The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 12, 1906, Page 13

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. By FRANKLIN HIGHBORN. ES” WILSONS €6W nose for led wrong, That rancisco Courier paid e salary news” him is to act as its the compara- city of San 1 he permitted an over- f reason to complicate mat- he went astray. ndent in Jose se for news” on a bright De- orning of the year 1900 newstand, one e's most favored centers. He ason for going there, but so ng was © nose' hat his eyes were squarely upon Philip Levy when nat gentl straightened up es though an electric shock passed t . “Wes" was all attention led 2d no re man had grown old and, inol- the questionable art money.” Ostensibly furnished the and cartoonists or caricatures of Call- easy estate agent, h pen 1 real stern ne: en and how to pa ops. He knew at a glance the com value of everything salable, block to a fam y scandal ular morning custom, rd's stand securing a the San Francisco £ papers, when the shock and Wilson's eyes struck him at the instant. half round, y's eyes and Wiison's refiection would close as & clam, his discovery end he had to unload or explode. reclated all this at a glance closer. There wers no the Courier vy as £ with ance ary questions £ with & somewhat dirty fore- rent 4 its owner, to a short para- | the Courler's first page, a thrill or answers. on ered a whisper wi aragraph stated hen*having com- n of China, de-| ore or less, , the last| Seal of tion of Great Seal of] the w where the Sea working for delay. Nego- are at a standstill can be found.” said “Wes,” with his eves concluded read the odor of garlic drew E was the speaker that 1 words would be oy have sent But that a h the fate of ung centered Santa Clara fornia, was too much for Wes” Wilson to credit, much ad- i to the sensational though he was. for he said nothing, exas- tell you, it is,” insisted that worthy. it. At 4 o'clock this after- ° he continued, his whisper get- even lower, be at the bank ner with the man who stole it from palace and brought it here.” | gave & careless agreement to | neeting place, his small inter- Levy's story decreasing every e seen & few minutes before 4 o'clock, to his word, “Wes” was on his to the bank corper. His course him past the telegraph office, and wing the rule that a correspondent ould never pass a telegraph “office,| « went in. There was & message from s paper waiting him. Willlam Kelly,” the telegram read, hose wife with her four children left two. months ‘age, shot himself to- Left & note beseeching wife to him in his cofin. Wife can't be| found. Supposed to be in San Jose. Get plctures of children her to us on first train. Artist 3 representative will meet her to go Name—Mamie Kelly.” etween Mamie Kelly and the Great of Chins, under the circumstances, | ere was absolutely no choice. “Wes" | grimly as he thought of the| sque indignation of his editors he neglect Mamie Kelly, and| is excuse that he was off Great Seal of China. He ep the agreement with Levy. not wait long at the bank He had spent the day in a ess search for his man with the Seal of China, and regretted that | s first excitement at the discovery the seal was so much wanted he| 1 spoken to “Wes” Wilson about it | It was with feelings of genuine | ef that he found that “Wes” didn't| enough about it to keep his en-| gagement. Levy had another man in| W for the enterprise that he. was| fast forming in his mind.” Ray Walsh, ! world. Every paper would be barred against him, “The man who was | ‘scooped’ in the Great Seal of China| o~ nd her, to ke evy & | telegraph office, i at the time star reporter on the San Jose Morning Herald, was just the man for him. But Levy determined that he would make no mistake this time. That the best results could be obtained, he resolved to get Walsh partially in- toxicated before telling him of the mar- velous piece of news. that he “have a drink.” Drink a Unfortunately for Mr. v he had not counted upon Walsh’s “capacity,” so well known to everybody but Levy, who seldom indulged. It was not long before Walsh, times, was assisting Levy, in a state of beastly intoxication, into @ hack. Lev. was a leading Unitarian, and Walsh, with that peculiar forethought which was inspirational with him at such times, directed the hackman to deliver Levy at the home of minister, instead of at Levy's own house. As they parted, a parting which was most complimentary to each, and affec te, Levy thrust into Walsh's hands a bundle of telegrams. ‘“Shend ‘em all ole fel” said he. “Shend 'em all. Mak’s both rich. Awful rich. Great Shezl Shina In Santa Clara County. Paralyze shivilized world.” From a spirit of genial good fellow- ship, Walsh, without reading the dis- patches, although he noted with some interest they were directed to the prin- cipal them as Levy had requested. “Charge 'em up to Phil Levy,” he 1ly directed the operator; and, as Levy's credit was good, they had been so charged. This important duty pesformed, Walsh, entirely innocent of the fact that his own name was signed to those tele- grams, or how valuable a clear head would be to him later in the evening, took up the bout where Levy had drop- ped out. Cline, city editor of the Mercury, had succeeded in completing the work that Levy had, with such forethought, com- menced. The number of Kellys in San Jose was a matter of much surprise to “Wes” Wilson, But of the multitude not one of them had even heard of Mrs. Mamie Kelly, mother of four children. There were less than four Mrs. Mamie Ke! , but none with exactly four children, and all were living in a state of conjugal happiness. It was.7 o'clock before “Wes” had located the right Mrs. Kelly and had seen her on the train. In lleu of pictures of the ren, “Wes” shipped the four chil- dren along with her, recognizing that they would look well from a newspaper artist's standpoint, grouped round the cofin, when Mrs. Kelly was carrying ier late husband’s last request. It was such happy little inspirations as this son so highly. had a no chi By 8 o'tlock Wilson had had his din- and was again on his rounds for He was barred from the office of ne news. the Morning Herald, certain little un- | pleasantness existing between him and | the Herald's management, but the doors of the Mercury were open wide for him. It was Saturday night, and the Mercury | staff was busy getting out the morning edition, which was published Sundays. | To the Mercury office he bent his steps. Jim Cline was at that time city editor of the paper. Wilson had seen him in- toxicated before, remarkably never quite so thoroughly as he was on this particular evening. With drunken | Cline beckoned | gravity and mystery, *Wes” out into the hall. “Shay, ole man,” he sald, “greatest shtory on earth out tonight. Paralyze shivilized world. Great Sheal of Shina in Santa Clara County.” “Wes” was startled. Well trained newspaperman that he was, he knew that the unexpected, the apparently im- possible, is ever happening. It was within the generous bounds of possibil- ity that that much wanted seal was in Santa Clara. If it were, and he were to be “scooped” on it, the greatest story | | by far that had ever come to San Jose, | or California for that matter, his career as a newepaperman was over. would be the scorn of the newspaper | story, you know.” “He tried to pump Jim, but it was a useless task. All that could be gotten out of him was “Paralyze shivilized world. Great Sheal Shina in Santa Clara County.” A bit worried, es” went to the wire his paper that a story, to the effest that the Great Seal of China was in San Jose, was abroad. would show his paper that he knew of the story, it in no way committed him to bellef in such an improbable tale. At the door of the telegraph office he found a very much excited red- headed messenger boy, with his hands full of telegrams. “Where have you been?” asked the boy. “I've been looking everywhere for you. Say (this last confidentially), the Great Seal of China's right here in town. There's a dozen wires here for you about”it. Where's Ray Walsh? There's & lot of messages for him, too.” The now thoroughly alarmed Wilson tore open his telegrams, there were five of them—one from the New York Journal; one from the World; one, a cablegram, from the London Times, and two from his owa paver. the Courier. IIET11 g 1 took most kindly to the sug-| in a state of | happiness characteristic of him at such | the Unitarian | newspapers of the world, filed| Long before dark he and Jim | t made the Courier regard Wil- | so, but | He | intention being to | This was a| sort of compromise course, for, while it | R ——— o ——— e ) ? i '" ioe rl” ( ( ] W | One read practically the samie as the { others. | _“What is the reliability of Ray Walsh?” The Journal message as ex- |ample ran: “He states that the Great | Seal of China is in your city. Says ! story will paralyze civilized world. Of- | ters us 10,000 words for $10,000.” For one desperate moment “Wes"” did | not know which way to turn. The sad- | dest feature of it all was the apparent rehensible conduct of Ray Walsh. Walsh was his best friend. They had | prospered together, and drunk cham- pagne; they had known adversity, and divided a 5-cent dish of greasy beans, r l l |And yet here was Walsh, with the | | greatest story that ever hit the State, | “peddling” it out to his best ffiend’s paper, knowing that such a course would ruin his best frien the best friend, of course, being “Wes” Wilson. The Walsh incident paled, however, in | comparison with the importance of the | main feature, the story itself. That | kad to be met. | Ignoring all the messages except | these from his owvn paper, Wilson sent | the Courier a telegram well calculated | to make easy the ‘minds of the editors of that publication. While in no way | committing himselt, he showed an ac- quaintance with the “story” that was remarkable. This duty done, he jumped intc a hack and, filled with mournful reflections over a broken engagement of the afternoon, went thundering away to the home of Phillip Levy. No sooner bhad the hack stopped in front of YLevy's door than a vision clcthed in white, red ribbons and anx- fety burst from it and ran down the steps and across the sidewalk to the hack, even before the impatient Wilson | could descena. 3 “Oh!"” cried the vision, “what is the latest word? Is he dead? Have you come to tell me about it? Oh, papa! papal” And an incoherent flow of werds followed, In spite of Wilson's ef- forts to stop it. He recognized in the vision Philllp Levy's daughter, one of San Jose's falrest daughters; a truly pretty girl, whom he had admired much. At ahy other time he would have wel- comed the opportunity to be of assist- ance to her. On this particular occa- | ston, however, he had no time to be- |stow sympathy even upon a pretty | girl. He gathered from the young woman's words that her father had | been the victim of a serfous accident, ;the nature of which she could not tell, | but. thought that he had been struck by {a train. The injured man had been |taken to the home of the Unitarian min- [ | [ | | | | | | T A, ister and her mother sent for less than aa hour before. R Wilson scented another tremendous story, a railroad horror. J “And,” continued the young lady, “papa is out of his head all the time. He thinks that the Great Seal of China is here in San Jose and that the Chinese Emperor is going to pay him $10,000 for it.” This spur sent Wilson’s hack hurry- ing off to the home of the Unitarian minister. “It would be just like Levy,” “Wes"” murmured, “to dle before I can gee him.” At the house he found all in con- fusfon. Levy could not be seen. No- body knew any of the particulars. Wilson insisted. The doctor was sent for. He praoved to be a vounz fellew of 227 TELIVEREY ANIFIR THEILL 1T / iy '. (" J ~~ 771/ ) * GEEAT SHEAL ON EAE%‘H?HTOEY RABALIZE SHIVS, IZTp \JoELp Wilson's set. Closing one eve most sig- nificantly, the doctor whispered to his friend: “Just a case of plain jag, but it'’s a tremendous one. And say,” sald the physician by way of humorous af- terthought, “it doesn’'t seem to be a case of snakes, but of the great seal of China. There are dragons on it, you know,” and the doctor laughed. “But, Doc,” insisted Wilson, “there's something in that great seal story, and Levy is the only man in town who appears to know anything about it. I must sée him,” And see him he aid, Levy knew thé reporter immediately and turned ugly and abusive. “Didn't keep your engagement,” he taunted. “You're beaten on the best story of the year. Come around to make amends, I suppese.” “\\\\\j B H/’//// 2ill 1“/,,‘" ‘at the Courier office. L | SHINA BIGHT HLEE 4 Wilson tried the “humble act,” per- suasion, bullying, but nothing more could he get from the man before him, who, recovering from the effects of the liquor he had drunk, was in what Wil- son called a “nasty frame of mind.” After hours of fruitless effort Wilson left, noting that it was past 11 o'clock. His paper went to press at 2 in the morning. But three hours remained to him, and he was no nearer the “stoty” than he had been three hours before. As he left the nack at the door of the telegraph office from a neighboring lamp post came a nerve wrecking jum- ble of words: “Great Sheal China right here in San Jose. Greatest story on earth. Paralyze shivilized world.” ‘Wilson turned flercely to the lamp post. Twined around it in an impos- sible curl Wwas Ray Walsh, the good work that Levy had commenced earlier in the evening in a state of elegant completion. Before “Wes"” could speak the red-headed messenger boy was upon him. “Say,” cried that excited worthy, “the wires are hot about the great seal of China. Here's twenty messages for you.” “Wes" grabbed the fistful and read them all. Those from his own paper were ‘the sadddst. They began with the statement that the first page had been reserved for the “story.” Another wanted to know if the “story” would be “exclusive.” Then came inquiries about the filing of the “story.” Later the series began to grow im- patient, finally abusive, and the last demanded in so many words, fateful words, “Are you throwing us down on the ‘story’?” “Wes” answered that last telegram, smiling grimly as he pictured the emo- tions that the answer, would inspire “Am not throw- ing you down,” he answered. “Every drunken man in town knows all about seal; but no sober man seems to. The secret p: to it lles along the cocktail route, and I am now going out to take it. If I can get drunk enough in gn hour to get story will send it in, if I am not too drunk to write it.” Not in the least had Wilson over-es- timated the sensation that such an an- swer, on such an occasion, would cre- ate. Some laughed as they read it, oth- ers despaired. The managing editor wrote out “Wes’s” discharge on the spot. In the act of flling it, his hand was stayed by his telegraph editor. “Don’t wire it,” pleaded the worthy. “Don’'t wire it. Wait till morning. This man, Ray Walsh, evidently has the ‘story’; but he pays no attention to our wires. There is but one explanation for it, Walsh has sold the exclusive story to some other paper. If you wire Wilson's discharge, we certainly won't get it. We can’'t get a special train to San Jose before press time. If we get the ‘story’ at all it will be through Wilson. Don't fire him to. night. Wait till morning, and then, and there was pleading in the telegraph editor’s voice, “let me go to San Jose | to do it in person.” The discharge was not wired. Other messages were sent, however, plenty of them, pleading messages entreating the correspondent to do his best; mes- sages expressive of every confidence in the young man’'s tact and ability. “But for God's sake,” one rattled edi- tor wired, “Kesp sober until 2 o’clock.” ‘Wilson at “his send of the story” had in the meantime, with no gentle hand, unwound Walsh from the lamp- post. If Walsh was full of whisky, he was fuller of the story, and his pockets fairly bulged with telegrams and cable- grams from all parts of the world. The experienced Wilson realized that none of those “wires” had been an- swered. But. a “story” known to a drunken man, several drunken men is everybody's “story.” On the other | hand, this “story” was so improbable that anybody, as the doctor had done, would take it as a drunken man's dream. In this, he realized, did the only possibility that he would not be “scooped” lie. Walsh could get no fur- ther than the recital that the story would “paralyze shivilized world.” To loosen his tongue, Wilson dragged him into a saloon. There Wilson poured drinks down Walsh's capacious throat. But the more Walsh drank the less he knew. He had started out with the statement: “The Greatest Shtory on earth, Paralyze shivillzed world. Worth ten thous any man’s money.” Gradu- ally, as Walsh drapk, he begag to drop words from the set speech, until he “went out” with the murmur, “Shiv’ wol’” on his lips. Wilson put him to bed on two chairs and left the saloon, resolving to ask every man he might meet about the “story.” The very first man he met knew all about it. He was perfectly sober. Wilson felt himself grow dizzy. He came back to the earth at the man’s next words. “Fred Keiser's got It” he sald; “brought it back from China with him. He showed it to me the other day. Most curious thing you ever saw. Got a dragon on it with five toes, which shows that it's the royal seal, for all other Chinese seals have fewer toes on the dragon. At least that's what Keiser says. He's going to make a pile out of it. Levy, the real estate man, is golng Into partnershijp with him.” Oh, but It was simple then, that story of the Great Seal of China. “Wes"” marveled that he had not solved it before. Kelser had been a second rate politiclan, until he ha@ left San Jose to become camp follower in the Philippines, and later in China. Just the man, “Wes"” thought, to steal the Great Seal from the Imperial palace, and smuggle it into the country. The college clock was striking midnight. Six minutes later, Keiser, in scant attire, was entertaining Wilson. Keiser was more than willing to talk., Wilson, the precious moments gliding fast, almost went mad as the drawling German insisted upon going into the most minute of details. The alleged Great Seal was produced, a beautifyl specimen of jade, curlously carved, worth, it was plain, aside from any international question as to its being the missing seal, many times its weight in gold. With his ears listening to Keiser, the reporter’s eyes feasted upon the beautifully carved ade. - The seal had been cut from a block about six inches square, dark green, ost black in color. The pattern of the seal bore on one half old mys- tical characters, such as Wilson knew were used in the writing of Confuclus and other Chinese classics, signs which are mystical and emblematic rather than graphic. The other half of the seal bore antique characters, which, unused at the present day, are still understood by the literati of China. Surmounting it all, to be used as a handle, was a marvelously carved dragon and it had the five toes of the royal household of China. Finally the story of the German was told, story stranger. than any fiction “Wes" Wilson had ever heard. Then the reporter rose to go, with an hour be- fore him to tell the story which was indeed to paralyze the clvilized world.” The German listened with amazement to Wilson's excuse for hur- rying away. “What!” demanded Keiser, “you're not going to telegraph that up to- night? You needn't,” as a happy in- spiration seemed to strike him, “for it was all printed in the San-Francisco Californian two weeks ago. In a Sun- day paper, you know. Just telegraph the Courier to get a Californian of that date and. copy it. It will be cheaper,” added the economical Ger- man, for such a wasts of money for telegraphing appalled him. “Wes" looked at the scantily elad] ‘camp follower with wild ideas of kill- ing him om the spot; but he saw abso-, lutely no humor in the placid face be- fore him. The German had evidently spoken froga pure ignorance of news- papers and their methods. “Are you sure about the story deing’ published {2 the Californian?” *“Wes™ at length agked. { “Oh, yes," replied the ready German. “T've got it. I'll show it to you/' In a moment the Sunday Californian was in Wilspn’s hand. There was the story of the stone, with pictures of it and speculation as to its value to the Chinese Government. How bhad he overlooked such a thing? How had his superiory jon the Courier overlosked it? At the ught the words of the telegrams h had received rushed through his head—those sarcastie grams, questipning his ability as a newspaperman—and the light of a' flerce joy overspread his face He would answer bagk In words that' would be balmi for his injured feslings, if they cost him his job. | At the telegraph office he commenced a telegram, buf on second thoughts de- cided to take the phone the Courier offfce. at the other end inquired abow® The Great Seal of China had by thip time become “B* ' “It's found,” answered Wilson. | “Then get it wn the wire” came reply in a volice of an editer of. the burden of a great “scaop, greatest “scogp™ af the age, “No necessiiy for it,” aasweved Wil son. An explosion =t the other end of the, line. “Take the phone"” sald a veles to soma one evidantly neas, T can’t stand this any lomger. runk ! or crazy."” “Send the story blanked quick” sald a segond voice. f No necessity for it inststed Wilson, “It's all printed in the Sunday supple-, ment of the Californian of a Week sgo Sunday. 3 | “What's that?” came back, “Yes,” wellt on Wilsen. ‘T'd advise, you to get the Californian matrix for {our first page; it will save you the ecessity of setting the story up. What kind of a ‘josh’ have you fellows deen working on me, anyhow, keeping me' legging it all night for a story two| ‘weeks old?" Wilson would have continued, but the dazed listeger at the other end “hung up.” Tha Courier's first page next morn. iog was what newspaper men would éall a “fright” Nor was the Great: Seal of China ‘Wilson's dis- charge never left the panaging edi- tor's desk. The jade which years ago caused such excitement in California news- paper circles is still in America. That it is a seal from the royal household of China is beyond question, and the Chinese Government, through the State Department, as late as 1903 was de- manding its return. Fred Weitzen- burg, the Keiser of the story, who brought it to this country, refused to give it up, demanding $30,000 for it. Some hold that while it may be the royal seal of the Empress, it is not the Great Seal of the northern capital of China. Whatever it is, however, it cer-/ tainly had half the newspaper world mad with excitement one December' night in 1900, for the reasom in the story, the detallp of which are & record of what actualy eesurred,