The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-06-06
THE PRIVATE PAPERS OF A
 CUB REPORTER

4N@@A AAAN
 Several newspapermen were gath cred around the nocturnal table last midnight chinning about picturesque w5rdage that began big news stories Someone, frinstance, recalled Chicago's Bob Casey, and his lead on the trial of Jack Benny, to wit: Jack Benny, the professional com edian and amateur smuggler, today was fined $10OO0 and handed one years suspended sentence after be- ing reprimanded by the court in six assorted flavors, including razz- berry" .. Will Irwin'S opening sentence when San Francisco was destroyed by fire: And San Fran cisco was" Damon Runyon's lead on the Ruth Snyder Judd Gray murder trial, after Gray admitted on the stand that he helped her murder her husband: "A quiet little man from quiet little street talked his life away today" Rum yon's opening lines on the execution of Bruno Richard Hauptmann: T don't like to cover executions. It's tough enough to see people live without having to watch people die"
 In 1923 Haywood Broun and Grantland Rice, covering the World Series, happened to write the same leads Babe Ruth had had his very worst season. He had been suspended for six weeks His batting average fell to .235 or about that He went into this series with boil on his elbow and won the opening game with his brilliant batting -. The Messrs. Broun and Rice began their stories: Ruth crushed to earth will rise again"
 When Max Schmeling knocked out Joe Louis, Jack Miley, a sports wri- ter, niftied: ''The COW killed the butcher' A New York Evening Poster began his World Fair pre- miere story in this manner: Every body is complaining that the Fair isn't finished. So what? Neither is New York!" Buck O'Neill of Washington took one ball game incident to heart and groaned about it lustily in his opening paragraph The fans, it appears, booed Babe Ruth C'Neill wrote: Tread on the Bill of Rights. Spit on the Flag. Throw mud on the Constitution of the United States but don't boo Ruth!"
 It is doubtful if the MGM officials know this one \. In 1884 Joe tNRNfnHn Woollcott, told Aleck about a story in The Atlantic Monthly . . The title was Goodbye MT. Chips" Woollcott liked it so well he penned a piece about it for The New Yorker and persuaded a publisher to put it between covers It sold over a quarter of a million copies Surely" unused Woollcott, "so fine a yriter as James Hilton must have WI lsten other pieces" And sure enough He discovered Hilton had once written book that was a terrific flop Woollcott read the tale and was so impressed with it he devoted an entire broadcast to it And so, the publishers brought it out again and in no ti,1e it became a best seller-over 100000 copies The name was Lost Horizon.
 Author Hilton is now very rich, and Woollcott is immensely proud to have been responsible for bring ing Hilton's genius tot he public's attention = But MT. Hilton has never met-nor has he ever heard of the lad who brought Woollcott's attention to him Joe Hennessey.
 Mary Welsh, former Chicago re- porter, has been jotting down items for Lord Beaverbrook's London Daily Express for three years .. Not long ago she was assigned to Rome to try and wangle an interview out of Mussolini, who (she had heard) ran from femme reporters Mary resorted to an American stunt For three days she sent Il Duce an orchid-anonymously The 4th day she sent an orchid enclosing her card On the 5th day .she sent another orchid plus note re- questing an interview This won her an appointment with Count Ci- ano, who told her: '"That was very very nice of you to send the flowers, but Il Duce doesn't like orchids or girl newspapermen!"