The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-09-19

| travelling over The Associated Press wires to all sections of the United
 States and even across the water. The first bulletin sent out by any | opposition service was dated Montreal and it merely stated that it was re- ported that Thaw had been arrested
 somewhere in the south of the prov | ince of Quebec.
 MT. Drew is modest and the story of his exploit came not from him 1 but from his friends. He proved
 an oft-repeated contention of success 1 full editors, that news instinct once l firmly implanted can never be un- rooted. He received his tip at Cole brook, grasped the possibilities of the l story, went after and landed it, and sent it dancing over the wires hours Eahead of his nearest competitor. Yet, l in telephoning the story to Boston,
 MT. Drew apo1og1zed because of the 1 fact that he is a lawyer and not a l newspaper man.
 l He is prominent in business and politics; a member of the Democrat | ic State Committee of New Hamp- 1 shire, and during the administration l of Grover Cleveland he was Inspector l of Customs on the frontier He is a
 trustee of the New Hampshire State ] College and was a member of the 1 school board at Colebrook for twelve years and Superintendent of Schools 1 for three years He was born at | Stewartstown, N. H., March 27j 1857. i Although educated for the law he never practiced his profession active l 1y, but at the same time he main tained a law office where many young
 men received their starts in the pro 1 fession. He has been identified with 1 timber interests and real estate ac- 1 tivitieS, and at one time he was a, 1 deputy sheriff and acquired repu- 1 tation as an amateur detective. He proved himself to be what he said he
 was not-a newspaper man.
 As soon as it was definitely learn 1 ed that Thaw was to be taken to l Sherbrooke, Frank B. E1ser, day city l editor in the New York office, was 1 hurried to Canada. He reached l Sherbrooke Wednesday morning at 2 l o'clock. In order, however, not to 1 be unprotected in Sherbrooke, Tues
 day night, T. F. Joyce, of the Bos- ton office, was sent in, arriving at 10 P. M, and MT. Drew sent Irving A. 1 Hinckley from Colebrook. The Sher- | brooke story of Tuesday night was the work of these men, together with contributions from J. s. Tardiff, tel | egraph operator at Coaticook; the Ca nadian Press, and MT. Drew. l MT. E1ser was accompanied by Op- orator G. w. Pennington, of the New York offices and at once took charge of the Thaw story. from Sherbrooke. As soon as circumstances permitted, MT. Joyce returned to Boston and MT. HinelzIy was released. MT. FL ser stayed in Sherbrooke until the Court hearing of September 8, and then followed Thaw in an automobile back to Coaticook. His instructions
 were to go where Thaw did, and he
 carried them out
 Within an hour after Thaw's arrest in Coaticook, direct leased wire from that town to New York was in operation, notwithstanding the diff cu1ty in locating Coaticook on the
 map. J. s. Tardif, operator for the Grand Trunk at Coaticook, was pre- pared to give story of the arrest within two minutes after The Asso-
 ciated Press leased wire was con
 nected.
 story shifted from Sherbrooke to Co., aticook, the leased wire was changed
 to meet the news demand, so that
 on all important days the New York office was in direct communication with the news center.
 When Thaw was suddenly deported
 from Canada the morning of Sep tember 10 and thrust over the Amer ican border into the State of Yer mont, MT. E1ser scored a notable
 beat. He reported the occurrences
 at Coaticook in a series of bulletins,
 filed rapidly as the events trans
 pired under his eyes His stories
 were fully forty-fve minutes ahead
 of any opposition.
 MT. Elser, having cleared up the Coatfcook end, secured an automobile
 and followed Thaw out of town. His
 car was not more than ten minutes
 behind the automobile of the Cana
 dian authorities, bearing Thaw to the
 frontier. Thaw was deposited in the roadway, just over the Vermont line, and left alone, dazed and bewndered.
 No American authorities were in
 sight; Wm. T. Jerome, in charge of
 the efforts of the State of New York
 to return Thaw to Matteawan, was in
 Manchester, Vt, one hundred and 1f-
 ty miles away, and the Vermont au-
 tn critics had been given no knowI-
 edge of the coming of the fugitive.
 This was the situation when MT. FL
 ser reached the Vermont line. Thaw
 asked The Associated Press man if he
 could get in his car, and MT. Elser
 consented. His instructions had been
 to follow Thaw," and he was car
 rying them out with conspicuous sue
 cess.
 All that morning MT. E1ser travelled
 with Thaw over the hills of north
 ern Vermont and New Hampshire,
 seizing any and every opportunity
 to send in his stories to New York.
 He was the only outsider to witness
 the arrest of Thaw, near Colebrook,
 N. H., by the sheriff of Coos County, at noon, and the remarkably well
 written and graphic account of
 Thaw's disastrous day of flight, sent out to morning papers of September
 II, from CoIebrook, was the work of MT. Elser.
 The following comments on the handling of the Thaw story have been received:
 ''The Associated Press has done really great work in the Thaw case. We have beat Hearst on every de- velopment. The story has been pie
 turesqueIy written without being sloppy. By repIating our first page yesterday we were able to beat Hearst forty minutes on Jerome's arrest and one hour on the issuance of the Mon treaI writ.''-Harry Smith, of the Chicago Daily News.
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