Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-05-26
THE KIDNAPPED
MILLIONAIRES
BY FREDERICK U. ADAMS.
Copyright 1891, ), le.AreD All
\ TALE OF WALL STREET AND THE TROPICS

York. Our paper viii take its chance
with the others. After that hour I
shall expect the thorough co-opera-
ton OF you gentlemen. so that we
may be able to place on the wires the
complete history of this case, with
such acknowledgement of the part
played by the paper as you choose to
authorize"
THAT is the way I like to hear a
man talk. Mr.. Chalmers" said Mr..
Morton. THAT is business. | will
say to you that 1 will break my rule
and write a statement which you
can use if it has any value. Your
Representatives will find me ready
to talk on any subject connected
with this affair."
The same promise was made by
the other magnates.
Mr.. Seymour and Mr.. Stevens are
experienced and discreet newspaper
men," said Mr. Chalmers. at takes
time to write and put on the wires
! a story like this. | ask that they
be allowed to begin work at once, and
4 will be responsible that not a word
is telegraphed which can appear on
the streets of New York before three
o'clock this afternoon"
"They shall have every opportu-
nifty" said Mr.. Carmody. eve will
turn this room into a newspaper Of
flee right now. Send for Mr.. Sey-
| mour and Mr.. Stevens and we will get
to work.
"Iou can draft me as reporter"
| said Sidney Hammond 81 can help
out on some of the incidents on the
| island"
You see me about Hammond" said
Mr.. Kent. "He is too modest to tell
you the truth about himself"
Seymour and Jack Stevens were
sent for and they proceeded to their
| task with the tact, rapidity and sys-
TEN of experienced newspaper men.
| They speedily obtained the frame
work of the story. Upon this they
| built, incident by incident. the tissue
| and body of well-rounded narrative.
| Mr. Chalmers became reporter for
| the first time in years. He suggest
| ed the basis of eight signed state
ments-L. Sylvester Vincent was not
excepted. BY the time the Helen
Carmody" was anchored in Vera
Cruz harbor MFR. Chalmers had the
story well in hand. He went ashore
J with the rescued magnates and with
them to the telegraph Offices. Chal-
mers found the manager and ar
ranged for the use of all availa BILE
wires on and after one o'clock. Mr..
Morton and his companions filed tele-
sociates and once more was in touch
with New York.
| After conference with Mr.. Chal-
mers it was agreed not to leave Vera
| Cruz until late in the evening. It
was planned to steam direct to New
| Orleans. GO from there by special
| train to New York. Mr.. Chalmers
insisted that he have all the time
necessary to prepare and forward his
! story. At 1910 Chalmers filed his
| first news bulletin, and from that
moment until ten o'clock at night a
corps of telegraph operators was
busy clicking the greatest heat
ever recorded in the history of mod.
ern journalism
| 1t may be mentioned in passing
that the receipt in New York of pri-
vate kilograms from the missing
millionaires was followed on the
exchange by enormous buying of
| CT clys
account for the consequent rise in
| prices and for some time the market
stoutly resisted the advance. Then
quotations began to rise; slowly at
first, but with increasing momentum.
Something had happened. What
| was it?
The news of the Wall street boom
came over the telephone to the news
paper office. Mr.. Sharp, the acting
editor of the Evening Record, was
on the alert. In fever of excite
ment he awaited the expected word
from Mr.. Chalmers or one of his as
sistants. The rival paper, the Even
ing Gazette, was out with an extra
containing rumor that the lost
magnates had been located in South
Africa. Mr.. Sharp could stand it no
longer 1t was two o'clock and the
market was soaring, but Wall street
was as mystified as ever. For a
week Sharp had held in type the
most startling headlines ever de-
signed in the office. He had been
advised that the Helen Carmody''
had sailed from Havana and he knew
her destination. 1t was the day for
news from the abducted men. Sharp
decided to take chance The fol-
lowing was his first effort in head
lines, which covered the front page,
and crowded the title of the paper
into small type in the upper left
hand corner:
| THE EVENING RECORD.
| New York, May a.