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Show nltending pl.ysiciiuis nssist the roportor l.v issuing ImllrtiiiM at ccrlinn houre of the duv, or i( rh.iis tlio rcjiortt'ra can only obtain now from the doctors by moans of tiiu'stionin.?. In nny event, in the case of a very prominent nick person, per-son, everybody who enter the house is marked and his identity discussed, if ha he a stranger to the reporters, ami everybody every-body who leaves tli" house is waylaid and closely questioned. By putting together the answers to their fjuestions, uud ba.dnt? fresh questions ques-tions for newcomers upon the informiition thus obtained, the newspaper men can ! digest tlie reports from the sick room, i elimiimt.e (lie tin important statements, ! contirin mid n(raih!en out tho vital iu-I iu-I fonnaiion, and so arrive at and prepare j condi'ieed .'mil reliable statements of tlio i occurrences within the nick room, the I changes in the p.itietit's eouilitioit and the modified chances of his recovery or j death. When the subject of a clone watch of this description is in n dying condition rumors of bis death frequently ;.'et abroad homehow, and to run down theso rumors i and confirm or disprove them is the ' newspajicr wutcher'rt first duty. Tiiii is i not always the easiest tiling in the world - to do, since the inquirer cannot puss be-j be-j yond the thrcfhiild of the house, and of I course cannot risk disturbing the patient by ringing the lx-ll and calling some one to the door. To ii-ll to the trying nature of the situation, he is in constant fear i that a rival may run down the rumor before be-fore hiiu.uii l if it be true, lirstatmouiic tlie news of the sick man's death in his paper. Very often reporters on ft "death watch" arr ingo wi'h some of tho attendants attend-ants or imrsett within the house to display dis-play a certain signal in the window when the expect ! death occurs, different differ-ent signals being agreed on for day and night. Still, with all possible precautions precau-tions mid the utmost alertness, the work ih most trying and wearing, and the unfortunate un-fortunate newspaper man constantly has a bugaboo before him in tlio shape of fear that the object of his professional solicitation may die anil ho not discover it until after his fellows. KllWAIiD RUN'NKLL PlUXrS. A. BrlKbt Npu-npiiper Wimiihii. Buppai.0, Feb. 19. Mrs. Edith Sessions Ses-sions Tupper, whofie suit against Super-Inteudf Super-Inteudf ut .Morin, of the liuflulo police, OX DEATH WATCH PUTY. ONE OF THE REPORTER'S MOST ' , UNPLEASANT ASSIGNMENTS. Slow the JSwiiiapr Get Information Bt-garillni: tlie rrocrem of tbo 1 linen r One Whom the World Call Urmtt. KviuiuiM-niirf-a nt n Working .Jourimllt. Spwlnl Oirresixiiiileiiec.l Kkw YOKK, Feb. 1!). Tlie myriad ot eoplo that make up (ho army of news-paper news-paper readers of the United States read few duvs ago of the serious illness of Qoli. William Tecumseh Sherman. Suit-equent Suit-equent editions of tho pais-rs informed them regularly of his condition, but. it ia 0t likely that one in a thousand even so Biuch as wondered how the reports of the dying soldiers last hours were obtained. ob-tained. As soon as the serious illness of the general was announced, the newspaper reading public uncotisciouslyexiiected to fee supplied with all the newson the subject, sub-ject, as a matter of course. How was this news supplied? Who pafhered the j Information regarding tho occurrences In the sick chamber, t he opinions of the y attending physicians front time to time and all tho other data for the newspaper reports? To a person outsido the newspaper Iforld these questions would most likely prove hopeless riddles. To a newspaper fcan they suggest one of the most t rying, xhatlsting and thankless branches of ewspajsT work reporting tho serious, nd probably fatal illness of a public! character in whoso condition the world at largo is deeply interested. The re-JTxirtfr re-JTxirtfr so engaged must be constantly on the lookout for tho death of the person Whose illness he is "covering," since his position on the particular newspaper taff to which he is attached would be nrely forfeited wero the sick man or Woman to paw away, and lie long remain re-main in ignorance of that all important fact. Probably this is why this branch of newspaper reporting is known in tech-ical tech-ical parlance as "death watch" duty. As a rnlo it is only in metropolitan cities that newspaper "death watches" are set, but in exceptional cases, when a person of great prominence is lying ill In a provincial city or conntry district, reporters and correspondents for leading Journals in that section of the country are detailed to remain as near as possible possi-ble to the sick man until convalescence or ieath ends their labors. It is now just about nine yearn since such a "death watch" was set at Elltcrou, N. J., the subject being no less a personage than the president of the United States, ' James A. Garfield. Every one remembers remem-bers the detailed reports and frequent bulletins of tlie dying president's condition, condi-tion, which were published in every paper pa-per in the land. Alxrot four years later tho newspapers newspa-pers teemed with bulletins from the bedside bed-side of a man whoso name was known throughout the civilized world, Gen. U. S. Grant. --:xM 'N-r J imp- In this case the "death watch" was kejft up for months uibU'.'mI of weeks, and wtren the failing hero of the civil war was borne to Mount McGregor, thither followed the reporters who hud done duty in front of or near his Now rYork city residence. It is too long a Btory to bo told here, but an uccount of the nystematic watch which the score ' and more of ne wspaper uien kept tip on i the honso in which Geo. Grant was a elowly dying, and the incidents of that I watch, would bo to the unini tinted a rev- elatioa. W'liat tltese tireless, indofati- i galile and fyinpathetic newspaper men saw and learned viwh day was sjiread f before the reading public of two conti- f nents. Often a single paragraph repro- I sented tlie lalnir of an entire cold, cheer- f loss and set;iningly endless night, and tlie public little knew when it read the sitri- '. pie announcement, "Gen. Grant passed a quiot night," that that sentence was a euminary of the news obtained by an all Bight watch. When the inevitable end came, and the world read the sad words, "Gen. Grant ; died this morning," did any one picture ! the solitary newspaper man, who first learned the news by a private signal . from tlie house in which the dead hero lay, dashing over the rough mountain road to the telegraph office, bearing information in-formation which was an instant later flashed to every corner of tho civilized world, or the telegraph operator clicking click-ing oif the fateful sentence with fingers trembling like an aspen leaf? Dramatic and stirring as was this situation, it was bnt one of many which the reporters who wore "on the Grant death watch" will remember to tho la:t U;iy of their lives. Since the illness of Gen. Grant the most notable "death watches" set by the New York papers have been those in the cases of Miss Catharine Wolff, ex-Senator Roscoe Conkling, Jacob Sharp and Congressman Samuel S. Cox, though there have been a number of less notable nota-ble instances. In three of the cases mentioned the watch was necessarily maintained for several days or weeks, and tho work was thoroughly systematized. system-atized. For weeks and weeks not a day or night went by that a dozen or so newspaper men did not mount tho steps of Miss Wolffs residence during her last : illnesB, carefully examine the tag at- i tached to the door bell and marked, j "Don't ring; no change," aud silently i depart. j lloscoe Conkling's illness was not quite ; BO protracted, bnt for nearly three weeks ' there was not an instant of the day or 1 emth KF.ssiciNS Trrrnrt. for false imprisonment resulted in disagreement dis-agreement here ths other day, is one ol the brightest journalists of New York. A very large proportion of the women writers on newspapers in the big city at the mouth of the Hudson are front the west or south, but Mrs. Tupper was born in Chautauqua county, this state, and ia of the Sessions family, for so many yeara well known in Empire state politics, being be-ing tlie daughter of Hon. Walter L. Sessions, Ses-sions, ex-member of congress. Her first writing was douo for Th Buffalo Express, to which paper she contributed con-tributed letters from Chautauqua lake, character sketches, stories, etc. In 1SH7 she removed to Chicago, and though entirely en-tirely unacquainted in that hustling western city soon made for herself a reputation among its journalists by hr "specials," which were published in The Chicago Herald. She was also a contributor con-tributor to Tho Inter-Ocean and The Saturday Evening Herald, and when The Tribune offered a prizo of ffiOOf.ir the best long story offered she competed and won. Since' she h:is been in New York sh has acted as special correspondent ol The Chicago Herald, her letters being excellent specimens of newspaper writ ing. She is also a contributor to Judge, Frank Leslies, Life, Outing, The Cosmopolitan Cos-mopolitan and The Ladies' Home Journal. Jour-nal. Her specials in The New Yuri World have attracted much attention. Besides all this mass of work sho h;u somehow found time to write two novels, which have been published in booi form "By a Hair's Breadth" and "By Whose Handy" The latter is astrikingly original story, full of mysteries and beautiful women, deadly serpents and handsome men. She sometimes turns off a neat bit of society rhyme, and hel verses ou the flirtatious qualities of a lady's fan, beginning l'nintud mid perfumed, feathered nnd piuk, Here is your ladyship's fan, have been copied .widely. Though a most vivacious person, she is quite domestic in her tastes and is devoted de-voted to her pretty little home, where j she is known as "Ted," a reminiscence i of her college days. She herself says she ! has no fads, but admits that she loves logs. Though not a society woman, she is a close student of human nature, ana it is to this 1 hat she owes a large mea , ure of lit'i--"''"-!. Amv STiiViitis. j night that the house iu which the for- ' mer New York senator lay was not mi- ; der the eye of one or more reporters. ; The men who represented the press associations asso-ciations served twelve hour watches, the different men from each association relieving re-lieving each other twice a day. The day "trick" from 6 a. in. to 0 p in. was not so bad, for there was a life in the streets which broke the monotony; but none save those who did that weary, ft-eary watch from 6 p. m. to 6 a. tn.. when there was absolutely no diversion, i can appreciate what the duty meant. The sentinel dare not sleep, for Mr. Conkling was hovering between life am) ; death, and the end misrht come at any moment. All the reporter coma (to was to stroll back anil forth in the deserted Street, or from the window of the ofilce , of the Madison Srpiare theatre, across , the way, which Mr. A. M. Palmer had ; kindly opened to the newspaper men, : fixedly stare at the diffily lighted win- ; dows of the sick man's chamber. Eut all "death watches" are more or less alike. They vary only in incidents aud surronndings. The "death watch" is an outgrowth of the advanced and systematized sys-tematized methods of news gathering of the present decade. Nowadays the illness of a prominent person ets into print at once, aud the watch is set witliuut dslay. Perhaps the i |
