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Show grace the town, boyfl Ami a third called: 'Let's take him back to jail! And before I knew it that lot of chumps had turned tall and rushed vny thief, my private horee thief, my own man, for whom I had 6prcad myself over three columns, back to the town and to the jail, where they left him and dispersed. dis-persed. "That," said Hemming, sadly, "i why I want somebody to break my head In. Would you mind kicking' me all the afternoon if I pay you for your trouble?" Chicago Record. Blve story. One day John Boyd, who was the sheriff ol the county, captured a horse thief who waa badly wanted by a community in the interior of the state. The deputy from the county the . the officials of which were after tho thief came down to the metropolis, and in his conversation with Eoyd intimated inti-mated that there would be a lynching when he got home with his prisoner. Boyd told Hemming of the threatening aspect of things, and the reporter had n long1 talk with the deputy. To his dis- i may, he learned that the prisoner would not reach the rural community which wanted to do business with him until 2:45 in the morninnr, an hour which precluded the possibility of a good story. Hemming wns a man of resources, though, and as there seemed to be little question of the details of the coming event, he went to the office and wrote n three-column account of the lynching, mentioning the names of prominent citizens present and adding flourishes and ornamentations. To stretch out to imposing length he caused one man, whom he wus prudent enough to designate as "unknown," to mount a box and make an appeal in behalf be-half of the culprit. "Despite the prayer ef Iligginson's tender-hearted advocate, however," Hemming wrote, "the farmers who had suffered from his depredations insisted insist-ed on wreaking vengeance." And he went on in that strain for several pages, making the intercession a strong point." lie explained to Crawford, the city editor, that there vns no doubt of the thing coming out just as he had written writ-ten it, but to be sure, he would wire a "Yes" or "No" from the station when the train reached" the town, for ho planned to accompany the deputy. At three o'clock in the morning Crawford Craw-ford received this jubilant bulletin: "Big thing. Five hundred people. Mile or more of rope. Now headed for tall sycamore- Irce." And just i'.s the foreman was sending send-ing to the pressroom the page with Hemming's glorious exclusive story, came this anouncement: "It's all off. They're not going to do , it." ' Hemming came back looking like a madman. For two da3's he roved around, stopping at odd times to butt his head against some (hi ng hard. At last he was induced by Crawford to explain. "When we got there," he said, "it was a sure thing. They had it all ready, and took Higginson away from the deputy dep-uty with a yell. Then I Kent my bulletin. bul-letin. They rushed him to the sycai more and were just about to swing him up when it occurred to me that it would spoil the story if somebody didn't rise up and make an appeal for mercy for the thief. 1 waited, hoping for the usual Intercession, till the danger dan-ger line, and then, as nobody else showed a sign of talking for him, I jumped up on something and started in on it myself. I just wanted to make the facts fit the story I had written,' so I made the speech I had attributed to the unknown. At first they didn't want to listen, but pretty soon tliey quieted, and I poured it in, thinking all the time how lucky I was to have written the thing. I jumped down then and stepped aside to let the regular programme pro-gramme go on. As I did so somebody yelled: 'By thunder, he's right! And aonther voice declared: 'It would dis- HE SPOILED HIS STORY. Ill Zeal for the Truth Waa a Young Reporter'! Ilnin. Newspaper reporters arc sometimes thrown against strange experiences in getting the news that other people comfortably com-fortably read next morning. Hut, believing be-lieving himself in a fair way to obtain ob-tain a narrative which no other news writer is aware of, the reporter is willing will-ing to go sleepless and foodless and to undergo all kinds of peril in order that by all means he may get his piece of exclusive news. Such a man was Ezra Hemming, who worked on a western paperone of the kind which would now be denominated denom-inated as "yellow" and frequentl' thrilled his town with startling stories of fact. Hemming had n reputation for alertness which was second to none, and ns he had a large circle of friends who made it their business to inform him upon privately known affairs, he was i i-cldom at tiic "short end" of an cxtlu- i |