Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1901 — THE BEST PLACE IN A FIGHT [ARTICLE]

THE BEST PLACE IN A FIGHT

A youthful war correspondent walked into Colonel MacArthurs tent one dnv and, after some preliminary remarks, asked: “Colonel, where is the best place for a correspondent to hang out when the lead is flying?” “Hard question,” replied Colonel MacArthur. “When I was in the civil war, during the battle of Missionary Ridge”— “What! You were not there then, surely!” exclaimed the young correspondent. “Why, there is not a gray hair in your head.” “I was a second lieutenant way back in those times,” continued Colonel MacArthur, “and right out there on the stump of a tree you see on that hilltop I remember Joe MacCollou' h stood, pencil and paper in hand, and shot and shell flying around him. He stood there for several hours and saw hundreds of men fall before the fire, but he remained uninjured, and had a good story of the fight in his paper and more of the names of the dead and wounded than any other correspondent. “About half a mile away, in that old stone house on the opposite hill, another uml a less lucky correspondent was viewing the fight out of a window. A bullet hit him straight in the forehead, and he dropped dead. That’s a pointer for you. The best place for a correspondent is in the middle of the trouble.” Next week the young correspondent went away to Cuba, and he took MacArthur’s advice with him.— Detroit Journal.