Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.) 1914-1995, 1938-11-23
CHAPTER %

THE TUESDAY morning pa.
pers, which necessarily went tc
press about a. M, when vitality
is lowest, carried the information
that DR.. Thornton Holgate was
sinking.
But the early edition Of the
Tuesday afternoon. papers carried
an encouraging note. The Chroni-
Gle, for instance, had little other
early-day news, and so gave the
matter a banner line:
RICE PROFESSOR GAINING
New Hope Held for Recovery OF
Holgate
The noon edition OF The Press
went even farther, declaring that
the professor was rational, and
was even taking nourishment, and
quoting physicians as saying his
prompt recovery was almost GER
tain. The head injury, which might
have gone either way during the
first 80 hours or so, responded to
expert treatment so that he passed
the crisis satisfactorily, physicians
agreed. :
At 4 p. m. the registrars Office
posted a typed notation on the
cloister bulletin board:
'It is a pleasure to announce
that DR.. Thornton Holgate, injured
Sunday at Galveston, now is re-
ported definitely recovering. This
information has come direct from
his attending physicians"
IF anybody had bothered to ana
lyze the episode, it would have
been noted that DR.. Holgate's adj
venture had perhaps undue atten-
ton. That is, he was not a celeb
rity, or anything of the sort; he
had merely saved couple of lives,
and almost lost his own. In the big
routine of international news day
by day, this was not outstanding.
But it had come at time when
other news was rather slack. And
it had had just enough of the hui
man element-a little child, a
mother, scholarly professor, the
daughter Of rich man-to inter-
est great many people. The edi-
tors were astute> in giving the
story considerable play.
"Summers!" yelled Emmett Wal
tiers, Chronicle city editor, on
Wednesday morning. "Slip out to
Rice and see if you can round up
any more stuff on Holgate. Our
kid correspondent out there might
miss few BETS"
Summers is The Chronicles top.
man. Not only the star reporter,
but the ace investigator and good
will builder, whose discretion often
is worth thousands Of dollars in
the papers till. He works more or
less ad lib.
But Summers didn't find any
thing new on Holgate, except that
the mans popularity was, of
course, mounting. But Summers,
ever alert, did come back with 81
recommendation for a Sunday fea-
ture article. He did little raving
about the principal character to
his boss.
Thought you were a married
man." Walters probed. "Why are
you so sold on this woman? A red
headed widow at thatm
II am married. And have child.
And love my wife. But I'm not
blind, personally or professionally.
That widow Davis has all of Rice
wrapped up in bag"
"Okay, take Jess Gibson out and
shoot the works." Walters ordered.
Gibson was the staff photographer.
The order meant that one of the
best newspaper feature teams in
Texas was turned loose on a new
story. Editor Walters knew his
Sunday paper would sparkle on at
least one page. It wasn't the first
time Summers had been sent out
on one story, and brought back a
different and better one.
The interview with Sara Sue
Davis was, Of course, pleasant.
To begin with, poor Jess Gibson
went mildly berserlx. He saw in
stantly that Sara Sue was photo
genie. He had brought, as custom
airy on such trips, two dozen cut |
films, in holders. He expected, as
customary, to use perhaps two or
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