The Ordway new era., 1914-12-11
HouIder Hudgins, Who Feeds Mil
lions, Started Life as
Telegrapher.
WAS EA7ERpRIslNe REPORTER
After Doing Remarkable Thinss at
Santiago He Contracted TO supply
Meals for Ellis island imnt-
grants, and Has Succeeded
Wonderfully.
BY RICHARD sP,LLANe.

are not supposed to be good training
schools for business. but they have
given to America its greatest restau-
rant man. He feeds millions OF per.
sons. yet he is comparatively un-
known. His name is Houlder Hud-
gins. It's slow day when he does
not prepare 1000 meals. He has gone
as high as $1,000 meals In one day.
In six years he served more than
twenty million meals. 1t Is diMcult
to understand what that means In
beef, bread, coffee and other food sup
plies.
Hudgins is in the forties. He was
born in Richmond. Va. From there
he went to Baltimore and became an
American District telegraph ,messen-
ger. Telegraph boys get their wits
sharpened. Hudgins attracted the at
tention OF John w. Garrett, at that
time pre- ident Of the Baltimore &
Ohio railroad. Mr.. Garrett had lot
OF imps as office boys and he hired
fiudgins to captain them. To make
himself more useful to his employer.
Hudgins learned telegraphy. When
Mr. Garrett died Hudgins went to
work for L. H Lee & Bros. q big ag-
ricultural machinery concern that had
its plant In Ohio. and its main of
dee in Baltimore. Between the fac
tory and the office there was . pri-
vate telegraph line which Hudgins OPP
Grated and. In addition. he looked after
the assignment Of the field men Of
the concern in the work of demonstrat-
Ing reapers, mowers and other tmple-
ments. ~ III
In 1885 he went to philadelphia
There had been big fire and the
main offc OF the Western Union Tele-
graph company had been burned out.
He worked there until the following
summer and then was sent to Atlantic
City. The Pennsylvania politicians
find Atlantic City attractive IN the
summer. They go there IN , large
lumber. Usually = flock Of newspa-
per correspondents II In their wake.
Hudgins used to handle the articles
OF these correspondents. and In that
way got taste for newspaper work.
There was great storm at Atlantic
City that sumilsr. It prostrated all
the telegraph lines and cut the city
of from the rest Of ths world. There
was one big shipwreck and half q
dozen small marine disasters. Many
buildings, too. were damaged, and
some persons hurt
Showed His Resouresfuiness
All the correspondents got busy
writing. Some OF them turned out
stories nearly page In length. All
this matter and about i've thousand
kilograms we're dumped In on Hud-
gins. The youry operator hired a
camelbaek engine and managed to
get through to Mays Landing. where
he got wire to Philadelphia. The
wire was very shaky. He only had a
few hours until the Philadelphia news
papers would go to press. SO he made
ono story Of about fifteen hundred
words out OF all the matter the vari-
GUS correspondents had written, and
sent this to all the Philade1phia pa
gers. The 5000 kilograms he for
warded by mail.
As result OF the cleyerness he
5uOWCu oh OGCdSLOu NhO NOhtC
spondents thereafter left their work
to him on their nights OF. and when
he returned to Philadelphia 1t was an
combination newspaper correspond
cot and telegraph operator for the
Philadelphia Press. Later he did some
work on the Philadelphia stock ex-
change In the arbitrage and scalping
line. From the Philadelphia stock
exchange he went to New York. He
worked in the Western Union Office
at 1876 Broadway for ten days and
then wak sent over to the ofiice Of the
correspondent Of the st. Louis Re-
public to act as telegrapher. In .
abort time he became correspondent
When the war with Spain started. the
St Louis Republic lent him to the
New York Herald to go to the front.
The things Hudgins did In those ac-
tive days were probably the most pic
tdresque and daring that are to the
credit Of any newspaper correspond.
eat. One of the vessels the Herald
had In its feet was the Golden Rod.
q yacht owned by Archibald Watt
It was 100 feet long. was built like q
e.sar and bad tremendous speed. 1t
had crossed the Atlantic in five days.
tifs Feat At Santiago.
Admiral Sampson was a hard man
oo the newspaper boys. He didn't
want them pokins their noses where
hts warshlps were on duty, and he
didn't want any news sent out Of what
he was id6ing or what he Intended to
do. Despite all his efforts. he couldn't
keap the correspondents from discov-
.,se3ax everything that was being done
aud was going TO be done. One Of the
most dramatic events of the whole
war vas the sending Of Hobson into
the entrance Of the harbor at Santi-
ago to sink the Merrimac and close