Gilpin observer., 1907-05-09
HIS BIGGEST"
news STORY

"The biggest story ever run across
while connected with the New York
press slept for 20 hours before a
newspaper oifice in the big city had
the slightest hint of it, and it was
only 30 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, 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. l tele-
phoned Boonton and verified the in
formation. There was 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 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 hesi-
tated. Then told him to call up the
general manager in New York and l
would explain. He did so and as soon
as the manager understood the nature
of the message he instantly gave me
right of way. l shot in what l had
and then took the next train for Boon
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 l 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
mans life that made It 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 a 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 were
| pinioned under 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
Ho7r'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 outtak pipe. Then an engine
was coupled to the cable and it 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 tre-
mendous force of the water that was
pressing 1t 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 it was
credited to me. One would think il
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 oi
the story for the daily press.
But after the newsboys got into
the game they made Bill Hoar, who
nobody knew a week before, the mos
famous man for the time being on the
American continent"
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