Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1906-09-12

again looked Tor her she had disappear
ed from view. The weather was some
what hazy and the wind very high,
have disappeared in the mist. Contin-
uing our walk on to Ottens' pier and
still keeping sharp lookout for the
/ Ito us) mysterious boat, we finally
made out an object which seemed at
first to be buoy. Finally we could
see that it was the upturned hull of a
vessel and that there were men cling
! ing to the smooth bottom, and wave
after wave was washing over them,
and many people could be seen rum
ming down to the beach at Anglesea,
while boats We're putting out to the res
cue. We then FASTENED into the
HotelOttens and taking the elevator up
to the top floors we were soon on the
roof and we could then see the whole
tragedy in its cruel reality.
The launch that plies between Stone
Harbor and Anglesea we saw twice get
near the drifting wreck, but alas ! she
twas near and yet too far" Then other
crafts tried to get to it and the life boat
could be seen pulling past her and then
turning came the back stretch with each
oarsman backing water but the fury of
the waves and storm carried the rescuers
past the struggling survivors. Once
more the life boat turned, and in the
very teeth of the gale, slowly but sure
ly, the gallant life savers pressed on,
until the floating hull was reached and
the few nearly exhausted men taken
off. We saw the life boat return with
her salvage of human freight, and then
we descended to the street and boarded
a street car
We were informed that the wrecked
boat was the Rupert III, that 80 men
and two women were aboard, and that
Is were reported lost. Thinking that
one of the best things that / could do
would be to see the proper man to
write and wire the story to the outside
world, and that he should do it with
out any eXaggeration, as the truth, il
the report given us was true, in itself
was surely bad enough, | for
tunately met Geo. G. Connor, the
representative in Wildwood of five
of the Philadelphia newspapers. Hur-
riedly telling him of what we had seen of
ourselves and what we had been told Mr..
Connor at first couldn't credit the story
as there was no sign of any excitement
in Wildwood, but when he realized
that he was listening to the story of Il
veritable ship wreck with serious loss
of human lives, his newspaper mans
instinct started him off to the scene of
the disaster as quickly as the electric
current could propel him. We all
know that newspaper men are con-
stantly floating around looking for the
unexpected and here was the "uneX-
pected" with vengeance. Arriving at
Anglesea he found everybody"u i'll the
air." after the heroic rescues by Capt
Ludlam's volunteer crew, Con-
nor was asked to make the Coroner's
official list of survivors, which he sue
ceeded in reducing to writing, then by
giving the officials their first authentic
data to go on, he asked each conscious
survivor for facts and incidents of the
tragedy and he speedily noted such data
all down. He soon learned that other
! of 10 nj
papers were on the ground taking
notes and he resolved to get beat on
them if he could. There was but one
wire out of Anglesea, and fortunately
for COnnor, the man who handled the
key on that lone wire was friend of
his, and with his notes in his head and
a few written ones i'll his pocket he
made bee-line for the little Office
told the operator that he wanted the
door locked and that he wanted his
exclusive services until he had gotten
all of his story ON the wire. This the
operator promised to do. They had
gotten fairly started to work when
some other reporters knocked for adj
mittance, but Connor held the fort and
held it for good. The operator was O.
L. Biyins, aud he was the "real thing
for such an emergency, being a rapid
and correct manipulation of the "key." "
He got a cigar in his mouth, rolled up
his shirt sleeves and started pounding
the keys at about p. M, and kept at
it continuously for ten hours. He ate
his supper with one hand and kept the
"wire hot'' with the other. During
this period over %, 900 words were sent
to the five morning newspapers. .Connor
received personally forty kilograms from
7 p. N. until midnight on that tragical
Sunday night, each one giving him