The Meeker herald., 1906-02-17
A NEWSPAPER SCOOP"
Example of the Average Man's Idea q
the Value Of News.

Example of the Average Man's Idea o
the Value Of News.
The average mans idea Of the value
of news is curiously Eebulous and cut
of line.
A Washington correspondent wns
walking toward his office the other
afternoon, trying to fix something In
his mind wherewith TO lead OF his
story Of the day in Washington. when
wildly excited man Of his acquaint-
ance grabbed him by the sleeve and
whirled him around.
Say. I've got the greatest piece of
news everw exclaimed the wildly-ex-
cited man, pantingly. 'Its a sensation
right! I'm the only man in town that
knows about it except the Navy De-
partment people, and they won't
peach! I've got blamed good notion
to give it to you exclusively, although
certainly ought to give it to the AS
ISOLATED Press-it's SO big, you know"
The correspondent had heard this
kind of a preamble before. but never
theless he thought that, after all, the
excited man might really have run
into piece of news of moderate worth
by accident.
what is it?" he inquired, without,
however, permitting the trapped pers-
piration to break out on his forehead
Lets have it."
"Oh, it's corkerw went on the man
with the stupendous sensation up his
sleeve. Cant give 1t to you here
somebody might overhear me, and
you'd lose the scoop of your life. Come
over to my office and I'll tell 1t to you"
So they repaired to the Office of the
man with the paralyzlng bit of news
You mentioned the Navy Depart
ment people," said the correspondent
on the way to the mans office. Who's
going to get court-martialed, and what
for? Who's"
"Oh, it's nothing like thatr' hoarsely
whispered the man with the colossal
scoop hid awny on his person. DIFF
ferent Kind of thing altogether. But
I'll tell you what, it'll be big thing
for you, and you want to be duly gra e.
full to me henceforth and forever for
passing 1t along to you exclusively!
1t 'ud be the making of some poor
struggling young correspondent. but
it's SO important that dor't fsel like
intrusting it to"
Say. ignite up-you're being extin-
gulshed." suggested the correspondent.
Come to taw. Is this"
"WeI. Til tell you what 1t Is" said
the excited man, bending his head over
close to the correspondents and look
ing around furtively to see that nobody
was rubbering. Its paint"
PAINT repeated the correspondent,
with mystified expression Paint?
Who's been painting? Is it red:
Where is
Its paint said the agitated man.
solemnly. pitching his voice still lower
and CHANGING about like an Italian
opera conspirator. "A Yankee genius
up in Connecticut has invented new
kind of paint to paint the bottoms of
ships of war. and I've been commits
stoned to bring this paint TO the atten-
tion of the Navy Department. Y'see.
the kind o. paint they use now on the
bottom of warships makes 1t necessary
to dock the boats and scrape them
every couple o. months while they're
cruising in tropical waters on account
of the barnacles and so on, y'under-
stand. Well. the barnacles and things
won't stick to this new kind o. paint,
and SO when it comes into use memo
war down in tropical wnters'll only
have to go into dry dock and be scraped
about every year or so. See? Amt
that a wonder? Wouldn't that scrape
you? Won't that Just make the Jap
war news look like zinc money when
you write four columns about this
paint for the first page of your paper:
Won't they Just wire you an increase
in salary, and"
And then the asitatcd man became
real huffy when the correspondent told
him that he was making noise some
thing like a brick.-Washington Star.