Evening star., 1901-12-21
HE "scooPED" HIS RIVAL

I've had some odd experiences In the
way of catching notables on the fly for in
terviews in the middle Of the Rocky noun
tains,' said well-known Washington cor.
respondent for string OF Wyoming, Colo
rado and Utah newspapers. zone of them
was when President Dole Of the Hawaiian
Islands came to this country several years
ago. 1. was then attached to Cheyenne
newspaper and was the Rocky mountain
correspondent of number Of Chicago and
New York dailies. When President Dole
debarked from the Honolulu steamer in
San Francisco he declined, for some reason
or other, to be interviewed by the repre-
sentatives Of the San Francisco newspa-
pers, and at the time Of his arrival there
were number of Hawaiian matters Of
considerable interest to this country, par
ticularly the perky attitude Japan was then
taking with reference to the treatment Of
the Japanese employed on the islands.
Shortly after the President of Hawaii left
San Francisco for Washington I received
a dispatch in Cheyenne from Chicago
newspaper whose Rocky mountain work 1
covered directing me to corral Mr.. Dole on
his train and endeavor to get an interview
from him. l hoped the first westbound
train for Ogden. Utah, and just got there in
time to get aboard the train that was car
rying Mr.. Dole east. This was at o'clock
on a Friday afternoon. l found Mr.. Dole in
pretty easy, cOmplaisant frame of mind
just after his dining car dinner, and he
gave me about as fine a presentation of the
whole situation down on the islands as
newspaper man could wish or hope for.
After he'd talked for an hour OF so hlls-
tied into the smoker and wrote the inter-
view, making about 5000 words Of it.
When the train reached Green river l
Jumped off and filed the copy with the
telegrapher, and he hustled the stuff into
the office of the Chicago paper. Then
went into the buffet car of the train to get
a bite to eat.
the time was a good-looking, rather chesty
young fellow who engaged me in CONVEX
satlon with reference to the measliness of
the eating-car service on western railroads
bright fellow, all right. and rather enter
tanning to listen to, but he had no sort of
an opinion of the west at all, and he
knocked the whole country west Of the
sad there was no enterprise or 'git-up'
out there; that the folks didn't know they
were allve; that the newspapers and news
paper men appeared to him to be in the
on just let him go on talking without
SAYING much myself. He finally let
word fall indicating that he himself was
a newspaper man, and, without deeming
1t necessary to mention just then that I
was In that business, I asked him what
paper he was connected with. He named
a Chicago paper that was a deadly rival
Of the one to which 1 had a short time
before sent that 5,0O0-word talk with Mr..
Dole. Moreover, he told me that he had
been sent all the way from Chicago to
nail Mr.. Dole for an interview. He had
met up with the train at Salt Lake. had
found MT. Dole rather weary, and had
arranged to have his interview with the
Hawaiian President on the following day
Saturday-and my interview with that
gentleman was already In the Office of the
rival OF his paper! Well it wasn't up to
me to cheat myself out Of such a neat
little scoop as that, and so 1 continued to
remain mum as to my newspaper connec-
tions After I'd appeased my appetite,
however, sat down and wrote for num-
Der of my western papers a short resume
Of my Dole interview, and at the next
stop where there was a telegraph Office I
dropped off to file this matter. The some
@ what chesty young newspaper man from
that stop, too, and he saw me passing In
my newspaper copy.
Say, he inquired of me, are YOU a
newspaper man?' and 1 couldn't help but
grin over the astonished expression on his
countenance.
"'Well, yes, sort of one,' 1 replied
are you on this train for any special
purpose?' he asked me. eyeing me pretty.
closely.
"'Wel, a little special perhaps told
him. Back at Green river, before 1 met
up with you in the buffet car, l. filed a
h.oO0-word talk that had with Mr.. Dole
this afternoon for the Chicago-,.ra and /
named his papers chief rival
Now, I'm never amused when 1 hear
profanity issuing from the lips of a real
young man, but the way that chesty young
fellow volleyed out hot language on that
rarefied air was, under the circumstances.
enough to make hyena laugh. Only a
little while before he'd been telling me what
dead ones western newspaper men were
and here he was lifted right out. of his
shoe-leather on a story that he'd hiked all
the way from Chicago to get. It was then
about O'Clock at night-11 o'clock in Chi
cago-and Mr.. Dole was in bed, and even
II he had been up and willing to talk at that
hour there wasn't another telegraph Office
for several hours ahead. He got his inter-
view with Mr.. Dole the next morning and
hurled 1t into his Chicago paper but not
line of 1t was used In the Sunday paper Nv
interview had got into the Saturday paper
OF his papers rival, and of course his inter
view was valueless. / met the young fell
low In New York about a year later and he
told me that he had been fired for getting
beat on the Dole interview that time, and
he added that he hadn't emitted a word
about western newspaper men being buffers
since that occurrence