Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-07-14
NEWS BY TELEPHONE.
Editor Carpenter Does Not Think ths
. Hello a Complete Success.


Hello a Complete Success.
The editor Of The Daily Mail was
unable to attend the meeting Of the
State Press Association at Gaffney
last week, much to his regret. He was
on the programme to read a paper on
1.-The Use of the Telephone in Gather
ing the News" and II he had been
present this is what he would have
read:
The subject that has been assigned
me, 'The Use of the Telephone in
Gathering the News" reminds me of
the old negro's recipe for cooking the
rabbit, First get your rabbit"
You must first have a telephone,
and 1t must be in good working order
before you can do much news gather
Ing with it. And even then-but that
Is the point Of this paper.
am reminded at the outset of an
experience had some years ago while
running the Greenwood Index. It was
right after the Phoenix riot, in which
the negroes gave battle, and many of
them met sudden death, and the
nerves of the people in that section
were at high tension. One day a man
named Stacey Hiott, who lived at
Cross Hill. called me up over the tele-
phone, and a conversation like this
followed:
Hello; is that The Index ofice?"
We'll, this is Stacey Hiott a Cross
Hill"
The dickens you say! How did it
'Hiott Stacey Hiott at Cross HILL"
Yes; / understand. Anybody kill
"oh, hell. THIS :. Hiott; Stacey
Hiott; Stacey Hot :: Cross Hill"
"All right, old man. Glad you let
me know. Hold the fort and I'll get
some men and guns and come right
over on the next train"
1 went on down the street and
spread the news that there was a
race riot at Cross HILL" and men and
munitions Of war began to gathep
from the four quarters Of the town
and prepare for business. It was two
hours until train time, and some fell
low took notion that he would phone
over to Cross Hill and get more par
tloulars before we started. He 'phoned
all right, and you can imagine the re-
suit There was no riot, our expedi-
tion was called off, and 1t was up to
me to explain. and this could not do.
1t was not until two days later, when
! got letter from Stacey Hiott, ask
Ing me to please hurry along those
ehattel mortgages that he had been
'phoning for, that the explanation
dawned on me. carried Hiott's let
ter around town and showed 1t to
everybody. Some people accepted the
explanation. but have always had an
Idea that my reputation at Greenwood
suffered greatly just because of this
incident.
This illustrates one Of the points
that l want to make-that Is, that in
the use of the telephone II is very
easy to get names and initials wrong.
The names Hiott and Wyatt, Suther-
land and Sullivan, Gray and Day, and
a host Of others. are very easily mix
ed over the telephone. and this is true
of initials, such as B., c., D., and all
letters Of that sound, and A., j., K.
etc. And all of US know that to print
names wrong is the objectionable sin
In the newspaper business.
A telephone Is very good thing to
have at times, Of course, but I have
never found IL indispensable. am not
ready to have mine taken out, but IL
were forced to do without Il I
wouldn't care much. have used II
to good purpose, and then again when
/ have needed 1t worst Ii would lay
down on me.
Our telephone exchange in Ander-
son burned down last winter, and we
hod of, lie NJ
yet we got out as good a paper during
those six weeks. with as much local
news in 1t, as We do now with two
phones in the Office. connected with
some 500 or 1000 subscribers in An
derson county.
I do not encourage my reporters to
use the telephone very much. Sole
leather Is cheap, and besides I think
plenty Of exercise Is good for a re-
porter's health. And another thing,
II you work local item with the tele-
phone you get only that one item. But
If you go in person after the Item the
chances are that you will get one or
more others on the way.
You cannot gather news by sitting
In your office and using the telephone:
or at least that has been my exper-
ience. You can use the telephone
sometimes in following things up, or
to verify details, but even then IL is
not always satisfactory. Personal ap-
plication, meeting people face to face.
is the best way.
The telephone in the newspaper Of
flee Is chiefly a convenience for the
people who want to ask Information,
or to send in personals, want adver-
has had this experience, which has be-
fallen me more than once. I would
be absorbed in thought, trying to turn
off a Sunday editorial, when my tele-
phone would ring and / would take
down the receiver, and a fretful voice
would tell me:
"My paper didn't come in last night.
and don't understand 1t; you are so
careless up there, and"
Or:
"Say, my cow strayed off last night
and I want you to put piece In the
paper about her. She is a one-eyed
COW, and had short chain around
her horns, and"
And my fine thoughts shrivel up
and vanish In the fumes or my IAN
guage.
or again. you leave home directly
after supper, pleading extra work at
the office. You come home about 2
a. m, and when milady inquired where
you have been you put up the olu sons
and dance about an extra run or WORK,
and the help at the office being so no
account that you have to do 1t all. and
then she interrupts you with. why
I telephoned you three times. Cen.
trail said she rang your phone at least
a dozen times and she couldn't get
YOU" And you crawl in bed mutter-
ing something about that phone be-
ing out of fix more than half the time.
and. If they don't do better you are
going to have it taken out.
Seriously, I don't set any great store
by the telephone as an adjunct In
gathering the news. I have tried IL
in long distance work, in getting the
legislative reports and other stuff from
Columbia, but it was never satisfac-
tory. The telephone company mas
never given The Daily Mail reduced
rate that would be any advantage over
press telegraph tolls, and the mistakes
and uncertainties in the telephone SER
vice are so unsatisfactory that l pre-
fer the telegraph in mine. And In the
local work l prefer an industrious re-
porter who Is not afraid or ashamed
to do a little walking. My office tele-
phone is mainly for the use OF the
people who want to telephone things