ice Commission: arrests, complaints, raids.

=57. News Runs.=--These runs are distributed among the different
reporters, sometimes only one, sometimes three or four to a person. On a
small paper all of the runs, or all to be found in that town, may be
given to one reporter, the number assigned depending upon the size of
the town, the nature of the territory covered, and the willingness or
unwillingness of the owners to spend money in getting news. On the
larger papers, however, police headquarters generally provide work for
one man alone, known as the "watcher." In many cases he does no writing
at all, but merely watches the slips and the sheets for reports and
arrests, which he telephones to the city editor, who assigns other
reporters to get the details and write the stories. Another reporter
watches the city clerk's office and perhaps all the other departments in
the city hall, which he visits at random intervals during the day, but
without such close attention to any one office as is given to police
headquarters. Still another goes to the shipping offices and two or
three other places which he will visit ordinarily not more than once a
day. But whether he goes five times a day or only once, a reporter is
held responsible for all the news occurring on his run; and if he falls
short in his duty or lets some more nimble-witted reporter scoop him on
the news of his beat, he had better begin making himself friends of the
mammon of unrighteousness to receive him into their habitations; for a
scoop, even of a few minutes, by a rival publication is the unpardonable
sin with the city editor. The wise reporter never neglects any news
source on his run.

=58. Dark Runs.=--Before we take up methods of getting stories, one
other news source should be noted,--what reporters know as "dark runs,"
runs that are consistently productive of news, but which must be kept
"dark." Such places are garages, delicatessen stores, florists' shops,
and similar shops providing flowers, cakes, and luxuries for private
dinners and receptions. An unwritten law of trade makes it a breach of
professional etiquette for a shopkeeper to tell the names of purchasers
of goods, but many a proprietor, as a matter of business pride, is glad
to recount the names of his patrons on Lakeside Drive and their splendid
orders just given. Garage men, too, wishing it known that millionaire
automobile owners patronize their shops, often are willing to tell of
battered