The Topeka state journal., 1903-02-11


the papers they represent against &C
tions for damages.
Il am informed that one of them
carried his operations to the dastardly
extent Of forgery. The circumstances
I in this case. as 1 have been informed
+ by the Sunday editor of one of the large
and influential metropolitan papers OF
the east. are that the Wichita corre-
/ spondent sent story to a New York
paper on the face of it it seemed to
be a good story but il not true it wa 4
/ dangerously HbelOus. The New York
paper very properly called upon its
/ correspondent Tor verifcation of the
truth of the article and the CORES pond
ent without hesitation sent forge1
telegram from a Catholic priest and
another from a Methodist minister
Vouching for its accuracy The re-
suit IS tnat the paper in question is
now defending itself against a damage
suit Of 0000.
SOME FAMOUS FAKES.
Many years ago, fake was sent out
Of Wichita about a tWo-year-Old child
falling into a bored well. The telegraph
editors Of the country went wild over it.
Next day the telegraph Offices a t Wich-
tia were overwhelmed with orders for
specials giving DEVELOPMENTS. None of
the correspondents had the courage to
say it was fake. Instead, they fell in
with 1t, and for three or four days the
women of the country were kept on the
verge Of nervous prOstratiOn. I know
suffering from the nervous excitement
caused by that story. The second dav
the child sank deeper into the well, and
! its cries became fainter. Trimmed and
emaciated by hunger, the third day it
sank stiA deeper. and its cries could
I scarcely be heard, while its poor mother
/ was raving maniac on the surface.
/ The fourth day a hook sent down
/ caught the dress of the child, and it was
/ drawn up more dead than alive. For
/ four days this case was the talk of the
nation The editors who were printing
/ this stuff never considered for a mo-
ment the impossibilitv of q child two
/ years old falling. into a bored well,
4 neither did the people
"A few years ago, one of the Wichita
+ takers sent out story which had a
general run in the United States and
I was discussed seriously by the press of
England and France. Nothing has ever
I happened which shook my confidence in
/ the superior common sense of editors as
4 this The correspondent had a farmer
down in the Cherokee strip pIowing his
4 fields as a storm came up. The sky be-
4 came black as ink, and still the farmer
4 ploWed on. Presently the farmer looked
/ up and he saw a cyclone coming toward
/ him two miles away. What did he do2
+ According to the correspondent he un-
/ hitched his team, rode rapidly to the
/ farm house. pulled out a cannon. loaded
it and fired straight into the solar plexus
of the cyclone What was the result2
4 The cyclone dissolved and disappeared
I like soap bubble, the sun came out
/ again, and the farmer went back to
/ plow his field.
Why all the eastern papers printed
4 this story seriously as news is incom-
prehensible to me. Their telegraph ed
itors didn't seem to realize that with
+ travelling at the rate of a mile and a
4 half a minute. the farmer would not
4 have time to more than unhitch his
/ team before it would be upon him. The
~frrr
/ agricultural utensils. especially v a poor.
struggling, Cherokee strip homestea der
d1G not seem to provoke the least sus-
picton- Neither did it enter the tele-
graph editors heads to give the story
4 the test of the laws of physics before
/ accepting the statement that the can
non ball neutralized the storm and made
1t disappear like a soap bubble suddenly
( ounctured-
Another story sent out from Wichita
told Of a stirring romance in which X
German prince or baron, or something
of that kind, was involved. Along
about the middle of the last century this
/ Trlnce came over and after a CrecArious
4 existence tOr year or two Joined the
Tenth United States cavalry and re-
mained with it until a year or two seo
when his friends discovered MIN in Utah
I do not remember the details of the
story, except that there was very
thrilling chapter Of love in 1t. Neither
the fellow who wrote it nor the teIe-
graph editors who accepted and printed
it knew much In the first place no
German prince could join the Tenth cav
airy in 1854 because it did not exist as
q regiment till 1868; and if ne had
wanted to Join it he couldn't for the
reason that 1t is a regiment of colored
/ troops exclusively
ONE OF Dawes OWN STORIES.
i wrote very brief dispatch once.
based upon a statement Of a prominent
educator in the Indian service. wherein
It was related that an Indian at Fort
Reno had sold his 15-year- old daughter
to another Indian having alreadv sls
wives, for fifteen head of ponies. [ Sent
the dispatch to a New York paper and
thought no more of it at the time
Within an hour I received a telegram
from the paper in question saving This
paper undertakes to rescue Rosa. White
Iace from the awful horrors of Do
/ lygamy- Spare no efforts at your oand
of the line, regardless of expense. which
we will pay in full Before had this
telegram read. another came from the
same paper saying, Rush at once 2.Oo1
words more on this Rosa Whitefacs
matter
II never was so scared in nv life.
Here 1 was commissioned to save an
Indian maiden whom [ did not know.
and to write 1000 words about it at 10
O'Clock at night with my own work on
a morning paper stin practically un-
touched filed an excuse for the 1000
words, and a hearty promise to do my
utmost to save the girl.
w hlle the paper was wiring me it
was dragging the secretary of the in
terror out of his comfortable bed in
Washington to lay the case before him.
And it wasn't satisfied with that. but
was pumping the outrage into the ears
or every leader in the Indian Rights
association that could be found at that
hour. The interior department imme-
diately began hammering the wires to a
white heat telegraphing the agent at
Darlington to stop the marriage. The
agent happened not to have heard a
suggestion about the proposed matri-
monial horse trade and he was quite
sure that the interior department had
suddenly gone insane It came to his
ears in time that I had sent out the
story and he Immediately denounced 1t
as q lie. More than that the educa tor