Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1909-10-15

lean fighter. whether he comes from
the North or the South: THE sol
diers are perfectly reckless Of their
lives" he said, and at every shot
jump upon the ramparts and then
jump down, cheering" The Tribune
went to its readers with the proud
consciousness that it had done every
thing possible to a great Journal iE
covering the Sumter affair, and doubt
less its readers thought so, too.
On the morning of July %, 1861, Ii
plastered itself with glory an inch
thick. and one can imagine without
difficulty the smile that spread itself
over the benign features of Uncle
Horace" when he picked up the paper
from his desk and saw that 1t had not
been beaten upon the battle of Bull
Run. To this wrestle OF the gods and
Titans nearly page Is devoted-ths
fifth page. The headlines are still oDe
column wide, and. in the light of these
latter days, read Queerly. Here ara
some Of them: Great Battle
Fought" THE Batteries Of Bulls Rum
Captured" Splendid Union Victory"
"A Death Blow to Secession" Hero
ism Of the Union Forces" They
Know No Such Word as Fail" NOD
Over 500 Killed and Wounded" Forty
Wagonloads of Dead Rebels" Two
days later the Tribune announced
The Battle Decisively Won" 1t did
have something to say, however, of a
panic among the teamsters." 1t VIII
be seen that the Bull Run man, like
the Charleston man, rose to the occa~
sion and demonstrated what a jour
nalist can do when put to 1t.
The files of the New York dailies fog
the four years of the civil war are an
object lesson in the evolution OF the
American newspaper In that time
they gradually grew out Of their In
efficiency, and grew used to war. los
correspondence learned that they
would not be shot every time they
got close enough to battle to hear the
bullets sing overhead. They learned
to establish lines of communication
from the front to the rear and from
the rear to the nearest telegraph Of
fee, independent of the government
lines. They learned to judge of the
progress of the fray by what they saw
of the wounded streaming to the rear
Of the ordering forward of reserves
of the steady backward or forward
movement of the lines Of the thousand
things OF battlefield that tell the
story Of victory or defeat as plainly
as words. They became too wise for
the general commanding. His SteoreO-
typed reply, I'VE are winning all along
the line" lost its force They stopped
asking him any questions at all. He
used to send for them and ask them
questions, which they answered cor
rectly or not, as they saw ut, The
journalist was developing into the
newspaper man and the newspaper
man was beginning to assert himself,
to feel and to know that he was by
far the most dangerous animal on the
field, despite the men with the guns.
The consequence of this evolution
was that when Gettysburg was fought
nearly two years afterward, the head
lines of the Tribune on the morning
after the third day Of the gigantic
struggle told the story Of the result
fairly we'll The news had been
moved to the first page by that time
Editorial paragraphs had become d.
secondary or tertiary feature Of that
and other papers The personal edit
or" at last had been brought into COLI
tact with men and events bigger than
he He might rise in his wrath and
denounce some contemporary as a
horse thief and liar" and excite only
a fleeing smile Of amusement. Prob
ably the contemporary was so busy
reading and editing the news from
the front that he did not see the de
nunciation The headlines of the Tri-
bune on the fourth day, when the
guns Of Gettysburg were hushed for
ever, said, THE Severest Action of the
War" Losses ON Both Sides Heavy"
ADVANTAGE on Our Side. That was
the truth, even as we see 1t to-day
Still a scant four columns were de-
voted to the intelligence. The paper
Of this time which printed less than
five pages about so enormous con-
f3ict would consider itself irretrieva
bly disgraced Chicago Inter Ocean.