Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1905-04-19
PLAYS A GREAT AND EVER IN
CREASlNG PART.
QUICK WORK POSSIBLE
General Slocum Disaster Reported by
'Phone-News Men of the Metropo-
lis Who Never see the Home Office
for Months at Time-News Dis
tributed Five Minutes AfterWard.

a book of rules for newspaper re-
porters is ever compiled, will be Rule
l. The newspaper man today wonders
hcw his paper got along before the
telephone came into general use.
On some of the New York morning
papers there are reporters of the regu-
lar staff who do not see the office for
weeks or even months at a time. Their
salaries are sent them by messengers.
They receive their assignments by
telephone and after getting their
stories they telephone the facts to the
Office. IL the story is particular
rush" affair the reporter dictates in.
10 the receiver to the man in the Office
who raps it. off on a typewriter. Such a
reporters telephone tolls may mount
as high as forty or fifty calls" a day.
Some of the papers have a rule that
every reporter must call up the Office
once every half hBNr whether there
is any news to be given or not. Thus a
city editor may keep constantly In
touch with fifteen or twenty men Tor
assignments" and lis able to take a
man from comparatively unimpert-
ant assignment and send him "on the
jump" to the scene of a big story
For instance, that pleasant. spring
morning last year when the excursion
steamboat Geneal Slccum burned down
in New York harbor and thousand
lives were lost, was a busy one in
New York evening newspaper offices.
even before the disaster. There were
a score of small stories that had to be
covered" and there were few report
ers idle in the Office when the first
Tip" arrived via police headquarters
that horrible catastrophe was occur
ring above hell gate. So that when a
reporter would call up on the telephone
to report on his story, R hurried colo
guy like the following would occur
City Editor-"HelIo who's this?"
Reporter-"Th is Smithers. I've
got something on th&t fake banking
story and"
I'VE don't want it. Forget that
story and slide right up to the foot of
East 1SSth street. The General Slo-
en- is burning down off North Brother
island and we hear that women and
children are jumping into the water"
East 13Sth street? All right
wait a second. Have you any
money? Yes; good. Hire a tug if
necessary. T 'ephone right off Good
bye"
The reporters first instinct on
reaching the water front and realizing
the extent of the disaster was to Jump
on Il phone" as the newspaper YER
nacular has it. But the neighorhood
was composed of foundries and fac
tories there were no public telephones,
and the manufacturers were for the
most part averse to permitting strang-
ers to use their instruments. For a
time the lack of telephones held up the
story while city editors in the news
paper Offices eight miles away gnashed
their teeth and tore their hair. But
one business man proved himself TO be
possessed both Of rare kindness and
commercial acumen. He had opened
a new stone~cutting plant near the
river with a big Office building at
tached. and in the building six tele.
phone wires had just been installed.
He gave his telephones to the use Of
the reporters without charge. And
they were not ungrateful. For the
his plant received in the
evening papers was worth far more as
than the charge Tor extra
tolls.
The telephone is furthermore invalu-
able in a newspaper office in obtaining
long distance news in a hurry. 1t Of
len beats the telegraph as It did in
many cases last Nov ember when the
distance lines of the Bell system were
used for sending news of the presi-
Dental election over the country Man
ayers Of the companies made elaborate
arrangements to quickly transmit the
Bews beth to the pa Ders and other tele.
phone users. New York City was the
receiving headquarters with Chicago a
middle west station. Then headquar-
tiers were maintained in each state.
from rural districts were sent
10 these state centers and they were
later sent to New York. From New
York they were scattered over the
consuming about seven min
utes in transmission. As the Bell lines
reach nearly 10000 communities IN the
United States, this telephone election
seryice brought immediate news from
places witch otherwise would not have
been heard from until the next day,
and perhaps not then. II gave to ed
TORS the comforting assurance that in
close districts It would not be neces-
.ary to wait for weary hours until the
hack towns were heard from and be
ides that it kept the village weeklies
posted as well as the metropolitan
3ailies.
IN the early morning hours, when
the tension in the Ne.5 York newspa-
per Office is a its greatest. the tele-
phone is often called upon to annihi
late distance. For instance. a rail
road smashup on one Of the big lines
hat connect New York with the west
breaks loose" half an hour before an
EDITION IS due 70 20 to press. The tip
viii probably come to the Office from
he Jersey City man." who telephones
10 that he hears Of wreck at Squan-
.am Junction on tho c & x. Several
sersons hurt" The city editor has one
y his assistants call up the railroad
,ompany's Offices in Jersey City for