Show I Story Newspaper Days Ezra Kendall in Chicago Tribune I 1 used to be a printer and even then I 1 was wits full of my nonsense I was time after time because I was a funny funnyman man though now nov as I look back upon It I often think that was wa a gentle way of telling me I a good enough h printer for my ply Job Then like so many of the craft 1 I graduated into writing Heres Hers a strange thing When I was wasa a boy bo I was always speaking pieces at rot t school One that I made a hit in ss as ssI asa S I d a put it now was How H w Cyrus Laid the Cable My pants ts wore were too short 11 rt I was thin and gawky and big eared and my eyes were always red in tn those fh se sedas days das I must have hare been a sight but butI I got that piece pl ce over all right Vell the first person I interviewed when I went on the New York Herald was Cy Cyrus C Crus Cyrus rus Field himself It was wa at his house housein in Gramercy Park and an as ns I sat there In his library talking familiarly to the great man who had done so much and had even got himself into heroic rhyme the sensation was thrilling I dont ont know how it is outside of New York but there ther a lot of news Is Isnow isnow now gathered by news bureaus and given to all th papers But in my days we specialized specialised I I started In as a police pollee reporter I remember and there were departments for tor everything My Iy assignment was to cover all nil the police stations from Central park arse arsenal arsenal arsenal nal down to Mulberry street Just three miles from one to tc t the other I would start in at 10 and andI I had to turn my stuff In at the office at 12 so you youcan yOucan can imagine what a quick trip I would have to make If It there was a car I rode If not I walked when I behindhand in iI my schedule and then Id run Police reporters dont have hard bard assignments like that these days daS There were lots of bright fellows on the job and it used to be said that some of them were considered the best detectives in New York Let them get the bare skeleton of a crime from the blotter and they could c analyze it and run It down better than the regular plain clothes men menI I was on the Herald for some time then I wandered all aU over oer the country When I got back to New York I was broke all aU but a few dollars and tried to make them last la t until I got a job The Way War to do that was yas to bring in a beat or a scoop and show them that you oU were still a man Noth Nothing Nothing Nothing ing turned up and I was desperate One night or rather one morning about 3 I had just 10 cents left I took 5 and went Into a cheap lodging house where as I go the beds I sat around till daylight It was out of the w wind Ind and the cold anyway sv I kept 5 cents for coffee and rolls and andI I went Into a little place and got Jot them Then I sat around and read the morn paper I used to do a 11 lot of ship news for the Herald so I naturally turned to that department I saw that thata a certain boat was sail that day and I recalled the purser as an old friend I was still well dressed and an would wo look all aU right if I hunted him Up He will give me a meal I thought and a good cigar and a drink So off I start started started ed cd By the time I got there it was about 9 The purser was glad to tp see me His first remark was What paper paper are you on now I answered The Herald for I was on that just justas as much as a any of the others They all looked good if I could get a job on them Dont say anything but Ill give you a tip continued the purser Cornelius Vanderbilt is on the boat and hes around the world with us Nobody knows it and he want any anyone one to know It so o you give me away I forgot all aU about my hunger I took tooka a card from my pocket wrote New NewYork NewYork NewYork York Herald across it ft and sent it down to the great gr at man He had kept his sailing a secret because he w want nt to be bothered with business and friends but the boat was about ready to sail so he care In fact he was glad to get It in the tle papers after he was gone So he received d me graciously wondered where I had heard of his plans and Insisted upon my taking a n glass of wine with him Then as we talked he pressed another r upon me and and a couple of big fat cigars There was a funny situation A poor starving reporter dying for a square meal and smoking costly costi cigars and drinking priceless wine If Ie Mr Van Vanderbilt Vanderbilt Vanderbilt had known my hunger nothing would have been too good for me but I Iwas Iwas Iwas was too proud to confess and he guess that the buoyant young fellow follow was starving You can easily guess the effect of I Iwine wine and cigars an empty rich lach It took me at least four hours to get rid of ot my wooziness Then I rushed up to the Herald When I told my news they laughed at me but In Inquiry inquiry inquiry at Van house showed that I was right The Herald wished to buy the story outright but I farmed It out to enough papers to make me about 40 When I pasted up my string in the morning I sold it to James Creelman my old chum because I needed the money right away and he lie was tempo temporarily temporarily temporarily flush Going Into a newspaper office Is to me melike melike like a war horse scenting the battle battlefield battlefield battlefield field Talk about your famed fountain Trevi that once quaffed brings you back for another draft or later Its nothing to the hypnotic pull of the newspaper Once a man has Iras got the scent of printers ink up P his hia nostrils it seeps into his veins and only death can destroy It g I I a i I i iI iRay I ii i I I i c S i J e c cc c c T TiT iT I a aBay Ray Kay Montgomery and the Healey sisters who will be at the Orpheum all week in a novelty dancing and sing singing singing singing ing skit r |