The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-11-05
A QUESTION OF CoURTEsY.

Is there any advantage to be gained
in treating those with whom one
comes in contact in a kind and civil
manner?
And again, is a newspaper reporter
entitled to any consideration at the
hands of men in public life?
These questions certainly should all
be answered in the Affirmative. The
subject is introduced here on account
of an incident which occurred during
the past week. w. ]. Black, general
passenger agent of the Santa Fe rail-
road, and Mrs. Black were injured in
wreck on the Missouri Pacific rail-
road at Upton, Mo. No similar acct
dent in years has caused such wide
spread and genuine sympathy in this
community. Mr.. Black and Mrs.
Black are numbered among the best
known and most generally liked peo-
pie of Topeka and they have hundreds
of friends and acquaintances both in
Topeka and in other cities, who had
no means of quickly learning of their
condition, except through the newspa-
pers. The telephone in the State
Journal office was kept ringing by
those most anxious to learn the latest
particulars. The newspaper reporter
was therefore very properly the rep
resentative at the place where the
news was available. of all those friends
and acquaintances of the patients who
desired to learn of their condition.
How simple a proceeding to inform
one person of the full particulars and
details promptly and thereby set in
motion the wheels which would dis
seminate the news to all concerned,
thus relieving the attendants of many
thus relieving the attendants of many
occasion of this kind.
One man was in possession of the
facts of the actual condition of the
injured people upon their arrival in
Topeka, and he was better qualified to
talk than perhaps any other person.
That man was Dr. J. P. Raster, chief
surgeon of the Santa Fe. who went
from Topeka to Sedalia to be with the
injured ones at the hospital at that
place and who was in constant at
tendance upon them. So it was to
DR.. Raster that newspaper people went
for information. There were other
sources which would have yielded 1t,
but it was proper to go to the official
source. The reporters, however, met
with the same results that have
attended similar visits on prior occa-
sions.
The reporter, cognizant of the fact
that there is a right time and place
for everything. waited for an oppor-
tune time to approach the doctor.
After Mrs. Black had been tenderly
taken from Mr.. Mudge's private car
and placed in the ambulance and
driven away to the hospital, few
minutes time were available. The re-
porter knew that once the surgeon got
to the hospital his time would be SO
taken up that it would interfere with
work there for him to stop and an
swer questions. But it was also i'm
perative that the questions be asked
and the information secured. Conse-
quently at this juncture the reporter
the doctor in a quiet and
modest manner to ask for a state
ment. A few brief. terse sentences
would have explained the situation
clearly and distinctly. 1t would have
required but a few seconds of time,
and it was clearly the duty of the doc
tor to give out the information de-
sired But instead of giving the re-
porter the statement. the chief sur
geon. of the Santa Fe railway system
delivered himself of a TRADE of abuse
which required two or three times as
much time as would have been neces-
sary to give the desired news. The
abuse was entirely uncalled for. In
substantiation of this claim it needs
only to be remarked that one of the
closest and most. intimate friends of
the injured man was at the car. He
was also the recipient of an explosion
similar to that directed at the reporter
for no other reason than that he asked
&c f0 have
speech with the injured man at that
time. The man in question is of high
standing and is prominent in the COM
but he Jared no better than
the news gatherer.
There is no animus in calling atten- |
ton to the matter at this time. But
does a civil question not deserve |
civil answer, even if it is not possible
to convey intelligence in the answer,
and also no matter by whom asked, or
upon what occasion.
The reporter who was so roughly |
rebuffed by the chief surgeon of the |
Santa F'e has upon various occasions
talked with many men of much high
err rank in the railway world, also |
with statesmen, lawyers, and other
men in public or semi-public life and |
also with the highest officer in the |
land, the president Of the United |
States, but in all that time he cannot |
recall ever receiving anything but |
courteous treatment at their hands, |
even if it were not possible for the |
one interviewed to answer questions |
which were asked
The Santa Fe surgeon is man of
1ndoubted ability in his profession and /
IF high standing in his calling, but he |
oelittIes his skill and talents by lack
IF courtesy and consideration.
In marked contrast to the attitude |
Of the chief surgeon of the Santa Fe.
Is that of DR.. f. F. Yancey, chief
surgeon of the Missouri, Kansas &