The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-06-20
BY WILLIAM HELEN JOHNSTON

iNhg''''h
ese war and all the world is on keen
est edge for news
In New York city the editor of ma
tional publication Sits at his desk, por'
ing over war map. Alongside hls
drumming fingers is stack of pink
cablegrams, stamped Toxic. They are
from his war correspondents, and one
of them gives vital news. it reads:
Battle imminent
Only two words, but they arc Of vast
import They Indicate the outbreak OF
Il war which may make and unmakc
great world power, perhaps cmbroll
Europe and disturb The balance Of in
ternatlonal peace.
Now IS the critical moment. Scv-
eral hundred thousand readers are look
ing 10 The publication for correct de
tails and photos OF the mighty strug
gle. The editor has suddenly become
general in chief of mon. HIS hori-
zon has broadencd beyond tho oceans.
That distant cloud, the smoke of the
first momentous conflict, concerns him
now. He must manoeuyTn his forces,
He holds in his hands printer S
proof Of a large advertisements which
will shortly appear all over the coun-
try. il shows n powerful hand from
which ribbons radiate in all directions
to Toxic aud ST. Petersburg. TO the
ports and principal cities or strategetic
DplHlS III hDTH1. InS DTbnablt seat or
the war to be. At the end of each rib
bon is the namo Of q war correspond
net or photographer. These arc his
forces of battle.
He put his pencil at the terminal
point OF one ribbon and Just under the
printed name of war photographer,
Then he shifts the pencil an inch to
lively at the name of n port, to be
famous henceforth rs the seat of the
first conflict
Obviously this man and his camera
ought to he right thcrc-this minute,
OF coursei Why not? Just an inch to
the left; that's all.
Already he has an enthuscd vision
Of splendid. thrilling double page
photos the first TO appear in any pub
lication the world over. They are his.
already-wlth a move of his pencil
point an inch to the left. Done!
Bang, He rings for a boy and sends
this cable to the war photographer an
Japanese feet Answer" Then, in
intense but confident suspense, he waits
for reply.
The nature of that reply depends al
together upon the caliber of that war
photographer.
That inch TO the left move means
more than three hundred miles in Korea
uuuNiti iHl'tS VI I'S
rice fields, frozen rivers, slippery, dan
gerous, almost inaccessible mountain
passes and cliff roads. zero weather.
trenchcrous, thieving coolies for aids.
scarcity Of water, an every minute
battle of wits with the infinitely skill
full secret service and war departments
OF the imperial government of Japan,
That's the photographer S move.
The very receipt of the cablegram
finds him, perhaps, half frozen, hungry,
suffering from sIecpless nights and
long days spent in desperately pushing
forward, eXasperated by tricks and re-
buffs, surrounded by spies, perhaps i'm.
prisoned. But even then his reply will
depend upon has caliber and wits.
In ihe instance cited it came speedily
and it read: F'All right The editor
smiled benignly, geefully, looked self
consciously superior and issued an
other bulletin: "'Our correspondent and
photographer is now with the Japanese
fcet,'
Arrival OF the Photos.
The several hundred thousand read,
crs surveyed the bulletin with interest
and waited For two months they read
editorials on general topics, light fic-
tiou. poems and anecdotes. Then the
photos came, as soon rs they could pos
sibly have been expected They were
not OF the neet-those came later-but
they were so vivid, so wonderful SO
complete, that even the editor forgot
altogether about the specific order i'll
his cublegram.
This same bulletin was read by other
editors, however, who were immediate
" filed with envy and also sent cables
TO their representatives.: 'FJoin Japan
csc fleet at once
The correspondents read them and
said things.
One. who was English and literal,
jumped up and down upon his frost bit.
ten feet and yelled: Extrawn 'ary,
Preposterous, Both of which are
wicked English oaths. When his feel,
ings had subsided he answered in this
wise; "Utterly impossible Held by
further orders were: ''Come back -
Later, at the close Of the war, he
met Jones and regarded him envious-
ly. "You were with the fleet said
he.
"Not at all" said Jones. 81 was
foo busy taking photographs of the
first army and It's battles. -
The Englishman regarded him sol
emnly for several minutes, Would
you mind cabling my paper to that eff
fect?'' he asked. ST ID like TO get my
place back.
No ono but the war photographer
himself knows what hardships he must
experience, what obstacles be must sur
mount. Back Of each photo there is
often n story Of the taking Of 1t as
thrilling as the war scene itself.
We are apt to forget that the photog
rapher s presence was required there
The correspondent may be writing his
vivid battle news-gleaned from the
''gogoio' daily newspapcrs) )-at tea
table in Toxic, But the scenes OF sink
ing battlcships, or battlcfields smoky
with bursting grapnel, or ice covered
rivers where often an entire regiment
went through the trcachcrous surface,
or trenches aud biyouacs on snow GOV
cred. forbidding plains and mountains,
al required man and camera near at
hand There is rs yet no way of taking