The mirror., 1908-09-17

rescued ber-becoming great hero
and furnishing valuable news story 6
when items were scarce. It was long q
time before it was discovered that the &
whole thing was fake and put-up
job. However, for the moment, the ]
story made good reading, and was a
two-dsys' wonder.
As large as New York is news in
that great city is oftentimes scarce.
New Workers are interested only in
their own city, and a well-Written re-
port of dog-6ght on the Bowery is of
more consequence to. the average New
Yorker than the election of president.
What interests the New Yorker most
of all is local news and when that
commodity is scarce city editors of the
metropolis are at their wits ends. One
day in a leading newspaper office in
that town the city editor called one of
his star reporters to his desk and said
to him: "DOc, local news is shy today.
Go out and stir up something" "What
shall I dO" asked Doc. "Suggest
something" "Well." said the city edi-
tor, "go out and stop the Broadway
cable cars. That will make good
story-tying up 100 cars and getting a
half million people to swear at the
company" Doc went out and stood
on the down town track of the Broad
way cable. He waved his arms fran
tically as the first car approached and
appeared to be greatly excited. The
grlpman jumped off the car, soon fol-
lowed by the conductor, both lnquiring
in breathless haste as to what was ex-
citing him. He handed the conductor
his card showing he was connected
with one of New York's leading dailies
and that sort of all Introduction estab-
lished confidence Immediately. "Mat-
ter" said Doc, "There's bunch of
dynamite under that slot big enough
to blow up the lower section of the
town. Don't move your car or yon
are likely to set it off. 1t was just put
there by a drunken, discharged en-
plOyee," he explained. Instantly there
was great excitement. The company
wrecker was sent for but the crew were
afraid to monkey with it. The fire de-
partment was sent for. The laddies
refused to have anything to do with it
, as eating up or locating dynamite Was
not in their list of duties and officials
of the company were notified and it
was deemed best to rip up the street
, in careful way and thus locate the
deadly explosive. This was done and
, in the meantime more than 500 Broad
> way cars were stalled for several
r hours. Doc returned to the office wrote
3 star-gazing, blood-curdling story
i about $500 Broadway cars being tied
up, dynamite under the slot" ali that
: sort of thing-and got out redheaded
0 extra. III the interim a careful search
. had been made for the dynamite aud
Q none could be found. Car service was
9 resumed without incident or accident
; One of the company officials called OH
Doc at the Office for an explanation
: wanted to know why he played such a
8 dastardly trick on his corporation
D causing q loss of fully $4,000 in fares
Q "Why did l do ity" rejoined Doc
o "Why did l do it? First-to get q
t good news story and secondly to dem.
. Onstrate how easy it would be for some
9 one to put piece of dynamite in the
Q Broadway cable slot and blow up q
9 good piece Of the city" And there the
g matter dropped.
: Recording news and making new
y are two entirely different propositions
It Many successful reporter will tell
s you newspaper making to large ex
r tent consists of imagining situation'
: and then working up news stories t.
y fit them. For example, the Hon. Johl
70 Corntassel is mentioned for the legis
y lature by his local paper as matter O
10 taffy or buncombe. Shortly after tn,
IS appearance of the item the Hon. John
% friends call OH him one by one and say
le "John, hear they are talking of yo'
d for the Legislature. Go in and win.
le Finally the Hon. John begins to believ
6 he is the right man. for. the piace-an,
gets into the swim. Sometimes he
n elected and then again sometimes he ]
y buncoed by his good friends. At an
id rate the country editor stirred up som
id excitement and probably in the mear
! -.