could not devise a way to get the story, Atlanta would be flooded next
day with "Age-Heralds" containing the "beat" on the "Constitution." He
at once chartered a locomotive and rushed two reporters and four
telegraph operators down the line toward Birmingham. At Aniston,
Alabama, the locomotive met the train which was bringing "Age-Heralds"
to Atlanta. A copy of the paper was secured. The "Constitution" men then
broke into a telegraph office and wired the whole story in to their
paper, with the result that the "Constitution" was out with it before
the Birmingham papers reached Atlanta.

Atlanta was at that time a town of only about 40,000 inhabitants, but
the "Constitution," in the days of Howell and Grady, had a circulation
four times greater than the total population of the city--a situation
almost unheard of in journalism. Something of the breadth of its
influence may be gathered from the fact that in several counties in
Texas, where the law provided that whatever newspaper had the largest
circulation in the county should be the county organ, the county organ
was the Atlanta "Constitution."

An Atlanta lady tells of having called upon Grady to complain about an
article which she did not think the "Constitution" should have printed.

"Why did you put that objectionable article in your paper?" she asked
him.

"Did you read it?" he inquired.

"Yes, I did."

"Then," said Grady, "that's why I put it there."