Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-09-10
LUCK Of THE
CUB REPORTER
DAN =. MILLER TELLS INTEREST
ING TALE OF EXPERIENCES
or BEGINNERS.
FIRST INTERVIEW.

FIRST INTERVIEW.
Got story From Marshall Fold When
Oid-Timers Failsd-Was Sent
on Fools Errand But Landed
story.
The story of how the cub reporter
can sometimes win out In a story hunt
where experts fail, 10 one Of q number
of interesting cub experiences related
by Dan F. Miller, brother Of Mrs,
Harry frost. 123 West Fifth street
Mr.. Miller is former Keokuk resident
and is at present engaged IN news
paper work in New York City. He be
gan his newspaper work at Iowa City
when attending the state university
and drifted to Chicago shortly after
leaving college. The editor and pub.
Usher on a recent issue carries cut
OF Mr.. Miller and the following story
of the cub reporters experiences:
Sometimes the luck of cub reporter
In landing difhcult story Is equal to
that of greenhorn at poker. In fact
the ability Of most cubs to blunder into
a story where the finesse Of an expert
enced news gatherer would avail him
naught has passed into proverb.
had been a cub on the Chicago
Inter-Ocean Just q week when the city
editor, more to get me out OF the once
than anything else, said:
go out to Marshall Fields house
and get him to give you an Interview
on the present conflict between capital
and labor"
II he had asked me to interview the
pope on the bearcat dance, the assign
ment could not have been more pre-
posterous. In fact, though I did not
know it then, Marshall Field simply
would not be interviewed. Every
newspaper editor-every experienced
reporter knew that and so did not at
tempt to accomplish the impossible.
Attacked by Buck Asue.
When I reached the Field mansion
I had a severe attack of buck ague.
had never been asked to do so tremen-
dous a thing before. Other cubs had
confessed to me similar emotions.
one told me he had walked around a
hotel three times before ne got up
nerve enough to call on Col. ROBERT
Ingersoll.
A butler, who was really overwhelm-
ing in his hauteur, came to the door
and surveyed me suspiciously. told
him I was a reporter and wanted to see
Mr.. Field. He shut the. door In my
face but returned a moment later and
admitted me. He Nd me up a wide
stairway to library on the second
floor. where before a CRATE flre sat the
merchant prince, himself, handsome
man with snow white hair, who looked
At me kindly and motioned me to
chair. I told him what wanted.
"Your editor must know don't talk
FOR publication" he said. Have you
been in newspaper work long? he
asked me. --.....
told him / hadn't; that It was my
irst week on newspaper. - ..a
How Field Fooled Them.
"Well, we'll fool them," he said,
finally. Get your note book out and
take down just what dictate to you:
For an hour I wrote steadily wnlie
Field dictated what, even to
my unsophisticated newspaper sense,
was hot stuff-a great big story that
was all my own-that ought to cincn
my job on the paper.
when went back to the ONCE and
told the city editor L had that inter
view he wouldn't believe it. l had to
,how him nv notes and was taken In
% sec the managing editor. The inter
view appeared the next day on the
'ront page in box and In black face.
4 was copied in newspapers through
,ut the country and cabled abroad. II
was commented on for weeks In PRINT
~ capitalists and labor leaders.
Luck Not Continuous.
This was Just one instance OF
.ub's luck-that I couldn't repeat it as
m experienced reporter / found out
ears later, when new trade journal
n tladelphia, looking for feature
or their frst issue telegraphed me
hat they we're willing to pay $50 for
N interview with Marshall Field on
radinp stamps. went to the Field
vholesale house, sent in q request for
he interview and a naughty young
.lark came back with the answer. 1t
vas: s-,.
marshall Fielud does not criticize
he business methods OF his com
,etitors."
Put up Job on Cub.
II was once the custom at detective
headquarters where the night police re-
,orters foregathered to bully-rag cup
Until he was frantic from a realization
II his own crassness and incomplete
,nce. A favorite stunt was to SEND a
lew man out to some jumping-off place
ate at night on a "tip" that existed
wholly in the fertile imagination OF
,ne of the older news gatherers.
One night little cub named Rey
,olds who had recently come out OF the
ali and uncut wandered into detective
headquarters, when the place was
deserted, and began turning over the
caves Of the accident book. PLANTED
here for his benefit, presumably not
Intended. for his sight but addressed
,ontid entially by one of the older men
o another, was a Tip" on big mur'
III