The Tribune man
when Judge Poland made his report to
the house. The price paid for the copy
was $500. t "'s
The other correspondents were only
able to get ina very meager synopsis j:
that night, as The Tribunes report clog !;
ged the wires.
A most sensational scoop appeared in a,
Pacific coast daily some years ago. It I:
was the suicide Of a reporter on the pa |
per and was written by himself! He /
had been complaining of i'll health for
some time and one Sunday asked for a !
day off, which was given him.
Next morning, little after 2 o'clock, a |
messenger boy handed the city editor a !
large, thick envelope. When opened, II I
was found to contain a graphic descrip- !:
ton of the reporters suicide, even de- |
scribing the position he lay in when |
discovered by the horror stricken news
paper men," 49,
r Accompanying the story was a short
note which read: n, .t'.' r :
'This is scoop. You will find all de-
tails correct. Don't report to police until |
too late for the other papers to. get It.
So long. Yours. :%s ~'.' -.
Up. S.-Pretty good story, isn't it,"
Two reporters were Immediately dis
patched to the young mans room and
after breaking in the door found him ly-.
ing on the floor with q bullet in his heart
The paper was phoned the result Of the
and next morning came out
with "double decker" on the front page.
1t was scoop, too, the police being no.
titled five minutes after the paper had
gone to press.-Washingto Post. =
Marble Heart. ''.'7
Madam" said the tramp to the farm
er's wife, "have you any objection to my
lying down in one Of your fence corners
and dying?" &c. Il
"No objection at ALL" replied the lady.
"Over in that corner you will End q, lot
Of straw" .s5,. ".E.. ,.t&.$ssss4
II wouldn't dare to lie on your straw,
said the tramp. 'tI'm SO hun
rry that I'd be sure to wake up and find