The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-05-16
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Associated Press Men Prove
Themselves Heroes at
New Orleans.
GREAT STORM AFTERMATH
SWAN TO A TELEPHONE TO
COMMUNICATE WITH WORLD.

New York, May 15.-The abn-
ity of the Associated Press to
handle big story under any handi-
cap and the loyalty of the men in the
service, both news men and operators
was never better exemplified than at
New Orleans when the big gulf storm
last September swept the coast and
cut the Crescent City off from the
The storm broke the night of sun
| day, September 10. Richard FouIke
| mad been spending the day on the gulf
| coast about 40 miles from the city He
al once started for New Orleans, after
giving wire instructions to all CORE
reach the city at Z a. m. Monday. But
| at a. m Monday his train was
| marooned near Chef Menteur, 20 miles
from the city The waters of the gulf
| had come In and covered the marshes,
sweeping the tracks away and cutting
| off all communication. A few of the
more ventursome, including Bierne
hired negro to row them in a skifr
-FOUR miles across the stormy waters
| to the Tally-ho clubhouse, where there
| was telephone. After rowing two
| miles the storm became so violent that
| the negro lost his nerve and turned
back.
Swan to :. Telephone.
Bierne had a story to get in. and as
| he expressed it later-"Another Irish
man had note to meet at o'clock,
and unless he got word to the bank he
/ stood good chance of losing his BUSH
| ness" So over the boats side the pair
| of them went, swimming and wading
| until, exhausted and covered with
slime, they reached the clubhouse.
| They found the keeper and his wife
driven by the water to the second floor.
They used the telephone, and Bierne
| got the first story of several hundred
| people, including many infants, in ter
rOr on a deserted train, with the waters
| rising and in danger from starvation
as well from the hurricane The
| result was a relief steamer sent to
their rescue But Bierne and his COM
| panion had to get on. There was only
one way-swimming and wading. The
waters were full of the bodies of dead
| animals, snakes and slime At times
| they could wade, at others they had to
| swim. 1t was eight miles that they
| covered in this manner, and finally
reached dry ground several miles from
| the city, where a train from the town
picked them up.
! Find One Lone Wire.
Meantime W. B. Parks, Bierne's as
sistant, had been moving heaven and
earth TO get a wire out of the city. But
| everything was against him. He was
! still at it when Bierne got in to the
| office. Bierne found one lone flicker
| ing telephone wire, owned by the Cum
I
which ran to Hattiesburg, Miss He
got that-he never told how-Morsed it
| and rushed Operators Paul Joyner and
| W. J. McFatter to the Mississippi town.
Meantime Manager Daniel of the West
| ern Union at Hattiesburg, sat in and
| a skeleton of the report began to move
| At Atlanta Superintendent Cowles had
| ordered George Wathen of the Memphis
office to try to get into New Orleans.
and to report the ravages Of the storm
| en- route.
Afraid that the storm which was
| sweeping up the Mississippi river
arranged for a pickup telephone wire
across Lake Pontchartrain, and an
hourly switch engine service from New
Orleans to the lake, across the Queen
| & Crescent bridge. But the Cumber-
land people ran their loop into the As
| ISOLATED Press switchboard and with
| Operators Ashford and Quinn at the
keys the report began to assume fairly
good proportions.
By this time the New Orleans papers
were busy and were bringing in masses
of details of the ravages of the storm
all along the coast. Parks was as
signed to the preparation of this for
the wire, while Bierne devoted all his
attention to the movement of the re-
port. Neither men left the office, re-
moved his clothing or slept wink from
Monday morning until Wednesday
morning. Then Wathen arrived from
Memphis and jumped into the work.
At Keys for p Hours.
All this time Joyner and McFatter
had been sitting at their keys, one re-
ceiVing from the north. the other send
ing south. For 81 hours these loyal
men worked without a rest, and al
most without food. Bierne had rushed
Operators Ashford and Quinn to their
relief but a wreck delayed them until
III o'clock Wednesday night. When
they arrived Joyner had collapsed at
his key and McFatter, looking UP. saw
them dropped his head on the desk and
went TO sleep so soundiy that he had to
be lifted away from his chair
| On Thursday BieTne got a wire TO
Dallas. Texas. through Shreveport, La
and thence to Memphis to the trunk
line This helped out greatly and re-
stored the service nearly to its normal
volume.
True to the Service.
The work of the operators deserves
| especial praise. With the world cut
| off the cotton brokers were offering
| immense sums for a wire to New York
and for exclusive cotton quotations
The New Orleans papers hearing OF
this decided to give the quotations tc
the exchange. and they were posted
as official All the operators were OF
fered large sums for information. but
true to the tradition of -'the service
they refused them and stuck to thell
keys
1 r.
IN and only one 10 Hattiesburg- anc
thence into New Orleans. with the out
side world crying for more details OF
the storm. and with the papers in New
Orleans pleading for more news Of
the outside world ii required terrific
condensation and much hard work &c
keen A fair balance. But the men
both news and operators, pitched into
. the task and never stopped until con-
, ditions were once more normal
The New Orleans Daily states nae
: this to say on September % OF tht
, exnerience of Operators Joyner and
! McFatter:
Two days ago Paul Joyner of the
: local Associated Press office was sem
10 Hattiesburg. Miss, TO establish Al
emergency relay station at that point
with w ]. McFatter. his assistant, M
I succeeded in opening up the first tele
/ graph line out of New Orleans. Fol
over a day this was the only communi
cation which New Orleans had with th'
r outside world. For more than 30 hours
: Jovner and McFatter kept the repcr
| on the move. bringing a total of abou
: go 600 words into New Orleans ant
{ keeping the outside world informed o
5 what was going on in the hurricane
swept zone by a series of bulletins q
2 the north Relief was sent them yes