The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1908-06-02
THE STAR
REPORTER
By ROSE STAHL
(CopyriSht.)

once. Please note the past tense. l
was q newspaper wOman-and l was
a failure, q cheerful failure, as one
II l tried to become a newspaper wom'
an 1t was because that was the
natural thing for me to do, my Ia
Their being a newspaper man.
There was one point of view from
which l was a great success as a news
paper woman-the point Of view Of
those who didn't want to have their
names appear in print. I was sent out
to get Stories" and promptly fell
down" on them. l was too sympa
thetic, that was the trouble. I wept
with the bereaved widow OF the bur
glar who hadn't been quick enough
with his gun" and had been killed by
his intended victim, when l should
have gotten her story and photograph.
The other papers had them next day.
But what l started out to say was
that on the paper there was an old
reporter-not old in years but in
newspaper experience-and, II any
thing, he had developed the news.
paper habit OF regarding everything
as happening just to get published. to
an wen greater degree than the city
editor-if such q thing we're possible
This reporter was great on scoops"
He had that valuable thing in news
paperdom. "a nose for news" A news
paper usually pays double rates for
beats" and this reporter consider
ably added to his bill every week by
the exclusive stories he turned In.
Yet he was neither an exceptionally
bright man nor q brilliant writer. But
he was the kind of man who knows
news when he sees it, and who, when he
got on the track Of an exclusive story.
never let 1t get away from him. /
don't know that a bulldog is especially
intellectual, but he usually accom-
plishes his object by hanging on. That
- what this reporter did. He hung
on. AS a writer he told his story in q
Straightforward, logical way and with.
out frills. "Castiron' Is the term ap.
piled to this style of writing in news
paper Offices, and 1t is a style that is
safe and, in the long run lasts.
He himself never told US when he
became engaged to be married, but
the fact leaked out, as such things
will. and the city editor. who naturally
had great admiration for him, wrote q
little congratulatory paragraph about
it and put it in the paper. Whether
he liked it or not the reporter did 10:
say, nor did the fact that he was n
gagged make any difference in the
hours he put in at work, and l often
wondered when it was he found time
to see his fiancee. In fact. even when
we heard Of his engagement, we had
wondered how he had found time be.
tween scoops" to meet the girl. let
alone become engaged to her. until
We learned that the police captain in
his precinct was her guardian. Then
we concluded that he had met he,
through the captain. who always sent
for him when he had . good news
story to give out.
remember the interest with which
j WdlCACu IT'LL " AOlC WnCIA1CI A0
would let up a little on his work. 80
that he could see his girl now and
then, or whether he would work all
the harder, although 1t didn't seem
to me that anybody possibly could put
in more hours at work than he did al
ready. What actually happened was
that he didn't make any change in hia
work at all. He went right on just
as II nothing unusual had happened,
scoring his beats" and writing up hie
stories in his customary "cast-iron"
way. Somehow 1t seemed to me that
he looked on his engagement as an
ordinary. 'cast-iron" affair, and l. be,
ing perhaps a trifle sentimental. o
dered If any girl long could be salts
fed with an engagement Of that sort.
One day, about a week before the
date set for the wedding, l was at the
telephone and, as sometimes hap
pens, instead of my call going out, a
cali for the office came over the wire.
A girls voice, somewhat vexed. I
thought, asked for the reporter. l told
her he had gone On an assignment.
"Oh!" she exclaimed In a voice that
was out and out annoyed. Then she
said something to a person who evi
IDENTIFY was al the phone with her.
Zone moment, please" she said to me,
and then q mans voice came over the
wire.
"Hello!-Who's this?-Oh, it's you,
Miss Stahl. Pm" (the police cap
tain's son, whom I had met once Or
twice on occasions when l had been
sent to get small stories from his ia.
ther). Have you any idea when
CharleyM be back?"
mot till late tonight. The assign.
ment's an out-of-town one-a big
story"
well, now that makes It very
awkward for Sadie. He promised her
two pasteboards for the matinee to
day. That was early in the week, and
she hasn't seen or heard from him
since. II you were engaged to a man.
Miss Stahl, even to a newspaper man,
wouldn't you expect him to drop q
big story now and then to come to