The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1925-01-22
REPORTERS AT
THELEGISLATURE
o. d. Brandenberg Com
ments on Newspaper
Men at Capitol.
RECALLS PAST DAYS
By o. D. BRANDENBuRG.

MadlSon-CapltoIS throughout tne
country have been the proving
grounds from which reporters have
risen to heights in the business, lit
| erary and political worlds. Albany
particularly has produced many not
ables.
+ William Barnes, for many years a
power in national republican politics,
was assigned to the capitol by the Al
! bany Journal. The late Martin II.
Giynn little dreamed when he covered
sessions for the Albany Times Union
that some day he would be governor.
Daniel Manning, secretary Of the
treasury under President Cleveland,
was a graduate Of Albany, as are
Frank H. Simmons and Louis Seibo.d,
both writers of national prominence.
Don Martin, one of the foremost Of
American war correspondents, was
assigned to Albany for many years by
the old New York Herald. John P.
Gavit and Edward r. Anker covered
that capitol for the Associated Press.
The former is now with Harper's, the
latter is assistant to the president OF
the New York Telephone Company.
The Wisconsin legislature has had
its worthwhile journalistic graduates
also. The late Horace Rublee, who
made the Milwaukee Sentinel great
in it's day, was an early legislative re-
/. porter back in the era when he and
David Atwood owned the Wisconsin
State Journal; and Atwood himself
covered many session, as well as the
\ second constitutional convention. AS
youngish man, Chief Justice E. G.
Ryan, perhaps the sblest man ever on
our supreme bench, wrote regularly
and searchingly about the transaction
in the first convention for Racine
paper. Col. j. A. Watrons, once edi-
tor of The Sunday Telegraph, Mil
waukee, did much special legislative
skwriting, and Melvin A. Hoyt, left
handed, tongue in cheek, always in
tense, reported a session or two forty
years ago, later for double decade
4 managing the Milwaukee News. Then,
a bit earlier, along perhaps forty-five
years ago, Henry N. Gary was "a bril-
liant member Of the reportorial CAPT
i toll group. At one time he represent
ed the Milwaukee Sentinel, later The
1 Chicago Times, under the daring
/ Story, and for a considerable period
he was managing editor Of one OF che
! big St. Louis dailies. AS I<recall, it
i was Cary who played clever trick
on Gov. Rusk. He came up from Chi
cago to get an advance copy of the
/ governors message. This was about
lin 1881. COL l.. j. Rusk, his fathers
private secretary, informed Cary that
the message was at the express office,
consigned to The Times-that he had
: served all papers alike, having depos-
! tied copies with the express company
to be delivered at the various daily
offices on the morrow, about the very
hour that the governor would be read
/ ing the document to the legislature.
He was taking no chances on q pre-
j mature publication! That was the
era when reporters were keen for
scoops. Cary leisurely withdrew from
the executive chamber, then quickly
stepped over to the telegraph Office
and wired The Times to instruct the
express company to deliver the mes
sage to him. That was done Of
course, then Cary put it on the wire
bodily and The Times had it in full
on the streets of Madison the next
morning several hours before the
time for its presentation to the joint
session. 1t was a GRAND scoop, bpt
such an act no modern reporter would
think of committing. Naturally Cary
was forever after persona non grata
while Rusk was governor. He died q
few years ago, an important official
of the American Newspaper Publish
ers Association
Henry E. Legler, later to become
city librarian in Chicago, was SEN
tinel correspondent during at least
two sessions in the SOS, and no more
accurate reporter ever occupied a
desk in the statehouse. He was the
soul Of fidelity. Several years ago he
died, while yet in middle life.
Frederick J. Turner, long professor
of American history in the Univer-
sity Of Wisconsin, later holding like
position at Harvard, was Sentinel
capitol correspondent, also along in
the sos, and on one occasion had
written something offensive to Col. E.
W. Reyes, the greatest political boss
Wisconsin has known, barring none
till Mr.. La Toilette emerged to make
him seem lamblike. The two all but
came to fisticuffs in the capitol corri-
dor, and Turner was in a fighting
mood for many days, while Reyes, inn
pulsive but kindly, of course forgot
the episode as soon as he rad turned
| away. Professor Turner, retiring from
the Harvard faculty, is back in Mad
ison, where. he belongs, delving into
/ history and no longer absorbed IN
politics. while the bluff and buster
ing Reyes, after tempestuous and
more or less disappointing career, has
gone to glcry,-disappointing because
on one occasion he barely escaped a
4 United States senatorship. Jack cuI-
ner, father of the future professor,
YVES among the ablest of Wisconsin
editors. The Portage Register was I.
notable weekly under his editorship.
Reuben Gold Thwaites, who contin-
ued the wonderful work of DR.. Ly-
man C. Draper in creating our great
State Historical Society, was Leg
islative reporter through many ses-
q sions some forty-five years ago, ond
it was his painstaking methods, his
zeal for accuracy, that appealed to
Dr. Draper, and caused him to make
an understudy of Thwaites and thus
school him for his distinguished ca
reer as superintendent of the histori-
cal society for double decade.
And what of the fine lot of young
gentlemen who are reporting this SEES
L. YewkA n