AMERICAN JOURNALISM

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11251, 1 July 1922, Page 12

AMERICAN JOURNALISM

EDITOR KILLS EDITOR. The amenities of journalism in the “wild and woolly West” of. America culminated at Durango, Colorado, in one editor publicly shooting another. Durango is a small town boasting two newspapers—the “Herald” and the ‘ ‘Democrat’ ’—whose relations towards one another resembled those of the “Batanswi'l Gazette” and the “Independent” in “Pickwick Papers.” Some time ago Mr William L. Wood, the editor of the “Durango Herald,” published an article on prohibition in which ho invited Mr Rod S. Day, the editor of the “Durango Democrat,” to proclaim his attitude towards “bootlegging” (smuggling) and secret illegal swilling. Air Day retorted angrily. Broadsides charged with Eatanswiil vituperation were exchanged between the two for several days. Finally the editor of the “Democrat” referred in disrespectful terms to the life and the divorce of the editor of the “Herald.” Next day the two men met on the pavement outside a barber’s shop in the town’s “main street.” Mr Day struck at Air Wood, who in return landed a blow on Air Day's nose, breaking it. Mr Day then drew out a revolver, and shot his opponent twice, one bullet entering the brain. Air Wood died in hospital without recovering consciousness. Witnesses declare that he tried to avoid a personal meeting with Air Day, who is now in gaol charged with murder.