The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1907-10-04
HIS BIGGEST"
NEWS STORY

The biggest story D over un acloss
while connected with the Ncw York
press slept for 90 hours before s
newspaper office I'm the big city had
the slightest hint of it. and it was
only 30 miles away said Captain
Oscar Harley. Che other day. About
four years ago I was suburban re-
porter for several New York papers.
and also for one Of the leading papers
OF New Jersey. at Morristown One
afternoon couple of counc officials
came in from Hoonton. village OF
5000 about ten miles from Morris.
town. and casually remarked that one
Bul Hoar. a diver. had gone down
into 6O feet OF water 20 fix the siuice
gates and had not come up tele-
phoncd Boouinu and verified the in-
formation There was a man In nrmor
al the bottom of the reservoir. stil
alive and 10000 people standing on
the banks Watching him pull at the
signal ropes. and not newspaper In
the land knew &c. ] went o. the tele.
graph office on the Jump and told the
operator t0 connect me with every
newspaper Office in New York city
Surprised at such am order ho hest
tatcds Then / told HIM 90 call up The
general manarcr in New York and !
would explain Hc did $50 and as soon
as the manager understood The nature
of the message he instantly gave me
right of way I shot I'm what had
and then took the next train for Boon
ton. Among the constantly increasing
throng ON tho banks We're the editors
of two daily newspapers AT BOonton.
and they said they were waiting un-
til the man came up before wiring
their story. They were correspond.
ents for the city press just the same
as ! was
"When my message reached New
York 70 created excitement in all the
Offices. you may believe a special
train was chartered for the staff writ
crs. and before daylight artists and
reporters were bus.ly at work at the
unique scene. 70 was not the loss of
q mans life that made 10 great
story: but the marvellous character of
the situation There was a man. yet
alive. 60 feet below the surface ol Tho
water spasmo1icaiiy twifch.ng rope
which wc ai could see all Ao waJ %
help him
"a diver from New York went down
ana reported that Hmr's logs werc
pinioucl undor great wooden ball
loaded with lead which Do hai hoer
trying 20 RON aeoinst tho ouffa.o rinc
$50 as 90 stop tho low of water For
hours he had been compelled 90 rest
his head on his arms Co Keep from
drowning The diver could lot re-
lease him. hut Do put rocks under
Hoar's body so as 90 relieve him from
the painful position OF holding his
head with his arms
"a cable was lc. down and attached
around the unfortunate mans breast
hy the diver Horses were az the other
end and they tuegod and inegod but
could not release Hoar from the ball
which was pressing ms legs against
the out-take pipe Then an engine
was coupled 20 the cable and 81 broke
the cable
THE crowd stayed night and day
watching the uucanny scene. The ball
could not Dc rolled of the PROSTATE
mans legs on account of the tre-
mendous force of the water that was
pressing Il against him The only
thing 10 do was 90 repair and shut
the smice gates. which was finally
done. and Hoar was brought TO the
surface dead
81 made nearly $500 ont Of the story
because having been first to report e.
my stuff was given RIGHT of way and
most of the work done on IL was
credited 20 me One would think q
hardly possible that such an item
could remain unknown 10 the world
f0r 20 hours in q p0pulous district
ike northern New Jersey. but that
was the actual case The country
newspaper men who were on the
scene were so deeply interested in
the peculiar situation that none Of
them recalled their position as news
paper correspondents They were
printing. Of course. IN their little
dailies detailed accounts OF the a1ai;
as II progressed. but none OF them
seemed 10 grasp the Significance of
the story for the daily press
But after the ncwsboys got into
the game they made Iii Hoar who
nobody knew a week before the most
famous man for the time being on the
American continent