The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-01-28
NEWSPAPER STORY Of
HOMESTEAD STRIKE
How a Cub Reporter Scooped
the Old Timers at the Big
Riot.
Reminiscent Story of the Most
Bloody Pinkerton
Outrages.

Luck sometimes makes up for
whole lot of reportorial experience, as
the following incident will show:
A newspaper man now employed not
more than 300 miles from Sandusky
broke in on a Pttsburg evening pa
per shortly before the Homestead steel
| mills strike came to head. He was
on duty as sub the day the strik-
ers and two barge loads of Pinkerton
detectives tried conclusions on the Mo-
nongahela river bank on the 9Th of
July, and by one Of those strokes of
goood fortune that at some time or
other befall every one was sent up to
Homestead early in the forenoon to re-
enforce the staff already there. The
assistant city editor and seven of the
best men on the staff were already on
the ground. and the green man. was
instructed to report to any one of them
he could find and do whatever he was
told
By the time the reporter arrived in
bar 12tttoeCtaraross ttthis the the h
Homestead. half an hour later. things
were pretty warm down in the mill
yard, and, finding no one at the station
to meet him, he wandered down to
where the booming of guns told him
there was some fighting. He was not
| interrupted Or interfered with in any
way by any one, and, without knowing
| just how he got there. he soon found
himself in the mill yard behind a pile
| of steel beams, with the contendlng
| forces fighting over and around him.
1t was an excessively hot day, and
| the immense piles of steel lying about
did not tend to moderate the tempera-
ture. But the place looked like good
one from which to get news, so the
new reporter sat down On the ground,
! protected by the pile of steel beams,
put board on his lap and wrote about
| everything he saw. A boy passing by
| was chartered to carry the stuff to the
| telegraph office. From 10 am. to near
| ly pm. this inexperienced reporter
| sat in the broilng sun writing as rap
| idly as he could and keeping pretty
we'll up with the strenuous work going
| on about him. Frequently he asked
the name Of a man who had been
| knocked over by Pinkerton bullet,
| and was always given the information
willingly. Sometimes he chatted with
uleu VIII udu guns ana were lOOhHlS
about for shot at the barge moored
to the company's dock
BY the time the demands of hunger
and thirst had got to the point when
! they would no longer be ignored things
| had Quieted down to such an extent
| that the reporter thought he could
leave the mill yard long enough to go
| uptown, a matter of about a mile, and
get lunch, SO he gathered up his pa
per, put his temporary desk where he
could find it again, and left the yard,
lodging behind piles OF beams and
buildings to keep out of range of the
Pinkerton Winchesters. At the bound
airy to the mill yard there was an i'm
mense throng Of people. Going through
the crush, the reporter and the assist
ant city editor met face to face.
Where the devil have you been?"
asked the latter, with a tone of anger
in his voice Il have been looking all
over creation for you and couldn't get
! a glimpse Of you. You were told to re-
port to me. Why didn't you do it?'
The reporter explained that he had
been unable to find his superior, but
had run into lot Of what he consid
cred pretty good news, SO he stayed
| right with it. He also told where he
| had been and how long.
How did you get there?' asked his
chief, land how the dickens did YOU
| manage to stay thereo ! have been all
day trying to smuggle a man inside the
lines, but the picke1s have made it i'm
possible
The reporter couldn't answer. All he
! knew was that he wandered close to
the scene of action, went to work in
| the open. and was not interfered with
by any one. 1t developed in the con-
versation that the office had been
! sending kilograms to the assistant city
editor all day reading something like
| these:
Stop duplicating Blanks stuff
Quit duplicating."
! For heavens sake, can't you fellows
get anything before it is week old %
! Blank had the story two hours
ago. What's the matter with the rest
of your
'Scooped the town on story by
an hour. Blanks story
OF course these kilograms were
cheerful news to the seven men who
were working like Trojans around the
outskirts Of the mill yard, gathering
up every rumor they could get hold Of
! and putting it on the wire at the earli-
| est possible moment. They knew what
! the green" reporter did not-that the
paper was issuing 'extras' every half
hour and that surging mob was
around the bulletin board eagerly wait
ing for every bulletin that came from
/ IF