The Brass Check: A Study of American JournalismSinclair, Upton
General
The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism
Sinclair, Upton
Associated Press; Journalism -- United States; Press -- United States
So at ten o’clock, when I repaired to 26 Broadway, I found a great crowd
of curious people who had read of the matter; also, a number of
reporters and camera-men. The reporters swarmed about me and besought me
for interviews, but according to agreement I refused to speak a word,
and began simply to walk up and down on the sidewalk. I was joined by
three ladies who had been present at the meeting of the night before,
one of them Elizabeth Freeman, a well-known suffragette. A number of
others had promised to come, but apparently had thought better of it in
the cold light of the morning after. However, the deficit was made up by
a lady, a stranger to us all, who had read about the matter that
morning, and had hastily made herself a white flag with a bleeding
heart, and now stood on the steps of 26 Broadway, shrieking my name at
the top of her voice. It had been agreed that the “mourning pickets”
were all to preserve silence, and to make no demonstration except the
band of crepe agreed upon. But alas, we had no control over the actions
of this strange lady!
Of course there were a number of policemen on hand, and very soon they
informed me that I must stop walking up and down. I explained politely
that I had made inquiry and ascertained that I was breaking no law in
walking on the sidewalk in silence; therefore I didn’t intend to stop.
So I was placed under arrest, and likewise the four ladies. We were
taken to the station-house, where I found myself confronting the
sergeant at the desk, and surrounded by a dozen reporters with
note-books. The sergeant was considerate, and let me tell the entire
story of the Colorado coal-strike, and what I thought about it; the
pencils of the reporters flew, and a couple of hours later, when the
first edition of the afternoon newspapers made their appearance on the
street, every one of them had three or four columns of what I had said.
Such a little thing, you see! You just have to get yourself arrested,
and instantly the concrete-walls turn into news-channels!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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