Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-06-04


inside the harbor, there is likely to be
trouble. Trouble between warships Is
news, and wherever there is news
there is always a representative Of the
Consolidated Press.
AS long as Sampson blockaded Ha-
vana and the army beat time back oil
the Tampa Bay hotel, the central or
flee for news was at Key West, but
when Cervera slipped into Santiago
harbor and Sampson stationed his bat
tleships at it's mouth, Key West lost
her only excuse for existence, and the
press-boats buried their bows In the
waters of the Florida straits and raced
for the cable station at Port Antonio
1t was then that Keating, the star
man of the Consolidated Press Syndi-
cate, was forced to abandon his young
bride and the rooms he had engaged
for her at the Key West hotel, and ac-
company his tug to the distant island
of Jamaica.
Heating was a good and faithful SER
want to the Consolidated Press. He
was a correspondent after its own
making, an Industrious collector OF
facts. The Consolidated Press did not
ask him to comment on what 1t sent
him to see; it did not Eequire nor de-
sire his editorial opinions or impress
sions. 1t was no part of his work to
go into the motives which led to the
event of news interest which he was
sent to report, nor to point out what
there was of it which was dramatic,
pathetic or outrageous.
The Consolidated Press, being a
mighty corporation, which daily fed
seven hundred different newspapers,
could not hope to please the policy of
each, so it compromised by giving the
facts of the day fairly set down, with
out heat, prejudice or enthusiasm. This
was an excellent arrangement for the
papers that subscribed for the service
of the Consolidated Press, but 1t was
death to the literary strivings of the
Consolidated Press correspondent.
I'VE do not want descriptive writ
ing" was the warning which the man
ager of the great syndicate was al
ways flashing to its correspondents.
I'VE do not pay you to send us pen
pictures or prose-poems. We want the
facts, all the facts, and nothing but
the facts"
And so, when at a presidential con-
vention a theatrical speaker sat down
after calling James G. Blaine "a plumed
knight" each of the special corre-
spondents present wrote two columns
in an effort to describe how the peo-
pie who heard the speech behaved in
consequence, but the Consolidated
Press man telegraphed, AT the conclu-
sion of these remarks the cheering last
ed sixteen minutes"
No event of news value was too in
significant to escape the watchfulness
of the Consolidated Press, none so
great that it could not handle 1t from
it's inception up to the moment when
it ceased to be quoted in the news
markets Of the world. Each night,
from thousands of spots all over the
surface of the globe, 1t received thou
sands of facts, of cold, accomplished
facts. 1t knew that a tidal wave had
swept through China, a cabinet had
changed in Chilli, in Texas an express
train had been held up and robbed
Spike" Kennedy had defeated the
"Dutchman" in New Orleans" the
Oregon" had coaled outside Of Rio
Janeiro harbor, the Cape Verde fleet
had been seen at anchor off Cadiz; II
had been located in the harbor Of San
Juan, Porto Rico; 1t had been sighted
steaming slowly past Fortress Monroe:
and the navy department reported that
the "St. Paul" had discovered the lost
squadron OF Spain in the harbor OF
Santiago. This last fact was the one
which sent Heating to Jamaica. Where
he was sent was q matter of indiffer-
ence to Heating. He had worn the COL
lar of the Consolidated Press for so
long q time that he was callous. A
board meeting-a mine disaster-an In
dian uprising-it was all one to Keat-
Ing. He collected facts and his salary
He had no enthusiasms, he held no IL
luslons. The prestige of the mammoth
syndicate he represented gained him an
audience where men who wrote for one
paper only were repulsed on the thresh-
old. Senators, governors, the presi-
dents of great trusts and railroad sys-
TENS, who fled from the reporter Of q
local paper as from leper, would send
for Heating and dictate to him what
ever 1t was they wanted the people OF
the United States to believe, for when
they talked to Heating they talked to
many millions Of readers. Keating, In
turn, wrote out what they had said to
him and transmitted 1t, without color
or bias, to the clearinghouse of the
Consolidated Press. His STORIES" as
all newspaper writings are called by
men who write them, were as pictur-
esque reading as the quotations of a
stock-ticker. The personal equation
appeared no more extensively than II
does i'm a page of typewriting In his
work
Consequently, he was dear to- the
heart of the Consolidated Press, and
as safe" man, was sent to the beau
tiful harbor of Santiago-to a spot
where there were warships cleared fol
action. Cubans in ambush, naked ma
rines fighting for n foothOld at Guam
tanamo, palm-tree and coral-reefs-ir
order that he might look for facts"
There was not a newspaper man lefl
at Key West. who did not writhe witt
envy and anger when he heard of it
When the wire was closed for the nigh
and they had gathered at Josh Kerry's s
Keating was t stOrm-ccntre of theil
Indignation.
What a chance" they protested
What story! rs the chance of &
life time" They shook their head:
mournfully and dashed themselves will
pictures of its possibilities.
And just fancy its being wasted OF
old Keating," said the journal man
why, everything's likely to happel
out there, and whatever does happer