Omaha daily bee., 1911-08-20
SPEAKER REED AS A FUGITIVE
He Slips Away from Capital Gang
Into Hands Of a Reporter.
CAPTURE IS QUITE BY CHANCE
Old-Time Newspaper Man Relates
Interesting Tale of the Big
Eest Newsmaker of His
nav.


Chance" said the white-haired man who
began life as a reporter for a New York
daily rs often accountable for some OF
the best stories that find their way into
the newspapers. Just plain luck helped me
TO many a beat in my day. Time and
again have I been able to lead the paper
with a story simply because St ran up to
me and grabbed me By the coat collar while
l was bent on some ordinary routine yarn.
Here is a good case in point Back
In the days when Thomas 3. Reed was
speaker OF the house at Washington and
had every democrat IN the broad
land rearing up on his hind legs and roar
ing at him because of his autocratic rul-
ings. all of the Park Row news editors
were hot on his trail. In fact Gear Reed
was one Of the most prolific sources of
news. Everything he said everything he
did in the house and out. was good for
the first page. The Washington CORE
spondent who happened to miss a Reed
story hardly got time 10 explain.
Reed was pestered day and night by
the brigade of reporters whose duty It
was to capture all of the news that ema-
mated from him and blew into the house
gallery and out Of the capitol windows
He was held up and harassed and hec-
|
speaker at last got so weary OF IT all
that he Slipped away from Washington
one Friday and came to New York Not
a capitol reporter knew of his disappear
ance and even his cronies in the house
were ignorant OF his whereabouts.
Reed to Give the slip.
| Now, it happened that the very day
on which Reed chose to give the slip to
| Washington and let national legislation
/ go hang till he got a bit OF rest, a big
story broke down there in which he was
the limelight figure. 1t was one Of those
stories that demands statement from the
person chiefly concerned in it-and Reed
was the man.
Park Row editors scorched the wires
to Washington directing their correspond
ents to get hold of Reed and squeeze out
of him a statement which would make the
story for without him there was no story
at all-merely one-sided thing to which
the newspaper-reading public would give
little or no heed With him in the storm
center of 1t the yarn was certain to get
double leads and scare head in forty
point type.
THE Washington correspondents sent
out relays Of reporters to land their man
High ana low places they searched for him
but no Reed. At his house all hands
were CURLY informed that the speaker
I. was not at home At his usual haunts
!, nothing was known about him. The wires
kept getting hotter and hotter. and the
Park Row editors got gray-headed.
I'm those days I had a great way OF
dropping in at a little old second hand
book shop that was stuck in dark nook
of Ann street, close to Broadway. Any
; odd time might find me there, looking
: over the odd volumes, particularly II
CHANGED to have an uninterestng assign
ment 1t happened that l was in thai
5 dingy old shop on that very eventful
/ Friday evening when all the reporters In
= Washington were notwithstanding the
3 national capital for him and that was
r where my proverbial luck came up and
shook hands with me.
Dull, Dark Evening.
81 remember that 1t was a dull rainy
evening, and the book shop was at its
dingiest. l had an old volume in my
hands, but in the dim light was not max
ing much Roadway at finding out what
1t was like and whether 1t was worth buy
ing. While l was engaged in skipping
: through its pages the dim light became