Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-11

Dow was subsequently, promoted to the COM
mand OF the Caronla; but he remembers the
incident of the fight story, and although 1t
actually occurred as reported, Captain BOWS
conversation with newspaper men is limited
to, How do you do, gentlemen: Pleasant
weather"
The Saw of the Sawfsh
SOMETIMES real news OF the is on the
~ ebb, and the ship news reporter has to
stimulate his imagination somewhat to conJure
ND a yarn O. the deep. Sunday in the summer
is an exceptionally dull day; but there are
usually in port a few deep water shippers and
mates not averse to giving the foundation tor
an impossible tale, and willing to vouch tor It's
validity after the reporters have embel1shed 1t.
The West Indian fruit steamer Baker, now
wreck on Colorado Reef, came to port one
Sunday morning when news was scarce, and
Captain Oerte1 was asked If he had ever seen
a Sawflsh action.
"Ah! You barbarians are looking for mush
for your papers,, he replied Yes. l nave
seen many sawtish; but / have not time now
to spin out a yarn. Go as far as you like with
your stories of the sawfish l have seen"
On Monday the readers of various New York
morning newspapers We're informed, TO the
tune of a column, of how the Baker stopped
one hundred and twenty miles SOU sou east OF
Hatteras to lend saw to the skipper OF
three-masted schooner, rammed IN the stern
by a monster sawfish. The saw OF the sawfsh
served as a jiggermast; but the body OF the
prevented the little three-master from steering.
After standing by till the saw of the sawfish
was severed, and the borrowed saw returned to
him, Captain Oertel was quoted as saying that
through his glass he saw the wooden leg OF the
schooners carpenter sawed off by the stub OF
a saw remaining on the nose OF the liberated
monster The story, highly inconsistent as it
was was accepted for this feature alone, and
appeared on the first pages.
Tales from the Arctic
A WHALER that had been cruising IN the
Arctic and came to New York tor repairs,
was lowed up the bay one Sunday afternoon
when news was scarce, and was boarded by the
press gang The master told about shooting ten
polar bears with one-brass ball, which he always
found intact in the bodies of the animals after
hitting them, and declared too by all the gods
of the ancients that he had seen revolving
iceberg.
The next morning he learned through the
papers that he had sent the mate and two men
to the top OF an iceberg to chop the fresh pre-
cipitation for drinking water. As the mate
and his men were about to descend to leeward,
a great wall of ice broke off on the windward
side, and the huge berg began to revolve, the
impetus being good for at least two hours
After treading the icy mountain until they had
formed chute girdle. around it, the three
sailormen were suddenly shunted by the mo-
mentum into the fore rigging OF the whaler,
the force of their flying bodies pok1ng her nose
into the wind.
But these light exercises OF the IMAGINATION
are the exception. For the most part, the ship
news men are pursuers of stern and elusive
fact; and the columns of the American news
papers show how successful is their pursuit.
Must Know Everything
ONE OF the most essential features of round
~ ing up the news on the liners IS good
general knowledge of current events and some
thing of the doings of persons in the public
eye. 1t is thing to find man on a crowded
steamer; it is quite another thing to get a
story after finding him, and unless the re-
porter knows something of the man and his
business, it is folly to attempt to interview
him. The reporter doing general work, as
signed to see some prominent person, has time
to look up his history. Not so with the ship
news reporter, who often knows not whom he
is going to meet when he boards steamer at
Quarantine.
The press gang, then, has to be sort of
mental backwater of all that IS going on. to be
successful in the strenuous game OF news hunt
ing. Not even difference in tongues stands
between the ship news reporter and story.
An Interview Under Difficulties
HIS determination under this handicap is
- illustrated best perhaps in recent inter-
view with Escoffier the great French chef who
arrived at New York recently on the Deutsch-