He had left my office and mailed his
story to a friend living up in Georgia, and it was telegraphed by him
from there. You see, Georgia was beyond my jurisdiction. He had surely
made a "scoop;" he had sown the wind and that night he reaped the
whirlwind, because I promptly suspended him from correspondents'
privileges, and forbade him the use of the wires. General Greely upheld
me in this as in all other cases and for ten days I allowed him to
ruminate over his offence, while his paper was cussing him out for
failing to send in stuff. Then I restored him to his former status,
first making him sign a pledge on honor that he would abide forever
thereafter by the censorship rules.
Another young man who represented a Cincinnati daily, walked into the
express office in Tampa one evening and gave the agent a package saying:
"Say, old chap, have your messenger running north to-night give this to
the first operator after crossing the Georgia line and tell him to send
it to my paper. It's a big scoop and I want to get it through."
Of course, the "old chap" was built just that way.
Pages:
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491