The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-02-02

Wilson grew loquacious. He said that
there had been little excitement in the
neighborhood the evening before when
the four-y ear-old child of the president
of the First National bank had fallen
l into q we'll but had been saved by her
15-year-old sister, who had climbed into
the well and succeeded in holding the
child above water until help arrived
Wilson noticed that the face Of the re-
porter lighted up as he brought out his
note book and started to make a nOta-
ton ''Oh, you don't want that said
Wilson; there is no news in it, for the
child is just as well as ever ToWnley
felt the rebulxe. and he put the book
back into his pocket before he had COM
pleted the notation
That evening as Townley glanced at
his notes he looked at the unfinished
scraw1 concerning the well incident, and
again the feeling that there was news
in the occurrence came to him, and lie
wrote a. brief item and placed 1T with
the rest before the city editor lie
which would cOnsign the children OF ms
long journeys to oblivion while he pre-
tended to read the evening paper. he
had learned that the blue pencil could
destroy in an instant his most polished
phrases. and he didn't like it, for it
seemed to have a special aversion to his
fine writing" While Townley watched
the editors blue pencil he noticed that
it came to a sudden stop three inches
from his copy, and the city editor turned
to him with a jerk.
Mr.. Townley, come here" said the
city editor.
The young man walked over TO the
desk
who was this child that fell IN the
well?' asked mis- superior.
1.-THE man who gave me the informa-
ton said that the father of the child IS
a banker, but I didn't get his name, Te-a
piled the reporter.
The face of the city editor wore
vexed look, but all he said was Mr..
out all about the incident Talk to the
father and to the girl who saved the
child. 1t is worth a column"
If Townley failed to write q column
from drowning by the hereism of her
sister, he was never again requested to
make a trip on a similar errand, for the
item was thoroughly covered and Ae
had learned a lesson in self-relianee. He
also realized that the reporter VINO
rushes around asking people Have you
any news?" may cover a large area or
territory but still find very little news
and consequently that it is not legs"
alone that make a reporter Not one
person in a hundred knows q news item
from sun spot, and the reporter VINO
depends entirely upon his legs may run
over a column story a dozen times
day. Deliberation and judgment and a
keen perception play an important part
in the makeup of a successful reporter
1t was not long after the story Of the
rescue from the we'll had been pub
lished that TOwnley again found himself
in the presence of the chief editor, who
had evidently watched him from affair."
He almost expected that his newspa per
career was about to come to a sudden
termination. Accordingly 1t was with
a thrill of pleasure that he heard the
great man say:
.1That story of yours, TownIey, about
the child in the we'll was good thing.
and we have decided that we viii let
you try your hand at the railroads.
It did not take Townley long to dis
cover, in his new field. that railroad men
are the busiest people on earth, or az
least pretend to be- The clerk who takes.
time to chat with reporter. or any one
else, may soon find that his presence IS
not necessary to the operation of the
railway system and so he keeps up
pretense of working even while he is fig
uring bow he will pay for theater tickets
and hack hire out of his $25 month
While the heads of the departments
were not quite so Industrious as the
clerks, Townley seldom received mora
than grunt in response to his greeting
and all efforts to draw them into con-
versation proved futile. The railroad de-
paFtment of the Herald, was, in cOnse
quence, anything but a success and the
young man realized that something had
to be done. TOWnley had a conference
with himself one morning when he
ought to have been asleep and after a
great deal of thought evolved this plan.
he would ASK the superintendent OF
telegraph, if new lines were to be butt
in the Indian Territory or whether tele-
graph stations had been esta blished in
western Kansas to take care of the in
creasing stock shipments He would ask
the general freight agent whether the
California traffic was equal to previous
years and whether extra stock trains
were necessary to move the large NUM-
Der Of cattle from the west to market
He would request the general passenger
agent to tell him if the through business
would justify a limited train. Other APP
propriate questions we're formulated to
be fired at these mighty men who arc
the guiding power of a great railway
system
Townley put his plan into operation at
once and the result repaid him for his
long, brain rackfng vigil. He found that
q railroad official could not well refuse
to answer a question which was directly
associated with his department and Of
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