The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-04-21

private government line running from
one life saving station to another along
the coast. But at Quogue, fifty miles
east of Fire island and twice as remote
as the latter from the city, the news
paper discovered, through the good
offices of omniscient Central that
the life saving station on the beach had
a general telephone connected with the
Bell system in addition to the govern
ment wire. And by putting questions
to the life savers at Quogue, who were
constantly in touch with Fire island
on their government telephone, the pa
per was able TO get the news, it re-
quired. 1t was merely a matter of
telephoning an extra hundred miles.
The city reporter looks for a tele-
phone in sudden emergency as a
starving man looks for bread. A re-
porter will almost break and enter"
to get at telephone, if the matter is
hot enough. Not many months ago a
reporter for New York evening paper
was sent out in the early morning to
cover local railway accident. When
he got on the ground he saw at glance
that the story was a big one; several
cars were smashed up and a number of
bodies were removed from the wreck
age. The other papers were ahead of
him and each had several men already
on the ground. He looked hastily for
the familiar sign Of the blue bell He
visited in rapid succession one tele-
phone In a cafe, one in q milliner'S
shop, and one in drug store. All
were in use, with other men standing i'm
line before him. In the drug store he
learned that a woman who occupied a
third flood apartment above had a
private telephone. He dashed upstairs
and rang the doorbell, until frighten-
ed maid appeared.
L want to use your telephone" he
announced, pushing past her
Through curtain he caught sight of
the familiar wooden box in another
room and dashed in uncermoniously.
Two elderly ladies in big mahogany
bed greeted his appearance with
shrieks of "Burglarsi Murderi Po-
licei"
Calm yourselves, ladies'" he said,
taking the receiver. I'm not-Heuo.
give me 1000 James-Pm not a burglar.
It's all right There's been an accident
outside and Hello, give me the city
desk please!-I merely want to tele-
phone TO newspaper. Sorry to dis
turb you, but-Hello, this is Smith.
This is big story" etc.
Similarly at murder trial that has
attracted great public attention the
telephones in the court house and in
the neighborhood are besieged by a
crowd of reporters from the beginning
VI liic lIldl W the enQ. In the case OF
some of the New York evening papers
that have frequent editions, in all big
local trials, the account of the court
proceedings is written out in full by
two reporters in the court room, and
sent to the nearest telephone, where
another reporter is waiting to read the
copy over the wire into the newspaper
office. At the office end of the wire
man typewrites the story as it is die
tated to him from the original copy.
Even when the court house is only
half mile from the newspaper office
this method saves a few minutes over
the oldtime scheme of sending the
copy from court room to office by mes
senger. AS soon as a big case goes to
the jury in New York a representative
or every newspaper and press associa-
ton preempts telephone in the court
house or in a neighboring store. Then
each representative proceeds to hold
down" the telephone until a verdict is
reached, when the'verdict is flashed"
over the wire into the office immedi-
ately. Often within five minutes after
the verdict is given the paper is being
cried on Park Row with the news. In
the recent trial of Nan Patterson for
the murder of Caesar Young in New
York city, some of the evening paper
men held down" telephones in the
court building for over twelve hours
continuously after the jury retired to
consider the evidence