The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-03-20
By Frederick Palmer.
Golfers Special War Correspondent
Toxic, Japan, Feb. 10.

Toxic, Japan, Feb. 10
You may write and write
Till yur brain is numb,
but the sum of the pages which come
straining from your pen is not worth
a score Of lines soribbled with Dor
rowed stub of a pencil on d piece of
wrapping paper at the front. in all
the notices the government sends US,
in all the references made to US in
print or talk, we are war correspon-
dents. You might as well speak of the
Swiss as a race OF sailors. The satire
is cruel, if meant, and complete in any
event To write of the war from To-
kiO is like writing about the Spanish
American war from Chickamauga,
when troops were embarking from
Tampa.
We expect a score more cOrrespOn-
dents by tomOrrow's steamer. They
viii come ashore with a look of lis il
all over? Is it too late TO reach the
frOnt?'' and possibly a month later
they will be receiving other reinforce
ment with the stOicism of the present
host that is making the Imperial hotel
OF Toxic journalistic barracks. The
government has been as logical as it
is polite, and as polite as il is logical
General Baron KOdama invites US to
luncheon today, and tonight the mayor
Of Toxic gives US a dinner There is
not yet a correspondent aboard a Jap
aneSe man-of-War; not a correspondent
has set foot on a transport Between
the hope anu the realization there is
ever the japanese smile.
The world OF journalism has planned
/ to make this war (the most important
/ for thirty years, if not, in its inter
/ national results, since Napoleon's time)
/ the most completely described and, re-
( ported in history. Let us have every
! extra cabled instantly" said the news
! agency. This is not so difficult. if the
/ wires are not crowded, for most of the
/ extras contain only rumOrs. Take to
I the censor some preposterous telegram,
4 for example,, IKE ~One hundred and
| fifty thousand men left VladivOstOk
/ yesterday, and the censor will let il
! go through Take him the truth, the
(, newsmen say, and it may go or not.
according to whether it Will be of value
| to the enemy. Untruths are allowable
| because they may deceive him.
The correspondents who seek the
front" when they hear, as they have
/ heard today. that $4,000 men have al
| ready been landed at Seoul. walk UP
! and down corridors, among tents, sad
I dies and the odds and ends of kits that
| overflow the room like so many mel
/ ancholy Danes-as if they were really
| the Hamlet Of his play. ITO be or not
to be- for him is being in the field OF
! the enemy's occupation or away from
/ it. At the other end of the cable is an
| editor who wants a battle every day
and an exclusive description of it in
/ his Office by midnight. Where are
! you?" that editor may ask; and the
| correspondent, sitting in the ordinary
room of an ordinary hotel lin sight OF
| the fur coats, fur sleeping bags and
all the equipment which the Chinese
tailors rushed through in a day under
the impetus of the threats a fortnight
ago). feels that poetic justice is better
subserved if his sleeping bag is made
| of sheepskin. How can that editor be
| made to realize that the landing OF
| an army corps is not set function
with seats for the press. like the laUn-
ching of a battleship? How can gen
| eral be made to realize that the sue