JOURNALISTIC DILEMMA.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 228, 26 September 1929, Page 10

JOURNALISTIC DILEMMA.

REPORT WENT TOO SOON. STERN CHASE WITH DOC TEAM. (By DIOGENES.) There were a number of men hanged in Dawson by process of law. On one occasion an Indian was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. The execution was to take place at six o'clock on a certain morning in the middle of winter. The Dawson correspondent of a certain paper in Ontario wrote a very realistic account of the hanging -of the' Indian and prepared it for the mail, which left Dawson on the evening previous to the execution. This up-to-date journalist figured that by holding over until the next mail, the story might not be exclusive, so decided that inasmuch as the man was to be hanged next morning at six o'clock, it was quite safe to send the account on the day before that event happened. After the letter had been mailed and the mail carrier with his dog team was well away over the frozen river, a reprieve arrived for the Indian. Tho journalist was in a quandary, the report had gone, and to a newspaper of a particularly reliable character. If they published an account of an execution through an eve witness, being their special correspondent, they would be the laughing stock of the Press. 4 The correspondent had the good sense to make a clean breast of it to the Governor, who at once dispatched a trusty messenger travelling light, with a fast dog team to overtake the mail carrier, secure the letter, and return it to him. , After a swift chase of three days the messenger overtook the mail carrier, secured the letter and brought it to tiie Governor, who returned it to a muchdistressed journalist, thus saving his reputation and preventing a great daily paper from being made ridiculous.