Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-10
A NE WSPAPER TALE

annual vacation said a Washington cor
respondent for a newspaper published in
a large Rocky mountain city.
I've known this heller for twenty years
and more. He's always been ward heller
and nothing else since he hit the Rocky
mountain country, and there's no particu-
lar reason why 1 should hunt him up, ex-
cept that there's a kind of bond between
us. When was pretty young in the news
paper business he got me into pretty
bad scrape-qufte inadvertently, however
and then he turned around and made the
biggest hit for me that ever came my way.
when he got me into the mess 1 was
doing politics. to use the shop phrase
for my paper. 1 hadn't been covering the
local political field very long before 1 fell
in with this heller 1 found him to be a
wise fish with the longest kind of nose
for everything that was doing, and he
became invaluable to me- Nothing ever got
away from him. He could just smell the
inside thing that was happening, whether
in his own camp or in the tent OF the
enemy, ana he had method of getting at
the esotoric facts of a star chamber situa-
ton that was far and away beyond me-
He liked me because l couldn't withhold
my praise for his shrewdness as a news
gatherer. and he was on his mettle all
the time in filtering out little political
scoops for me.
cat 2 o'clock one morning at time the
party lines of the town were being tight
ened up for an important municipal cam,
paign. finished my work at the Once ana
started for home. About block away
from the office I ran into my heeler. lie
was breathlessly making for the once TO
tip me off on something that ne hao just
got.
ut was a big story, for fact. mu-
nicipal ownership party, backed up ny
many of the most important men OIL tlie
49,, ,rfinc
to be launched. The new party was wen
along toward its final organization, but the
scheme was being kept under cover untll
the psychological moment arrived lor t the
announcement of it's plans. All OF the
meetings of the organizers OF the new
municipal party had been held behlno
double barred doors. and up to that mo mo.
ment when l met the heller there haun
been even symptom OF leak.
But somehow OF another my heeler Hau
got hold of the whole thing that nSn',
and with a friendlness ana ioyai'y a',a a.
hand me the scoop.
ut took him about quarter o an hour
to unravel the details of the Story;
and then I hustled back to the ofhce ana
told the city editor what had. He hoppe9
out of his chair before l had f1nlsned anu
exclaimed that the story was corkei, re q.
raced in to tell the night editor ABOUT IT,
and the night editor Hoped to the compos-
ing room to change the makeup OF the
front page so as to give my story 'iie III -
three columns of that page
81 sat down at the typewriter ana oa a.
out the story for dear life the city eoltoi
nulline the sheets out of the machine 10
IRE them down to the composing room.
had the story, three and halI columns
triple loaded. up by quarter past s. anu
the night editor put a head on IL Dig
enough to stampede a herd of night-proWi-
ing coyotes. 1t was the cleanest kind OF a
beat on the town. and 1 went home and to
bed with my head in a whirl or happiness
;ox, oft ha
eft didn't seem to me as II had Deen III
bed more than twenty minutes before there
was a banging on my bed room door L ne
chore boy of the boarding house yelled to
me that I was wanted at the telephone
down stairs 1t was 9 o'clock in the morn
ing. | half dressed and went down to the
telephone The business manager OF my
paper was at the other end =.
Say son, come down mere 10 tne VI
flee right away he said to me. There's
the mischief to pay.
II hustled down to the Office on my bicy-
Gle There 1 found the night editor and
the CITY editor both of whom had been
routed out of bed l had BEEN in confer
ence with the business manager and the
owner of the paper The owner of the pa
per was tearing up and down the once.
stornng and growing inarticulat ely, and
when 1 entered the Office he jumped over
at me so menacingly that l thought he
was going to hand me solar plexus. But
he didn't do that. He simply shook his
head and moaned when he got close enough
to hit me- When he had sufficiently con-
trolIed himself to manage his voice, ne
asked me-
"'Who in the blthering blazes gave you
the story about the formation of the new
municipal ownership party"
II de-stepped the question and made up
nv mind then and there. to keep on side
stepping it, even if the man submitting 1t
to me was the owner of the paper L worked
for. My healer hadn't got hold of the
story in a strictly conventional or legltl-
mate way, had given 1t to me In the
| strictest confidence, and l was determined
that rather than give him away I'd resign
my job or permit myself to be fired. one
or the other.
I'm pledged not to tell anybody that. |
| replied to the owner of my paper. But
! the story is on the level, all right. every
word of it. I stand for the accuracy of
| every statement. Do you know anything
| to the contrary
! ".Do / know anything to the contrary
| the owner bawled a me, almost foamtng at
| the mouth why, blast my buttons, no. I
| DON'T But you left out one fact. You
| failed to mention that / am the head and
! front and chief organizer of that new
| party, myself. and that by the premature
| publca ton of the details-and in my own
| paper blame 1t all!-the whole proposition.
| that was meant to make for decency and
| good government in this town, has been
| knocked into a cooked hat. I was to have
! been the new party's candidate for mayor,
and I'd have been elected, as sure as shoot
ing, II THIS mlSeFaDle tOO-pTeNlOuS expose,
that plays us right into the hands of our
| enemies hadn't made its appearance"
| and everything that he said was the
| exact truth My heller had not been able to
get hold of my employers name in connec-
| ton with the new party scheme, and had
| given me the story in the best of good faith.
| And thus the big mistake had been made
| 81 wasn't fred When my employer
| cooled out he was able to see that 1 had
| only been working. 1 thought, for the
| best interest Of the paper.
"Only few months later. through that
| same heeler, 1 had the SWEETEST kind Of a
| chance to redeem myself.
| "Our paper was attacking of the
| candidates for lieutenant governor of the
| state One day the proprietor himself sat
| down and wrote an editorial about that
| candidate In the course of that editorial
| he wrote:
| "'This candidate for the second highest
office in the gift of the people Of this state
| Is like the horse thief who.' etc.
| "But the compositor left out the like,
| and the proofreader overlooked It, and sc
| the sentence read. as printed:
| "'This candidate for the second highest
| Office in the gift Of the people of this state
| is the horse thief who,' etc.
| ION the morning of the publication of this
| editorial a libel suit against the paper fol-
| 800 600 was filed by the attacked candidate
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