The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1916-01-29

entire business Office force of the newspaper
prisoners behind their counters. The intruders
were threatening to shoot anybody who attempted
to leave WooIey had gun He entered the
office and proceeded to address remarks
made up Of words ordinarily considered Of the
fighting kind to the armed intruders
Woolley reached for telephone, took it of the
receiver and was laughed at by the gunner, who
told him that they had cut the wire. Woolley
STOOD there with the receiver in his hand for a
minute while red-hot verbiage was exchanged.
Then Woolley walked straight by the two armed
men and went out of the door, and neither
cared dared to interfere with him.
Later it developed that while the receiver was
OF, although the wire had been cut. the chief
editor of the paper at his home had taken off
his own receiver to call up the Office, and found
he could not get it. But only wire
severed he heard large part of the converse
ton in the office by means of the uncut wire
connected with the Office telephone. What he
heard afterwards was used in evidence, for
court proceedings brought.
Now, it is just here that an ordinary newspaper
man would have become disguised with the pro-
fession which he trying to follow and would
have thought that the whole world out of
joint. The mayor Of the town and his son were
editors of a rival newspaper. This rival stood,
of course. for the municipal ring and it was
things which appeared in its columns which had
caused the other editor, Mr.. Wooueys chief, to
put the lie in print. While things seemingly were
still at white heat between the two camps the
mayor and his rival editor, whom he was ready
to shoot, or be shot by, made their differences,
combined the two papers, and thus Woolley, who
had dared everything for his chief, forced
out, and in The parlance of the street. was left
to hold the bag" In other words Bob WoolIey
stood for right and principle and then lost his
job.
There was a celebrated law case in Kentucky
that attracted worldwide attention. After the
municipal ring episode and Mr. Woolley had lost
his place managing editor, he became a re-
porter and he handled this case. There came
down from Chicago at this time two newspaper
who since have become widely knCwn-Eu-
gene Bertrand, of the New York Herald and
William E. Lewis, the editor of the New York
Telegraph. They had been sent down from Chi
cago to work the matter Woolley had in hand
and they became acquainted with him. They
found out lot of things about him which ap-
pea1ed to their newspaper sense. They also dis
covered that he fond of American sports
They went back to Chicago and a short time
thereafter Woolley, who knew nothing about their
interest in him. received an offer from the Chi
cago Tribune to become reporter in the sport
ing department of that paper. He went to Chi
sporting editor of the newspaper whose stan he
joined
From Chicago the present director OF the mint
went to New York and for long time was en-
pioyed on the New York World. A little later, as
somebody else has put it, che yielded to the temp
tation of beautiful fruit plantation in Texas"
The fruit not altogether golden, as far as the
proceeds from the sale of the crops were con-
cerned, and Mr. Woolley went back into the news
paper profession.