The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-01-18
FEAT OF A HAYsEED REPORTER.
They Hardly Expected to See Him
Come Back AIlve-His Nerve Was
Good and the Joke Was on the


the gang fell to talking about their
Old reportorial days. but it sure enough
is fact that you can't generally pick
winner by sizing up his hide and-hoofs.
BY the same token. you can't pick a nat
ural-born newspaper man by his raiment
or his manner, I've known some newspa-
per men,
Well, anyhow one afternoon early in
THIS closing decade. when I was doing
reporting work on the Outer Sea-let 1t go
az that-in Chicago, a tail, gawky, loose
| jointed young fellow walked into the city
EDITORS room and asked for work. HIS
makeup was ellee same Ipswich Wis.,
ana no mistake. He was as country-look-
ing young man to be riding up an elei
yator in a metropolitan newspaper build
| ing and inquiriug for a reporters job as
sver ! saw before or since. His trousers
were shy about four inches at the bot
tom, his coat was as bunchy in the back
as a padded crazy-quilt. and he wore a
Hrocheted pink sfour-in-hand tie and a
SLOUGH hat that was all to the bad from
very point of view. However he was
distinctly cleanly, If farmerly. His meth
ID OF tackling the city editor-vho was
VIGOROUSLY grabbed, but sood-hearted
member of the breed-was quiet and unas-
iumlng. The gawky young chap simply
'tated that he'd been working on small
weekly somewhere in Iowa; that the small
weekly game in Iowa hadn't looked prom
sing to him, and that he had therefore
maze the best of his way to Chicago to
see II he couldn't manage to catch on
MI OF Smart Alecs in the city room
nad grinned when we saw and heard the
Notwithstanding chap brace the city
edltor-we had a good view of the pro-
ceedlngs through the open door leading
INTO the city EDITORS private -roona-and
we confidently expected the old man to
throw mucilage and ink and scissors ami
thlngs like that al his visitor, particu-
larry as 1t was during the dull summer
season, and the staff was jamrned full
ana there wasn't enough work to go around
ana good newspaper men from other
owns applying at our plant for jobs every
day' were being turned down without any.
announcement whatever
The old man wheeled in his chair and
pushed up his specs on his forehead and
sized the countryman up. We waited for
the explosion, but 1T. didn't come Instead.
a cold, sardopic devilish light crept into
the old mans eyes as he surveyed the
youth, who only needed hay in his hair
10 complete a picture that no artist could
paint
Well replied the city editor, to our
intense surprise, still grinning in that sar-
giving you steady work-staff's beyond
the limit now; might try you out on an
assignment or so, though, to see what
yon can do. Die ever get mixed up In
rough house with man who knew all
about that game. and more?
Some replied the gawky youth,
quietly.
"'How'd you come outT asked the old
man.
Ns,1l
'ryman who wanted reporters work
'~'Um-so l see, said the told man.
Then the city editor gave the gawky.
youth an assignment. Out at the end o.
the big government pier ct that time a.
ruffiSn and all-around bad man, who went
by the name of Black jack had a huge
barge anchored-it was called Black
lacks bumboat,' Black Jack had estah-
lished horrible affair he called CON
cert half on this barge, and the business
had become an eyesore to Chicago. 1t
was frequented by all sorts of abandoned
characters, and scenes of violence were
of mighty occurrence on the barge.
Black Jacks walters were all ruffians
like himself. and If they didn't like. the
looks of any man who came on board
the barge they'd rough-house him UP and
then throw him overheard If he could
swim well enough to make the shore, so
then, it was his funeral, and no mistake.
Black Jack didn't pay for any Liquor
license whatever. He claimed that his
barge, being anchored in government wat
ers, was under the federal jurisdiction.
md such was the deadly fear il which
even the Chicago police held the man aud
his band of desperadoes that Black jack
actually made his contention stick, and
kept his nefarious business going for a
long time. The papers roasted the au-
thorities for not driving Black Jack ami
his ioa thsome barge to the North Pole
but the roasting didn't do any goo7.
Black Jack continued to stick and to
snap his fingers at all of the efforts 10
dislodge him.
1.-The old man gave an outline of the
character of Black Jacks malodorous
barge, and asked him If he'd care to go
out to the barge and have a talk with
Black Jack and look the plant over The
'ity editor explained Black Jacks sworn
hatred for newspaper men, and his partic-
ular aversion for the city editor of the
Outer Sea-'who is myself said the old
man-on account of the ferocious attacks
that the Outer Seas editor had directed
against his barge. .,a
Think you'd like to take a chance
it's not a soft ass gnment, you under
stand-and go out and look Black Jack
over? the city editor asked the gawky
youth, who didn't hesitate a little bit
in replying that any kind of a show was
what he was locking for. So the old man
gave him some additional directions. and
the ambitious youth with the high-waters
went out to cover the assignment We
thought-we aforesaid Smart Aces in the
eity room-that this was a pretty mean
trick on the part of the old man. We
considered that a joke was joke, and
all that. but when it came to putting an
inoffensive country lad In jeopardy of his
l'fe we couldn't see the matter at all.
'Fwell, here's what happened to the
gawky youth-hes now the managing edi-
tor of a big New York paper-as he told
It to me long afterward:
"He had man row him out in a skin
to the starboard side of Black Jacks
barge. Black Jack himself-a bull-neck-
cd Individual with the looks and the
strength of gori'la-was leaning over
the side. When he saw the country-look
'ng young fellow in the boat he let out
a guffaw. and called a bunch of his pals
TO the side to take IN the spectacle of the
lay with the pink crotcheted necktie.
They all roared, and then Back Jack
asked the gawky youth what In the hot
place he wanted anyhow
I'm from the Outer Sea- replied the
Young man. guilelessly, and / come out
to have talk with you, and too look
at your boat
"An expression OF SPECIFICATION stole
over Black Jacks face. The amazing
&IA 49,