Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1901-08-29

Smith explained that he owned the
paper and was its chief editor and con-
tributor. Then the acting editor al
most choked with words, so anxious
was he to apologize and explain.
Later the foreman came to his relief
by telling him that the copy needed
no editing and that two men in the
shop could set the copy Of the boss
and he took the manuscript up stairs.
The acting editor heard nothing fur
Their of the episode although he went
to the Office the next morning exepect-
ing to find a note of dismissal from
Mr.. Smith"
joaquin Miller, the poet of the ST.
erras,' thinks no man alive writes
more illegibie hand than he" spoke up
the reporter. Upon his visit to New
Orleans a few weeks ago he told me
that his poor chirography had always
been source of much modification
to him, and he had tried to acquire a
palmer fashion of writing. He said
that in strange publishing houses and
newspaper offices where the COM
positors are unacquainted with his
manuscript, they are never able to
do anything with it, so he makes it
rule to copy off his articles and poems
on the typewriter and in this fashion
they reach the compositor and proof
reader When news of the excitement
incidental to the great gold strikes and
discoveries in Alaska first got to the
outer world, Mr.. Miller was dispatched
to Klondike as the representative Of
San Francisco newspaper. He
thought that here was a rich field be-
fore him for graphic descriptive ma
terial for stories, and he was right;
but there was also plenty of hard
newspaper work to be done by the con-
scientious correspondent When Mr..
Miller finally got into the Klondike he
found a score of newspaper CORE
spondents, representing the great
dailies of the country, already there
and ready for news of the gold strikes
and great fortunes being made by men
daring enough to brave the ice and
snow and hardships. Competition be-
from the very first, and there was any
amount of 'scooping' and beating done
away up there in the Klondike. The
only way, at that time, the correspond
ents had to get out their news was to
send it from Dawson to Seattle by
steamer, and If it was important
enough, have it wired from Seattle to
it's destination. One day Mr.. Miller
ran across Alexander Mcdonald, since
famous as the king of the Klondike,'
and a three times Millionaire. Nc
Donald had just reached Dawson after
having made the greatest gold strike
in the history of the diggings. He
told his story to Mr.. Miller, and like
wise to several other correspondents.
Then began a scramble to get the story
out to the world. The steamer was to
leave that afternoon for Seattle. Mr..
Miller had taken no typewriter into the
Klondike when he went there, and he
had to write his Mcdonald story,
which was a thrilling recital of the
sufferings and hardships of one man,
with pen and ink. 1t went off all right
with the stories of two or three others
and reached the manager of the tele-
graph office at Seattle. The manager
was able to make out the name of the
San Francisco paper, but that was all.
Not line or sentence could he deci-
pher; neither could any operator in
the office Printers and proofreaders
were summoned, but they could do no
better. Not a man in Seattle could
read Mr.. Miller's copy. The telegraph
manager could do nothing but forward
the manuscript by mail to San Francis
co. There it arrived two days after
the story of McDonald's trike had been
published to the world. The other
stories got out from Seattle by wire,
and Mr.. Miller's paper was badly beat
simply because no man in Seattle
could be found to read his hand
writing. New Orleans Times-Demo-
crat