Adventures of a Boy Reporter Read online

  Produced by Jim Weiler

  THE ADVENTURES OF A BOY REPORTER

  by Harry Steele Morrison

  1900

  CONTENTS.

  CHAPTER I.

  LIVING IN THE COUNTRY--LIFE AT SCHOOL--THE HUT CLUB IS FORMED--THECOMING OF THE CIRCUS

  CHAPTER II.

  ARCHIE LONGS FOR A CHANGE IN SURROUNDINGS--A TRIP TO NEW YORK WITH UNCLEHENRY

  CHAPTER III.

  ARCHIE DETERMINES TO GO TO THE CITY TO WORK--LEAVING HOME AT NIGHT

  CHAPTER IV.

  WORKING ON A FARM TO EARN SOME MONEY--CRUEL TREATMENT

  CHAPTER V.

  THE NIGHT AMONG THE RUINS--THE CAMP-FIRE OF THE TRAMPS

  CHAPTER VI.

  STEALING A RIDE--KICKED OUT BY THE BRAKEMAN

  CHAPTER VII.

  ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK--A NIGHT IN A LODGING-HOUSE

  CHAPTER VIII.

  LOOKING FOR WORK--WASHING DISHES IN A BOWERY RESTAURANT

  CHAPTER IX.

  IN THE STREET AGAIN--THE POLICE STATION--VISITS THE NEWSPAPER OFFICE,AND IS KINDLY RECEIVED BY THE EDITOR

  CHAPTER X.

  LIVING IN COMFORT AGAIN--FEATURED AS "THE BOY REPORTER"

  CHAPTER XI.

  A DAY AND A NIGHT IN CONEY ISLAND--RAIDING A GAMBLING DEN

  CHAPTER XII.

  A SUCCESSFUL REPORTER--THE EDITOR DECIDES TO SEND HIM AS CORRESPONDENTTO THE PHILIPPINES--LEAVING NEW YORK--IN CHICAGO

  CHAPTER XIII.

  SAN FRANCISCO--THE TRANSPORT GONE--WORKING HIS WAY TO HONOLULU BYPEELING VEGETABLES ON A PACIFIC LINER--THE CAPITAL OF HAWAII

  CHAPTER XIV.

  THE VOYAGE ON THE TRANSPORT--A STORM AT SEA--ARRIVAL IN MANILA

  CHAPTER XV.

  ARCHIE STARTS OUT ON AN EXPLORING TOUR, AND HAS SOME STRANGE ADVENTURESAMONG THE NATIVES--SEIZED BY THE REBELS

  CHAPTER XVI.

  A PLEASANT CAPTOR--BRAVE BILL HICKSON ALLOWS ARCHIE TO ESCAPE--FIRSTGLIMPSE OF AGUINALDO

  CHAPTER XVII.

  ARRIVAL OF THE AMERICAN TROOPS--ARCHIE THE HERO OF THE REGIMENT

  CHAPTER XVIII.

  THE MARCH AFTER THE REBELS--THE FIRST BATTLE--ARCHIE WOUNDED

  CHAPTER XIX.

  RETURN TO MANILA--IN THE HOSPITAL--CONGRATULATED BY ALL--WRITING TO THEPAPER OF HIS EXPERIENCES

  CHAPTER XX.

  AROUND THE ISLAND ON A WAR-SHIP--BOMBARDING A FILIPINO TOWN

  CHAPTER XXI.

  CONTINUING THE CRUISE--ANOTHER VILLAGE CAPTURED--THE ADMIRAL ARCHIE'SFRIEND--A GREAT BATTLE AND AN UNEXPECTED VICTORY--LONGING TO BE HOMEAGAIN

  CHAPTER XXII.

  RETURN TO HEADQUARTERS--A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR, WITH PERMISSION TORETURN TO NEW YORK--BILL HICKSON GOES, TOO

  CHAPTER XXIII.

  HONG KONG--A HAPPY TIME IN TOKIO--HONOLULU AGAIN--ARRIVAL IN SANFRANCISCO, AND A GREAT RECEPTION BY THE PRESS--ARCHIE AND BILL ARRIVE INNEW YORK, AND ARE THE HEROES OF THE HOUR

  CHAPTER XXIV.

  DOING "SPECIAL" WORK UPON THE EVENING PAPER--INTERVIEWS WITH FAMOUSMEN--CALLS UPON OLD FRIENDS

  CHAPTER XXV.

  PRIVATE SECRETARY TO A MILLIONAIRE--STUDYING AT EVENING SCHOOL--LIVINGAMID ELEGANT SURROUNDINGS

  CHAPTER XXVI.

  DECIDES TO VISIT HOME--A GREAT RECEPTION IN THE TOWN--A PUBLIC CHARACTERNOW--DINNER TO THE HUT CLUB--DEMONSTRATION AT THE TOWN HALL--A TELEGRAMFROM HIS EMPLOYER LEAVING FOR EUROPE

  THE ADVENTURES OF A BOY REPORTER.

  CHAPTER I.

  LIVING IN THE COUNTRY--LIFE AT SCHOOL--THE HUT CLUB IS FORMED--THE COMING OF THE CIRCUS.

  "YES," said Mrs. Dunn to her neighbour, Mrs. Sullivan, "we are expectinggreat things of Archie, and yet we sometimes hardly know what to thinkof the boy. He has the most remarkable ideas of things, and there seemsto be absolutely no limit to his ambition. He has long since determinedthat he will some day be President, and he expects to enter politics theday he is twenty-one."

  "Is that so, indeed," said Mrs. Sullivan. "Well, we can never tellwhat is going to come of our boys. As I says to Dannie to-day, saysI, 'Dannie, you must do your best to be somebody and make something ofyourself, for you and Jack bees all that I has to depend upon now.' ButDannie pays no attention to my entreaties, and somehow it seems to methat since Mr. Sullivan died the boys are gettin' worse and worse. It'sbeyond me to control them, anyhow."

  "Oh, take heart, Mrs. Sullivan," said Mrs. Dunn, "our boys will all turnout well in the end, and all we can do is to bring them up in the bestway we know, and trust to them to take care of themselves after theyleave home. Now Dannie is certainly an industrious lad. I hear himpounding nails all day long in the back yard, and he made a good job ofshingling the woodshed the other day. He seems made to be a carpenter."

  "Yes, I think so myself," said the Widow Sullivan. "The whole lot ofthem is out by the railroad now, building a hut. They've organised a'Hut Club' to-day, and never a lick of work have I had out of them boyssince mornin'. They've always got something going on, and when I wanta bit of water from the well, or a little wood from the shed, they'renever around."

  "Yes, but boys will be boys, Mrs. Sullivan, and we'd better keep themcontented at home as long as we can. They'll be leaving us soon enough.It seems that no boys are content to stay in town any longer; they'reall anxious to be off to the city."

  "That's true, that's true, Mrs. Dunn," said Mrs. Sullivan. "I must begoing now. I'm much obliged for the rain-water, and whenever you want abit of milk call over the fence, and I'll bring it to you with pleasure.It's a good neighbour you are, Mrs. Dunn."

  And Mrs. Sullivan went slowly around the house and out at the frontgate, while good Mrs. Dunn returned to her ironing, a few clothes havingto be ready for Sunday.

  While these mothers were discussing their boys, the youngstersthemselves were busy behind the barn, building a hut down near therailway track. There were six of them altogether, the three extra ones,besides Archie Dunn and the Sullivan boys, having come from acrossthe railway to play for the day. Two hours before they had solemnlyorganised themselves into the "Hut Club," each boy walking three timesaround the block blindfolded, and swearing upon his return to be trueto all the rules and regulations of the organisation, which had beenwritten with chalk on the side of the barn. The regulations werenumerous, but the most important one was that no East Side boys were tobe allowed within the club-room when it was built, and that the club'spolicy should be one of warfare against the East Siders on everyoccasion when they met. This fight against the East Side was, indeed,responsible for the organisation of the club. It was felt necessary tohave some head to their forces, and some means of holding together. Sothe club was organised, and now the next thing on the programme was theerection of a hut to serve as a club-house. Archie Dunn, who had beenelected president, volunteered to get three boards and a hammer if theother boys would each get two boards and some nails. This propositionwas agreed to, and when the boys returned from their foragingexpeditions it was found that there were more than enough boards tobuild the hut, so the work began at once. Holes were dug in the ground,and some posts planted as supports for the structure, and then theboards were hastily nailed together from post to post. In three hoursthe hut was practically completed, and it remained only to lay a flooruntil they could hold their first meeting in the new club-house. Thefloor itself was down by noon, and the club then served a memorabledinner to mark the completion of the structure.

  A hole was dug in the ground outside the door, and a furnace made. Askillet was brought from Archie's house, together with some dishes and acoffee-pot, and Dan Sullivan brought some more dishes, and six eggs fromhis nests under the barn. The boys were obliged to make several tripsto and from the houses, but finally nearly everything was ready, and th
eeggs were carefully cooked by Archie, who was really a good housekeeper,from long experience in the kitchen with his mother. Some potatoes werefried in the grease remaining in the skillet after the eggs were cooked,and then the feast began. The eggs may have been rather black withgrease, and the potatoes were certainly not done, but the boys allpronounced it the finest meal of their lives, notwithstanding the bittercoffee, and the dirty bread, which had been allowed to fall into thegutter beside the railway track. They were eating in their own house,and they had cooked in the open air, "just like tramps," Harry Rafesaid, and it was little wonder that they enjoyed the novel experience.

  The only trouble came when the meal was finished. No one wanted towash the dishes, and, finally, it was decided to return them to theirrespective kitchens just as they were, and to let them be washed withthe rest of the dinner dishes at home. And this decision came nearputting an end to Hut Club dinners, for both Mrs. Dunn and the WidowSullivan were determined not to wash any more dirty dishes from the hut.

  When the meal was over, the boys lounged about the hut, and Dan Sullivanbrought a lot of things from his sister's playhouse with which tofurnish it more suitably. Archie Dunn brought a lot of hay from the loftin his mother's barn, and when a piece of old carpet was spread upon itit made an acceptable couch. A piece of old carpet was laid in front ofthe hut, too, where the boys could sit and watch the trains switchingback and forth on the railway, and the tramps who were heating coffee incans over by the cattle-pen.

  Finally, some cattle arrived in the pen to be loaded into cars for thecity, and the boys had just decided to go and watch the men loadingthem, when an engine came up the side-track with the most beautiful carthey had ever seen, behind it. The car was painted in all colours of therainbow, and in giant letters was printed the magic name of "The World'sGreatest Show."

  The boys lost no time in getting down from the cattle-pen fence, and thecar had barely stopped when they were aboard. "Hooray," shouted CharlieHuffman, "we'll all get jobs of passin' bills." And it was with thisend in view that they sought the advertising manager in the car, whopromised to give them all jobs when the circus came in two weeks.The boys deluged him with questions of every sort. "Will there be anyelephants?" "Is there goin' to be a parade?" and "Will there be anytrapeze performances?" The poor man was finally obliged to lock thedoor to keep them out, and the boys stood about the car until nearlysix o'clock, admiring the paintings, and speculating as to whether theywould be able to work their way into the circus or not, when it finallycame. Their speculations were interrupted by the appearance on the sceneof the Widow Sullivan with a good-sized maple switch, which she usedto good effect in getting the two Sullivans and Archie Dunn home forsupper. For Mrs. Dunn had given Mrs. Sullivan instructions before shestarted, so that when Archie complained that he had been whipped by"that woman next door," he received no sympathy whatever.

  And when he went to bed at nine o'clock, he could hardly sleep forthinking of the wonderful things which had happened this day. The comingcircus and the great Hut Club kept him awake until far after ten, sothat he got up too late for Sunday school the next morning, and waspunished accordingly.

  The next week was a hard one at school, and the boys had but littletime to devote to the club. But after four o'clock in the afternoonthey sometimes got together and did various things which improved theirclub-house. Some very fair chairs were constructed from empty soapboxes, and various contrivances were put together to guard against theintrusion of any East Siders or tramps while they were away at school.There was no padlock used, and any one coming up to the hut wouldimagine it a simple thing to enter--until he tried. But the boys hadfixed a secret cord which, when pulled, shifted the bar inside, andevery boy was sworn not to betray the existence of the cord.

  The day set for the circus came nearer and nearer, and the boys beganto be anxious for fear the schools would not close, so that they couldattend. But the superintendent finally announced that they would; soearly on the eventful day the entire club was on the grounds, waitingto get some work to do. Archie Dunn got the first job, being selectedto carry water for the elephant because he was stronger than any of theothers. But the rest were given something to do, and when the day wasover they had all seen the circus, and went to bed happy, to dream ofthe great trip to be taken by the Hut Club on the next Saturday.