The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1910-09-09
CHASING THE TIRELEss T. r.
Gross Country Marathons Mean Hard
Work for News Writers.

special train are about as busy men
as one can find anywhere. The colonel
himself has two secretaries who ride
in his car the Republic. Until Clifford
Pinchot and James II. Garfield left
him to go into the campaign in Min
nesota and Wisconsin they rode in
Colonel Roosevelt's car. Usually there
is some reception committee from
some city or town ahead, which boards
the train and takes part of the
colonel's time.
The Pullman just ahead of the Re
public is a newspaper special which
started from New York and has been
in the train all the way. The car is
sort of combination sleeping and din.
ing car. In day time there are tables
between the seats and at meal times
these tables are used for dining tables.
The rest of the day they are used for
writing. On some of the railroads
only one Pullman is furnished for the
correspondents, and on those roads
every berth, upper and lower, is filled.
At Pueblo the Missouri Pacific officials
put in an extra sleeper, which stayed
with the train to Kansas City. That
gave every correspondent a lower
berth until the train reached Kansas
City, when chair car was substituted
for the Pullman.
The days are long and the nights
short for the correspondents. They
must be up early when the train is in
motion and they retire late. If the
train is moving across the country
in the morning there are crowds wait
ing and something is likely to happen
that will make news. At night there
is sure to be something going on up
to midnight.
Most of the correspondents carry
typewriters and do their work as the
| train moves. \ dozen machines are in
operation at once, usually. The cor
respondents for afternoon papers start
work early, while the correspondents
for morning papers are often at work
with their machines until late at night.
Between important stops there are
many stations where Colonel Roose-
welt talks three minutes. The commit
tees or political visitors crowd the
| back platform of his car most of the
time so the correspondents divide the
work and one or two may join forces
with the brakeman. He must signal
the engineer when to start and then
run for the platform of the press car
as the train pulls out Accordingly
| one or two correspondents get out and
hear the speech, then race with the
brakeman for the train so they will
not be left behind. Occasionally part
of the correspondents stand on the
back platform with the speaker. AT.
ter the speech the men who hear it
convey the information they get to
others.
The telegraph companies make a
special effort to handle the dispatches.
For example, when the train left Den.
yer it carried four Western Union
operators. One was an assistant from
the office of the Denver manager. He
sathered up the copy as it was -aadv
and at Colorado Springs and Pueblo
turned it over to messengers from the
uptown offices. The train started for
Kansas at noon that day. At o'clock
the first operator dropped off at Hor-
ace with all the copy that was ready
to file. He got a wire and sent every
thing to Denver to be distributed from
that office. About 1870 another opera
tor dropped off at Scott City, then an.
other at McCraCken an hour after
ward. Wires were ready and matter
was rushed as fast as expert opera
tors could handle it. At midnight the
man in charge dropped off at Hoissnc-
ton and spent the rest of the night
sending late copy to morning papers
and matter prepared for early copy
for the afternoon papers east.
At Osawatomie the superintendent
of the Omaha Office and a squad of
operators from Kansas City under the
direction Of one of the Office managers,
met the party and accompanied it to
Kansas City, operators dropping off
when there was matter to send. At
Lawrence Governor Stubs, wishing to
make sure that the correspondents
would not be kept away from the din
house so that matter was filed by cor
respondents and telegraphed to the
farthest cities of the United States
| between courses at the table.
The correspondents had not found
things easy until they reached Kansas
| City and were not slow about saying
it, At Denver the treatment they re.
ceived was far from courteous. Wade
Mountfort, jr., whose father was well
known in political and newspaper cir
Giles in Kansas City for twenty years,
was member of the party going as
photographer for New York syndi.
cate. He was arrested and taken to
the police station twice in one day for
trying to take pictures without asking
the consent of some patrolman. He
was actually in jail for an hour. DC.
casionally there were some arrange.
ments made by the committee for cor.
| respondents, but sometimes when the
crush came someone else got the ac-
| COmmOdatiOnS That haDnanad nj