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Show HOW REPORTERS GOT BIG BALLOON STORY ;l ' Strategy and Resource That Gave Narrative to Pub- ; lie Despite Handicap :i M From the Ottawa Journal. M To "C,0P" Secretary Joaephua Dan- . ! lela on the story of lllnton. Kloor and arrel; In other words, to get the story of the "lost" balloonist Into the newspapers news-papers before the I'nited 8tatea navy department got It at Washington such was the task of two-score United States and Canadian reporter who swooped down upon the amased natives na-tives of Cochran. Mattlce and Clute aome ten daya ago. New York reporter are reputed to be daring and resourceful. The writer, eight years ago, saw. them smash po- : lie riifipiiftn h n . on the orcsn'on of the arrival of the Carpathia with the survivors of the Titanic, they a-rung telephone wire Into the homes 1 f the rescued and got their Interviews nd "stories' by such means; saw them few years later charter a large seamer In Quebec to go out and meet the cruiser Kssrx returning with the victims of the Kmprees of Ireland disaster, and witnessed them hrei-k through police line In the Halifax catastrophe disguised as workers for the Ked Cross. On none of these occasions, oc-casions, however, did the New Yorkers display quite the same Ingenuity, resource re-source and disregard for eipendilure i aa when on the trail of the balloon- ,s lets. They entered Cochrane equipped , fas any ssa rs? ny. They fame en a- special car. with their own chef, with all kinds of provisions, with dozens of type rlters. stationery, books, muga-sines, muga-sines, confectionery, and even a innm-phone, innm-phone, with th latest Indian sonic. As for clothing;, nelthep leary, Ktff-ansson Ktff-ansson nor Amunditn were ever belter prepared for the rigors of the Arctic son. The little Iluton Hay pout at Mattlce was swept clean of unowatiom, ehoepacka, moccasins, blankets, -rk -lnaw coats: Cochrane merchants expert-, enced a imlUr windfall, and price", respond ins; to the law of supply and demand, simply soared. TWO MKKI.Y THAU.. Cochrane, for the flrt two days. he. came the O, II. Q. of the crowu Scouts i were sent out on the trail, going out i as far aa fifteen miles, iut the little Itort hern town. Immensely pleased ut i, the thought of be inn "put on the map," was ths base. There were two trails by khli'h haa Kali nnii I sat m i u t. fnm t' t1 ute and Matt ice. Ths trappers and f Indians In the neighborhood were dl-I dl-I vided 'n their opinions, some favoring Xattlce and others Clute; and it was therefore found necesnary to guard 1 both trails. This was dons by sending out Indian runners from both Matties I and flute. The redmen were under con- tr.r a. j figuri l hist ta.tnmm mini ' hnve seemed funminus lif g" s-ad- Intercept ihe balloon ists and beat them I ack to the telepragh station by eight I hours. Thus, the correspondents (K-I (K-I nred. they would bt afforded sniple time to get to the aviators before the messnges of .Secretary Daniel commanding com-manding them not to talk. Mattlce, of course, was a hundred miles away, but an engine stod by night and day under un-der si cam. prepared to take the Dartv there within three hours. Two correspondents cor-respondents out of the two dozen broke from the others and decided to play a lone hand Clermont of The New ; York American and Croasland of Th New York Tribune. Clsrmont. with two Indiana, tea dogs and two tobaggans, started out on the Mattlo trail, while 'rosjland. w ith nlmllar equipment, went out from Clute. Their hope was tr meet the aviators fifty or sixty ml lew out. get their storv and make a danh back with the news ahead of all the ot hers. Both men had the worst of bd luck. Croaaland, mho had never been on snowshoes before, but who Insisted In-sisted on breaking the trail, stumbled on his first day out and was badly bitten by one of ths huskies. II had to camp for a dar. but finally pushed on more than fifty mllea, only to leara from a runner sent out after him thst th aviators were coming Into Mattice 100 miles sway. This meant that his lone card had ben played, and that he had lot. for ft was lmpoanibl to get bark to Ma'.tlc in time. He was game. bowevr. pending back this meesag to the more lucky oneg at Mattice; "You were right ann I have lout Oood lucsk with your story. Hope we ll meet soon again, with different success. suc-cess. Crossland hsd expended several hundreds hun-dreds of dollars for hts paper, but. through a combination of bad luck, was completely 'scooped" on the story. MKT TIIR AVIATORS. Nor did Clermont, who pushed on nearly ninety miles, fare much better He met the aTaitors. camped with them ewernight. got their story, and bexan his dash back with It, but could not stand the pace. IDs feet, unused to snoahoe. blistered and bled, be suffered suf-fered Intensely from ths cold, and his progreaa slowed down to not more than fourteen mile a, day. n th other hand, ths Indian runnera sent out by th other correspondents, and who met th billnontsts th morning after Clermont Cler-mont did, cam back like the wind. They even dropped piccea of tallow and chees a!'ng the trail to slow up Clermont's Cler-mont's doga; and arrived in Mat tic nearly eight hours ahead of him. Clermont. Cler-mont. In fact, could only make Mattice Mat-tice aix hours ahead of the bailonlnta. snd not I ntime to pull off his "scoop." snd then fell into th wont kind of hard luck by going on to Cochrane and miaaing the KarreM-Minton fight. uv pri pun ir me story. nsr.it the warning of the Indisn runners, th balloonist, who arrived two hours before expected, took the reporters re-porters unawares; and before a hundred hun-dred words could be go out of Hinton and Kloor they had received and read 1 aniels message enjoining silence. orlunately. however. Karrell was a i htalf hour behind the others, and a de-j de-j tachfnent (of the reporters) was aent ! out to cut him off from the main force j and Ianlela message while others remained behind to take car of Kloor snd Hinton. Farrel proved easier than j the moat sanguine hoped for. and the inducement of a cup of hot tea readly i lured him Into a shack and Into the arms of the newspaper men about a i mile out on the trait. i Here Kdward Klauher of The New ! York Times, who was elected spokesman spokes-man for the Journalists, put Karrell j through a grueling cross-examination. I taking him from Hoc k aw ay to Moose Factory and back to Mattice, and fin-I fin-I ally producing the Hinton letters, which later caused such a row. It was Just as Farrel had concluded his story that i Hinton entered the shack with Pan-1 lei's messag. getting a punch on th Jaw for his pains. I It was one thing r get th story; another thing to get it out. There are only two wires out of Mattice, one vis Winnipeg and the other via Quebec; at.d two wires ar miirhty Jittle ennae Miienro In carrying T&.OuO words within the spsce of a few hours. The question therefore, arose aa to which reporter of the two doxen should have a first go at the wires. After some hot de-hate de-hate It was decided that the fairest way would be to have a deal of the cards, with the man drawing the lowest low-est card gettinr first turn on th wire and the man drawing the highest getting get-ting the last, those In between coming com-ing In order according to th card they drew, and each man filing &ao words at a time. In this way every hod y got a bit of a chance; at 3 oelock the following morning four operators hsndliaa two wires had sent- out to.-ooe to.-ooe words; six hours later th New York buamess man could rad the story at his break faat. and th next day could go and se the whole episode reproduced at his favorite movie theatre. |