Neatly Caught.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2960, 26 July 1888, Page 2

Neatly Caught.

: The editor of a Scotch newspaper, - • suspecting his rival of stealing news from early copies of his paper, determined to lay a trap. The chief reporter and the foreman printer were consulted, and a paragraph was put into type, diving a short and startling account of a terrible murder committed on a lonely moor at some distance from tho town, A dozen copies of tho papers were priuted before the stereotype plalo containing this announcement was removed from tho machine, and another plate with nothing but authentic news was substituted. Of these twelve copies of tho fiotitious narrative, ono waa placed in the way ; ' V of the machine' man; who was ,'•'■'• believed to receive Is ; every morning '.. for dispatching an early paper to the ;'■ /'.'.•. competing journal. Next day the good people of X——were : thrown into a v fever of excitement by theappearance ' ■"■'..'J of bills, on which were printed, in ■■'.'■! drbpsical ; black; letters, "Terrible .., ;.'*■ Tragedy';!; Mysterious. M tirder I" Thou-. v' ■-..', % sandsof-papers were sold,and'greatt- ".■.' was the joy. of a certain/political party >..''.• .'• that the; rival organ ;had not a single lino about this important:; V./-:■■• event, But .the joy was short-lived. ''{'■] The editor, whose subordinates bad '. '■■■ ■'■. fallen headlong into the pit so cleverly \ "'■'.'. dug for them, was aghasi- on discovering that the contents bills of his .con- . : temporary made no reference to tho supposed murder. He turned to the . paper itself. Hot a word about the - subject I The foreman was summoned in hot hasto, and the paper from which ; the paragraph had been pilfered was-;.: ■'' produced. There it was in black and'.-. white, identical in substance, and .■ almost in terms with tho paragraph :-." .that was exciting the town, and • puzzling a couple of reporters who had * been sent before sunrise to collect - [\-'\] further particulars on that distant moor. On the following morning it was the., turn of the other political party,to rejoice, The hoax was explained, and •'.' though it did not cement a good feel- .'./£ iug between the two newspaper offices, ' ™ it taught ono person, at least, to be '.' very cautious about accepting early copies from a rival.- Cassell's Journal.