The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-16

on de water front. Det water front Is .des bodaciously destroyed. ships done wrecked here, dar and eayerwhere. storm des grab hold of dem shipsand smash en in pieces right against de towR."
 Any lives lost" was tho next aues- tion the fare asked as the bony any, nal in front picked his way among ths debris of the street.
 @Day sutting1y is, BOSS Plenty ot 'em. People drowned and killed all up and down de water front. des dunno how many folks was Killed and drowned In dat storm I oect dey wuz more'n a hundred"
 At any rate the trip was not a chase of phantom news. It was worth talk ing. ThereA Awas work to do. a story to write and Iefelt the newspaper mans itch for a pencil. and paper.
 a | was on the wrecked and. tangled water front few minutes later. The hackman had allowed his enthusias- tic pride in the magnitude of his city's misfortune to do violence to the truth. But the truth as bad onOugh-the truth was too bad and too pitiful. It was too big a story For one mans handling. The possibilities of it were too rich for one mans harvesting. Tn the news richness spread before him the best he could do would be to gar ner the richest and the rarest
 The man who uses his legs and his wits for a newspaper develops an osS cult, subtle sense, which defiies his understanding and challenges intelli- gent explanation. It seizes hold of him some time. draws him out of the rut of routine and drives him contra ry to his Judgment to unknown and unsuspected mines of interest II wins him away from the things he would do naturally and impels him to new and unused paths, But all for a pur- pose.
 He who follows his occult instinct finds always the reward. He who takes the strange path his mystic prompter urges, finds the treasure of. the story whose value Is TO less ap- preciated because its existence was unsuspeeted No trained newspaper man doubts that he has been moved by this strange instinct--no newspa- per man attempts any explanation of It.
 But the instinct that draws a man from the beaten path and leads him to the hidden story Is no less potent and far more real than Falstaff's loyal instinct which would not allow him to strike his true Prince, although his true Prince came at him in the dark, dressed In buckram.
 For every reason I should have hur- ried to the main wharves and the railroad wharves where the biggeft vessels were wrecked and where the storm had destroyed most in dollars, but on my way. hurrying hayward the news impulse, intangible and indetina- ble but powerful for all that, turned me aside from my conceived purpose It led me on an ineonSequential way down a side street ending in what a oh ppffImo VVhnFF where only launches made their land- ings After the storm the wharf was nothing but matchwood. What was the use oG wasting rich time on this when so much of rich value was at hand?
 But among the twisted wreckage an odd. strongly built row boat all clean and white rocked on the waves, It was the life boat of the island life say ing station and q tidy young fellow in shining white outfit leaned against the nearby piling. The first instinct had hot erred.
 The life saving station had been de- stroyed. All the morning rumors had passed from lip to lip that the crew, with it's women and children, had been swept into the bay. The tidy sailor in the duck uniform and the neat life boat riding among the wreckage gave the lie to this disquieting rumor but they gave the news hunter no clue 10 a great story and vindicated the occult influence that had led his steps away from his original purpose.
 I drew the story out of the white clad sailor-the vital story of men bat tling with the enraged clements. not so much for their own lives, but for the lives of the women and children who trusted them and hope the story of the fight, fought out in the hurri- cane with a world of inky blackness overhead, and an infuriated ocean of water underneath. The shapely young sailor told this great story quite simp-