Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-04-02
A NEWSPAPER JOKE.
DEs MONIES REGISTER COM.
PEELED TO BUY ITS COM.
PETlToR.
r. 6. orwis, Pioneer Iowa Newspaper
Publisher, Who Passed Away Sun.
day, Tapped Associated Press Wires
and Won a Point.

j. B. Gossage of Rapid City, S. D.,
owner and publisher of the Daily Jour
| nal of that city who is in Ottumwa on
business, tells an interesting story OF
Il. q. Orwig, who passed away Sunday
evening in Chicago, one of the pioneer
newspaper men of Iowa, and the priv
ate secretary of old Governor William
stone during his term of office.
Mr.. Gossage. who is an old time Of
tumwan was at this time an employe
OF the Courier and the story which he
tells was thirty-six years ago one
OF the newspaper jokes of the state.
The Des Moines Register at that
time edited by Frank w. Palmer, pres
ent government printer, was the lead
ing paper in Des Moines and owned
the franchise for the use of the AS
ISOLATED Press reports. R. G. Crwig
and his elder brother, Thomas, deter
mined to go into the newspaper pub
fishing business under the firm name
OF Orwig Bros. and started up the Des
Moines Evening Bulletin 1t was a
very small sheet and the outfit with
which it was gotten out was even in
those days the cause of many a joke
among the newspaper fraternity. The
Evening Bulletin wanted the tele.
graphic news but the Associated
Press was at that time the only pos
slble source and the Register absolute
ly refused to share it's franchise
The Bulletin owners made all sorts
OF overtures but to no avail The own
ers of the Register were obdurate.
All went smoothly without develop
ment for two or three weeks when
suddenly without any preliminary
statement or explanation the Bulle-
tin began publishing the regular and
full Associated Press reports exactly
the same as their more pretentious
rival. The owners of the other paper
were furious. They owned the Asso-
| ciated Press reports for Des Moines.
The rights to its use belonged abso-
lutely to them. They appealed to the
Press association to the Western
'TtI fllii9!n . Telegraph Co.. Ito theS. courts
but all in vsifn. VAN. rhhs Bulletin publish.
ed the reports day after day with alb
solute accuracy. The telegraph lines
We're gone over inch by inch but no
break could be discovered, no place
was found where the regular wires
could be tapped. The upshot of the
matter was that the owners of the
Register, finding that they could not
suppress the Bulletin offered to buy
it. The Orwigs were willing but their
price was high. Negotiations contin-
ued for several days and then the
sale was chronicled and the price paid
considering the outfit of the Bulletin
was a fabulous one.
After the sale was made the method
of receiving the reports of course
came out. About five miles out in
the country the press wire had been
neatly tapped and the tap wires run
down a deep crack in one of the tele-
graph poles. Then it was run under.
ground for nearly half mile to an old
log cabin out in field where the
proper instruments were installed and
the reports received and carried by
another wire to the Office of the Bulle-
tin in Des Moines. The Orwigs were
never punished. They were out of
business. had the money in their
jeans and had turned the laugh of all
the newspaper men of the state on the
owners of the Register.