September, 1886.
[DEAR MOTHER:]
I saw the Record people to-day. They said there
was
not an opening but could give me "chance" work, that is, I was
to report each day at one and get what was left over. I said
I would take it as I would have my mornings free to write the
article and what afternoons I did not have newspaper work
besides. This is satisfactory. They are either doing all
they can to oblige Dad or else giving me a trial trip before
making an opening. The article is progressing but slowly. To
paraphrase Talleyrand, what's done is but little and that
little is not good. However, since your last letter full of
such excellent "tips" I have rewritten it and think it is much
improved. I will write to Thurston concerning the artist
to-morrow. He is away from B. at present. On the whole the
article is not bad.
Your boy,'
DICK.
Richard's stay on The Record, however, was
short-lived.
His excuse for the brevity of the experience was given in an
interview some years later. "My
City Editor didn't like me because on cold days I wore gloves.
But he was determined to make me work, and gave me about
eighteen assignments a day, and paid me $7. a week. At the
end of three months he discharged me as incompetent."
From The Record Richard went to The Press,
which was
much more to his liking, and, indeed it was here that he did
his first real work and showed his first promise. For nearly
three years he did general reporting and during this time
gained a great deal more personal success than comes to most
members of that usually anonymous profession. His big chance
came with the Johnstown flood, and the news stories he wired
to his paper showed the first glimpse of his ability as a
correspondent. Later on, disguised as a crook, he joined a
gang of yeggmen, lived with them in the worst dives of the
city, and eventually gained their good opinion to the extent
of being allowed to assist in planning a burglary. But before
the actual robbery took place, Richard had obtained enough
evidence against his crook companions to turn them over to the
police and eventually land them in prison. It was during
these days that he wrote his first story for a magazine, and
the following letter shows that it was something of a
milestone in his career.
