WHAT AN AVERAGE REPORTER CAN DO.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3987, 8 October 1881, Page 4

WHAT AN AVERAGE REPORTER CAN DO.

There hadn't been a murder in the city for nearly two days, when'the news* of a butcher's wife murder reached the offices of the dailies the other night. A pile of Bonanza stock would not have been more heartily welcomed by the reporters. They just bounced that murder for what it was worth. A perfect coruscation of spluttering gore flew from their pens as they worked up the imaginary details and converted maps of the Holy Land into diagrams of the "scene of the tragedy." The fact that the murdered woman left a trail of blood behind her as she fled from home was a splendid opportunity for " apt alliteration's artful aid." The headings next morning were a sight to behold. " The Ghastly Gash made by a Gory Ghoul." "'the Bloody Blotches made by a Barbarous Butcher's Brutality." and "The Terrible Tragedy Told by a Trial of TrickliDg Lif> blood," are only three instances of what the average reporter can do when bis brain has lain fallow for 48 hours. For the sake, of the three or four daily sheets who each solemnly swear to having the "largest circulation," we sincerely trust that another murder will be committed before Monday, and we are willing to lay any odds that our wish will be fulfilled.—San Francisco News Letter. ■