Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1907-01-24
Ask Your DrngSisf for Free Perunl
Almanac for 1907.
a BIG E A SCOOP.
How II Was Effected in Ante ee,lum
DAYS.

From the WASHINGTON Star.
Talking about newspaper work in ante
oelium days and journalistic scoops of tbs
lays before the southern states left the
union. an Old correspondent. who was on.
OF the most active Of the corps of the toll
erS OF those days. yesterday related to
two or three friends an incident in which
he beat the whole field OF n~ewsgathes
and came In with dying colors.
lit was much more difficult IN those
days he mentioned. Ito get possession,
OF anything III the na ture OF state secrets
than it Is row. l was quite a young man
at the tirae ! secured the scoop that l ar,
going to tell you about. as. of course. all
OF you know. 1 was the representative in
Washington of n leading New York paper
one that did not receive excuses when
svcr it's representatives. were scooped. I
had Il large number OF friends and ac-
Quaintances who We're men in prominent
public positions. and through their friend
illness. and. ] may add. because OF their
confidence in me. + managed to keep pref
ty generally in tho front ranks of the
procession.
There were negotiations pending for a
very important treaty between this GOV
:rnmcnt and u foreign nation. At last IL
was settled upon. and It was determined
to have Il printed and a copy sent in an
envelope marked confidential to every
member of the senate. Until II was con
trmed it was to be as carefully guarded
from publicity as was within the range
of possibility. My paper had advised M,
that it was absolutely necessary that
should get a copy OF this treaty. and T
knew that II I did not set 1t, and som,
other fellow among the active men he..
did get 1t. l might as we'll hang my harm
on the willow.
There was one senator who was a very
good friend of mine. l had been able To do
several small favors for him and he appre-
ciated the fact. TO him ! went. thoneh I
knew him to be rather timid about reveal
Ing great secrets. I called him out of the
senate chamber and asked him II senator's
had not been supplied with a copy of the
treaty. He answered me in the affirmative.
and l then asked him to let me get a
glimpse at 1t and get some idea of 1t. To
this my friend stoutly dcmurred and
frankly told me that he was afraid lest I
should divulge in some way the source OF
my 1 assured him on NV
word of honor that l would not. I said To
him that 1 would suffer to have my hand
cut OF before l would be SO dishonorable.
Well. at last he loaned it to me and I hid
myself away. copied the full text of the
treaty and brought the document in it's en-
velope. marked confidential. back to the
senator.
The entire text was published in my
paper next day. and you may believe there
was q stir. John Sherman and several
members OF the committee on foreign re.
!attons were wild. and Sherman that vary
day In executive session. az I found out.
called upon senator's to rise In their place.
and asked II they had the confidential doc.
ument in their possession to show t.. Ey.
cry senator respected his request. Ny sen
ator held up his copy (of course he had II.
Is I returned it to him in person) ana ,hc
mystery remained. sherman sant for me
and asked me where 1 got hold Of Il. ana
7 TOLD him he could not learn anything
from me. 4 would not tell yox.' sai6 e
him. Tor q hundred thousand dollars.'"