The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-12-23
front picked his way among the debris

front picked his way among the debri.
Of the street.
Day suttinsly it. Boss. Plenty of EN-
| People drowned and killed all up ana
down de water front. l des dunno how
many folks was killed and drowned in
dat storm. l spec dey WIZ mOre'n Z
hundred"
At any rate the trip was not chase OF
! phantom news 1t was worth taking
| Tnere was work To do. a story to write
and | felt the newspaper mans itch for
a pencil and paper.
| | was on the wrecked and tangled wa
1 ter front a few minutes later, The hack
! man had allowed his enthusiastic pride
( in the magnitude of his city's misfOr-
/ tune TO do violence to the truth. But
the truth was bad enough-the truth was
too bad and too pititul. II was too big
/ a story for one mans handling. The
possibilities of IL were too rich for one
! mans harvesting. In the news richness
! spread before him the best he could do
would be to garner the richest and the
rareSt.
The man who uses his legs and his wits
| for a newspaper develops an occult, sub
| tie sense. which defies his understand
ing and challenges intelligent eXplans-
! ton. II seizes hold of him some time,
draws him out OF the rut of routine and
drives him contrary to- his judgment to
unknown and unsupported mines of in
terest IL wins him away from the things
he would do naturally and impels him to
new and unused paths. But all for Il
purpose.
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 no less appreciated because its
existence was ;;nsuspected. No train ed
newspaper man doubts that he has been
moved by this strange intinCt-no news
paper man attempts any explanation of
IT,
But the instinct that draws a man
from the beaten path and leads him to
far more real than Falstaff's loyal in
stinct which would not allow him to
strike his true Prince, although his true
Prince came at him in the dark, dressed
In buckrSm.
For every reason | should have hur-
ried to the main wharvcs and the rail-
road wharveS where the biggest vessels
were wrecked and where the storm had
destroyed most in dollars, but on my
WAY hurrying hayward, the news i'm
pulse, intangible and indefinable but pow
erful for all that. turned me aside from
my conceived purpose. IL led me on an
inconsequential way down side street
ending in what had been cheap and
rotting wharf where only. launches made
their landings After the storm the
wharf was nothing but matchwood. What
was the use OF 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 1t was
the life boat of the island lie saving
shining white outfit leaned against the
nearby piling. The first instinct had not
erred.
The life saving station had been de-
passed from lip to lip that the crew. with
its women and children. had been swept
into the bay. The tidy sailor In the
duck uniform and the neat life boat rid
~ f1NA fhkA n
this disquieting rumor but they gave the
news hunter the clue TO a great story and
indicated the occult influence that had
led his steps away from his original pur-
pose.
drew the story out of the white clad
sailor-the vital story of men battling
with the enraged elements, not so much
for their own lives. but the lives of the
women and children who trusted them
and hope the story of the fight, fought
out in the hurricane with a world of
inky blackness overhead. and an tnfuriat-
ed ocean of water underneath. The
shapeiy young sailor told this great story
quite simply as my questions drew 1t out.
picked the points out OF II and jotted
them down on the back of an envelope.
The two of u.s. one talking and the
other writing. drew knot of the curious
who had been idly inspecting the trail
OF the storm. A heavy set man of mid
die age. with a sailors shirt and wool
coat pushed his uncertain way through
the knot OF the curious. The new conner
was a member of the crew, and of duty
he had fallen back on liquor to settle his
nerves. torn by the narrowing memories
of his awful fight with the storm.
He was bibulously determined to have
q hand In the story making. He showed
slender. dark bottle between his quieter.
better behaved mate and the interroSa-
tive newspaper man.
law. have drink
He was waved aside and the ques-
tioning proceeded. But he was genially