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

| For instance, that pleasant, spring
morning last year when the excursion
| steamboat General Slocum burned
| down in New York harbor and a thou
sand lives were lost, was rather 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
| reporters idle in the office when the
| first tip arrived via police headquar-
tiers that horrible catastrophe was
occurring above He'll Gate. So that
when a reporter would call up on the
telephone to report on his story, a
hurried colloquy like the following
would occur:
City Editor-Hellol who's this?
Reporter-This is Smithers. I've got
something on that fake banking story
and
I'VE don't want it. Forget that story
| and slide right up to the foot of East
13Sth street. The General Slocum 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. Telephone right off. Good
by"
The reporters first instinct on reach
ing the water front and realizing the
extent of the disaster was to Jump
on phone as the newspaper vernacu-
lar has it. But the neighborhood was
composed OF foundries and factories,
there were no public telephones, and
the manufacturers were for the most
part averse to permitting strangers to
use their instruments. For a time the
| lack of telephones held up the story
while city editors in the newspaper
offices eight miles away CRASHED their
4 N14fw
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 big office building attached, and
and in the building six telephone wires
had just been installed. He gave his
| telephones to the use of the reporters
| without charge. And they were not
| ungrateful. For the mention his plant
| received in the evening papers was
worth far more as advertising than the
| charge for extra telephone tolls.
The telephone is furthermore invalu-
able in newspaper office in obtaining
long distance news in hurry. 1t often
| beats the telegraph, as il did in MANY
cases last November when the long dis
lance lines of the Bell system were used
Tor sending news Of the presidential
| election ever the country. Managers
! OF the companies made elaborate ar
rangements to quickly transmit the
news both to the papers and other tele-
phone users. New York city was the
| receiving headquarters, with Chicago
a middle west station. Then head
quarters were maintained in each state
messages from rural districts were
| sent TO these state centers and they
| were later sent to New York. From
| New York they were scattered over the
country, consuming about seven min
p N Cr1l fCCfn A-r 81 an
reach nearly 10000 communities in the
| United States, this telephone election
| service brought immediate news from
! places which otherwise would not have
| been heard from until the next day.
and perhaps not then. 1t gave to edi-
tors the comforting assurance that in
| close districts 1t would not be neces-
sary TO wait for weary hours until the
| back towns were heard from, and be-
| sides that ii kept the village weeklies
| posted as well as the metropolitan
dailies.
In the early morning hours. when
| the tension In the newspaper office is
| at its greatest, the telephone is often
| called upon to annihilate distance For
instance, a railroad smashup on one of
| the big lines that connect New York
with the west breaks loose" half an
hour before an edition is due to go to
press. The tip will probably come to
thC OAiSc IIOHl the Jersey City man.,
who telephones in that he hears of a
wreck at Squantum Junction on the
| {. & X Several persons hurt" The
| city editor has one of his assistants
| call up the railroad company's office in
| Jersey City for confirmation of the re-
| port, and then hunts up Squantum
junction in the railway guide. 1t is a
| little crossing about fifty miles from
New York 1t is not in the telephone
book.
Hello. long distancei" calls the city
| editor, taking the telephone receiver
from the hands of a nervous reporter.
Give me the nearest central to Squan-
tum Junction, n. j.
| In minute the required central is on
the wire. Perhaps Central herself
can give information of the wreck: at
| any rate she knows enough of the
neighborhood to connect him with
someone of intelligence near the scene
possibly in the railroad station itself
and in very short interval the
newspaper has a story comprehensive
enough to make the edition" and the
| paper goes to press on time.
| BY means of the telephone a news
l paper can seek out and keep in touch
| with news when all other mediums fail
When the British freight steamship
| Drumelzier went ashore off Fire island
in thick fog early last winter, the
New York papers had great difficulty
IN getting any news at all for a time
Fire island winter wrecks are the bane
of the newspapers, because in winter
the place is often almost as inaccessi-
Die as the North pole and farther off In
| point or news getting than San Fran
cisco or London. Two telegraph conn
panies each have a wire from Fire is
land. but when the Drumelzier went
ashore one of these wires had been put
out of business altogether by a storm
and the other was only working ir-
regularly One newspaper, which
started to root.out news of the Drumel-
| zler by telephone discovered that Fire
island had no felenhnne- axcan4 tl.a