The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-07-07
GETTING THE NEWS
By FRED c. KELLY

(Note-rhis il the first Of little series Of article.
| nens newspaper men,
A newspaper man never knows when
| or how or where he is going to stumble
| into a news story that will interest. II
not astound. vast multitudes Of readers.
Even SO inconsequential a thing as a
rat scampering across the office floor
may be the big story for which one has
been waiting.
That is what this present story is
about, a rat-or rats-and a few other
things.
A rat ran across the floor in the little
Office occupied by Elmer Paine. Elmer
is now one of the important spokes in
the Washington bureau Of the Asso-
ciated Press. but at that time he was
Washington correspondent for an Ohio
paper. Anyway, as We were saying. .
rat ran across the ONCE floor. and disap-
peared behind the book case. Elmer
Paine was annoyed. 1t was an excep-
tionally large rat, and ne felt that his
office was not the logical place for such
things. He cared little or nothing about
10 start Win. Inc more ne tHOukHt
about il, the more Grass 1t seemed to
him to be sharing quarters with a rat
For all he knew there were more of
them. Maybe some morning they would
be in complete control and he would
have to move his desk out into the hall
He was in a vicious humor when he
started down the stairway that noon.
and he intended to say something rather
harsh to the agent of the building. So
long as he was paying a good rental for
that room the rats would simply have to
make other arrangements.
When he got down to the street level.
he noted that the Office of one Of the
telegraph companies was directly under
his. He went in to see IL the rats had
been there, hoping to get the manager
of the telegraph company on his side.
BY combining their forces. they might
be able to combat the rats more formid-
ably, and also talk with greater bluster
to the building agent.
Sure enough. the manager of the tele-
graph company was well aware of the
rats having headquarters in the building.
Yes. indeed he said; they got so
had that they began to gnaw up some
of our telegraph files. We couldn't take
chance on that. and had to build a
brick vault They're still bad. I've often
wondered If they ever get across the
streets into the Treasury Building yon-
der"
Elmer went his way. but his interest
in the rat business had suddenly grown.
The telegraph manager had unthinkingly
dropped him a good tip. II, perchance,
the rats should be working a shift over
in the Treasury Building, 1t might be
worth looking into.
As soon as he had finished his frugal
lunch. Elmer sauntered over into the
Treasury Department and engaged one
of the assistant secretaries in conversa-
ton.
do you know" remarked Elmer. with
a forced yawn. I've often wondered II
there isn't danger of rats getting down
into the Treasury vaults?''
Danger" repeated the man. Should
say there was danger. Fact IL, the
rats have been a serious problem down
there for a while. We had to build
some extra vaults, and the rats even
gnawed through the brick. The steel
in the vaults was all that kept them
out. I guess the watchmen have their
troubles there even yet"
The story was getting better every
minute. Think of a flock Of rats de-
liberately preparing to eat up ma
uon s money ana the PUBIC not knoW-
ing anything about IL,
Elmer FASTENED down to interview
the chief nightwatchman. But he
didn't let the nightwatchman know he
came for any particular purpose. He
simply dropped in at the mans ONCE.
and gradually steered the conversation
around to rats.
I'VE have a good manv of 'em here"
remarked the nightwatchman, talking
freely, inasmuch as he didn't know he
was speaking for publication. The
vaults keep tine blamed things out Of
the paper money all right. but they
got SO thick there for a while that ]
was afraid to go around where they
were. So we bought lot of cats. Had
to get 'em kind of quietly. too. because
the men upstairs thought 1t would
make a needless amount Of talk IL people
knew all of the trouble we were hav-
ing"
Il suppose the cats made short work
Of the rats?" suggested Elmer.
We'll. they chased away most Of
'em. l guess: but the Internal cats sort
Of got wild down there in that dark
basement. I'd rather have q rat around