A NOTED CORRESPONDENT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 23, 28 January 1911, Page 20

A NOTED CORRESPONDENT.

A JOURNALISTIC COUP. Mr. Melton Prior, war artist and correspondent of the Illustrated London News, died a month ago in London. He represented the News during twenty-one campaigns. Relating his experiences and adventures, Mr. Prior, in an article in* TitBite, told how The Standard was able to announce that peace had been signed between Briton and Boer after the wai of 1881, not only before any other newepaper had the information, but ako before the Government had received tho official news from General Sir Evelyn Wood. \ "I knew one of Sir Evelyn Wood's aides-de-camp, and I asked him to give me the quiet tip when Kruger had eign ed tho peace document, and Sir Evelyn, was about to sign. The document wat eigned at O'Neill's Farm, at the bottom of Majuba Hill, and a whole crowd of war correspondents waited outside for' the official information. "I had aranged, however, that ac eoou as the process of signing had begun the aide-de-camp should com© outside and wink at me, while I signalled to Cam eron, The Standard's correspondent, who was lying on the ground some die tance away with a horse behind a boulder by raising my hat. 'The whole thing worked out exactly ac 1 had planned, and Cameron wa« travelling as fast a 6 his horee could take him to the camp telegraph station, when Sir Evelyn came out ot the house and ', said to us: 'Gentlemen, I have to announce that peace has been signed, but ' I ehall block the telegraph wires until my official despatch has reached the Government,' and for many a long day it was a puzzle to General Wood how the news leaked out before the Government had received his message." AN UNFORTUNATE OCCURRENCE. "I waiS asked to lecture in the theatre at Newcastle-on-Tyne one Sunday evening. When I went on to the etage I found the place crammed, packed in r every part. I never before or 6ince do livered a lecture to a more engrossed and attentive audience. So delighted was I that before leaving the theatre I told the manager that, if he would fix a date , for me, I would go down and deliver ari- , other lecture free of charge. ; "The proceeds of each lecture were forwarded by my travelling manager to a London bank, but on my return to town I found that the gentleman who had acted in London as the general manager of the show had withdrawn the ; whole amount, and was nowhere to be found, and from that day to this I have > never seen him nor my money. Thus I , was left with my own, and the lantern . man's railway expenses to pay, besides > hie salary." But the most irritating paru was that the printer of those wonderful postere,' programmes, and handbills had never been paid, and this gentleman, oalmly brought an action against me to recover something like £300."