Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-01
BY HERBERT COREY.

: NEW YORK. July S1.-Jimmy Ali
: son thinks he may have been little
: bit sore that night. He may even
have been a trifle harsh to Jimmy
? Cox He does not remember this
. phase of the evening with accuracy.
He trusts not. because Jimmy Cox
might. perhaps. be the President of
/ the United States some time. 1t
would be embarrassing if the Presi-
( dent said some time:
+ Remember that night you bawled
: me out at Middletown?"
This is the story of the time that
: Jimmy Cox first Clipped the egg. 1t
! is the tale of his official Matching. Up
s to that time he had been the CORE
spondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer
al Middletown, Ohio-that is, that
had been one of his activities. A
{ country correspondent was not paid
. enough in those days to permit him
. TO devote his entire time TO CORE
spending. He had attracted the same
sort of attention in the Enquirer
office that other country correspond
ents did. When he got scooped the
. telegraph editor wanted to know
. why. Then came the wreck of the
Second Forty-five.
Wreck of "Second Forty-FIve.-
''Forty-five" was a known and num-
bered passenger train. People set
, their tin clocks by it. The Dayton
. Cash Register Companys employees
/. arranged an excursion. and the rail-
! road management decreed that the
/ special train should be known for the
day under the title of the Second
Forty-five." Somehow the train dis
patcher forgot, or the telegraph oper-
. ator forgot. or some one else forgot.
. AT any rate, after the only known
~ 1Afn on
. this fateful night the engineer of a
freight train pulled off a siding and
! rumbled down the main track, quite
. unaware that a second section of the
passenger train was approaching. y
dozen people or more were killed.
Il was the night police reporter for
TIE Enquirer at Cincinnati, said
: Jimmy" Allison. who, for years has
: been the New York man for the Gin
. cinnati Times-Star. "All this hap
pened after midnight. Cox had been
getting around Middletown at night,
as was his habit, and picked up the
news. He flashed it to the Enquirer.
and Charlie Hodges, who was then
the city editor. got me on the wire
and told me TO hurry up to Middle
town and take charge"
Allison was not unnaturally out
ragged by this order. 1t came just as
he was getting ready to call it a day
/ and go home. He rode through the
I DTlSk Hit/~nlHS ar 10 MlOulelOWn-On
/ eght-inhaling indignation and
: cinders. All the way he reflected bit
) terly on the policy of a paper that
would intrust so important post as
3 that of Middletown-where nothing
4 else had happened since the memory
of man-to green reporter, and
thereby cut into the recreations of a
regular newspaper man just when
that regulars playtime had arrived.
He may have been crisp to Cox when
. he got there. But he hopes not.
Cox on the Job.
Cox had done all that could be done.
! He had gathered the facts, wired them
TO the Enquirer in time for the city
edition. sent in all the names and
street addresses of the injured, and
: then made inquiries about the wire
But one wire was open to Cincinnati.
I he discovered and at that moment
Z the reporter for the other Cincinnati
morning paper began to snoop around
Young Mr.. Cox, the boy correspond
ent. knew that he must save the scoop
for his own journal
$50 he put two or three pages of
a book on the wire" said Mr.. Allison.
, He'd heard about that trick. you
know Another Enquirer reporter
during q strike in the coal fields.
sent most of the Lamentations of
Job on one occasion. thereby pre-
venting the current Job from getting
any news through in spite of his an
guished protests Anyhow, Cox d1d
He hold the wire"