Chapter I: Introduction

It has seemed worth while to set down the account of the experiences reported in the following pages, not because they represent any important achievement, nor yet because they are conspicuous for any unusual enterprise, for none realizes better than the writer that they comprise nothing more than the day’s work, for the dozens of newspaper men that wander the earth.

As a lover of the Profession these few little adventures are narrated in the hope that they may serve as an interpretation to the lay reader of the motives of the men that go forth to gather the news of the world. Fame, money and reputation are all secondary considerations to the real journalist and what he does he does for his Paper and for the pure joy of the game that he plays.

What the writer has tried to portray is the atmosphere and fascination of THE CABLE GAME—the game that takes a man far from home ’midst alien races and into strange lands and makes him stake his all in his effort to win that goal of the journalist’s ambition—A World Beat.

S. W.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
_I From War to Peace in Manchuria—Peking—A New
Assignment, “Russia Direct”—Shanghai_ 1

_II The Race for the Situation—Ceylon—Across
India—Stalled in Bombay—Russia via the Suez Canal_ 20

_III Constantinople at Last! The Threshold of the Russian
Assignment—A Nation in Convulsion_ 35

_IV We Charter a Tug and become Dispatch Bearers of His
Britannic Majesty and Learn of Winter Risks in the
Black Sea too late to Retreat_ 54

_V We sail out into the Black Sea in the Salvage Steamer
“France” and for Sixty-five Hours Shake Dice with
Death_ 73

_VI We Land in Odessa on the Day Set by the
Revolutionists for a General Massacre, but because
of Effective Martial Law Secure only a “General
Situation” Story_ 94

_VII The France does her Best in the Run for the
Uncensored Cable, Sticks in the Mud, but Gets Away and
Arrives at Sulina Mouth with an Hour to Spare_ 113

_VIII We Send our Cable and Find Ourselves with 5 Francs
and Expenses of $200 a Day, but Make a Financial Coup
d’Etat, and Sail for the Crimean Peninsula_ 134

_IX We Reach Sevastopol and Land in Spite of Harbor
Regulations, Get a “Story” and Sail away with it to
the Coast of Asia Minor_ 150

_X We Send our Cable from Sinope and then Sail for the
Caucasus where Rumor States Revolution and Anarchy to
be Reigning Unmolested_ 167

_XI Christmas Morning on the Black Sea_ 180

_XII We Find Turmoil in the Caucasus but Celebrate Xmas in
Spite of Storm and Stress_ 190

_XIII We Sail away from Batuum with a Beat, Official
Dispatches, Foreign Mails and a Boat Load of Refugees
that Keep Us Awake Nights_ 200

_XIV The Return to the Golden Horn and the End of the
Assignment_ 217

TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Dispatch Boat “_France_” lying at anchor
in Odessa harbor _Frontis_

PAGE
From far Mongolia’s borders for 180 miles eastward
stretches the line of the Japanese trenches 20

Regiment after regiment, fresh from Japan, pour along
the newly made highways 20

With clanking chains and creaking limbers, batteries
are going to the front 48

In eighteen months’ association with the army, we have
not seen such activity 48

When the _France_ entered Odessa harbor after the storm
she was pretty well shaken up 92

Sulina—the mouth of the Danube River 92

General Nogi—than whom no finer gentleman ever drew
the breath of life 198

Morris inspecting our Christmas dinner 198