The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1907-05-02
HIS BIGGEST"
NEWS STORY

| Inc biggest story | ever run across
| while connected with the New York
press slept for 20 hours before
newspaper office in the big city had
| the slightest hint of it, and it was
only 80 miles away" said Captain
Oscar Harley, the other day. About
| four years ago | was suburban re-
| porter for several New York papers,
and also for one of the leading papers
| of New Jersey, at Morristown. One
afternoon a couple of county officials
came in from Boonton, a village Of
| 5000, about ten miles from Morris
town, and casually remarked that one
Bill Hoar, a diver, had gone down
into 60 feet of water to fix the sluice
| gates and had not come up. | tele-
phoned BoOnton and verified the in
formation. There was a man in armor
at the bottom of the reservoir, still
alive, and $4,000 people standing on
the banks watching him pull at the
signal ropes, and not a newspaper in
the land knew it! | went to the tele-
graph office on the jump and told the
operator to connect me with every
newspaper Office in New York city.
Surprised at such an order. he hest.
tated. Then | told him to call up the
general manager in New York and
would explain. He did so and as soon
as the manager understood the nature
of the message he instantly gave me
right of way. | shot in what | had
and tbar took tho pavt train for Room
ton. Among the constantly increasing
throng on the banks were 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 it created excitement in all the
offices, you may believe. A special
train was chartered for the staff writ
ers and before daylight artists and
reporters were busily at work at the
unique scene. 1t was not the loss of
a mans life that made 1t a great
story; but the marvellous character OF
the situation. There was a man, yet
alive, 60 feet below the surface of the
water spasmodically twitching rope
which we all could see and no way to
help him.
"A diver from New York went down
and reported that Hoar's legs We're
pinioned under a great wooden ball
loaded with lead, which he had been
trying to roll against the out-take pipe
so as TO stop the flow of water. For
hours he had been compelled to rest
his head on his arms to keep from
drowning. The diver could not re-
lease him, but he put rocks under
lIoar's body so as to relieve him from
the painful position of holding his
head with his arms.
"A cable was let down and attached
around the unfortunate mans breast
by the diver. Horses were at the other
end and they tugged and tugged, but
could not release Hoar from the ball
which was pressing his legs against
the out-take pipe. Then an engine
was coupled to the cable and 1t broke
the cable.
The crowd stayed night and day
watching the uncanny scene. The ball
could not be rolled off the PROSTATE
mans legs on account of the ire
mendous force of the water that was
pre- ng it against him. The only
thing to do was to repair and shut
the sluice gates, which was finally
| done and Hoar was brought to the
surface dead.
Il made nearly $500 out of the story,
| because having been first to report il
my stuff was given right of way and
most of the work done on 1t was
credited to me. One would think 1t
hardly possible that such an item
could remain unknown to the world
| for 20 hours in a populous district
! like 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 affair
as it progressed, but none of them
seemed to grasp the significance of
the story for the daily press.
"But after the newsboys got into
the game they made Bill IIoar, who
nobody knew week before, the most
/ o., e., a mn hHi on a