Ship News

A ship news reporter is a man who goes down the harbor on the pilot boat, rides back on an incoming liner and writes all about the people who are on board. Usually there are a great many people and most of them mean nothing from the standpoint of news. If there is one among them who has invented a safety pin or turned somersaults before King George, it makes a good story, and the ship news reporter writes all about him and strings a few desultory paragraphs about the other passengers at the end of his account.

If a man has anything in his past which he wants to forget he should never ride on an ocean liner, because the ship news reporter will surely rake it up.

Riding on a liner was certainly an indiscretion on the part of John Kearsley Mitchell. The ship news reporter was a trial which he brought on himself by so doing. But incidentally he applied an interesting test to several Manhattan newspapers. He showed how far they were prepared to go in resurrecting a dead and largely unmerited notoriety which he had acquired some months earlier.

In the spring of 1923 a young lady, Dorothy King by name, had been murdered in her Manhattan apartment--strangled with a silk stocking. It was a magnificent crime. After a few days it was given out that the District Attorney knew of a "Mr. Marshall" who was connected with the case. A little later still it was revealed that the "mysterious Mr. Marshall" was none other than J. K. Mitchell, son-in-law of E. T. Stotesbury, Philadelphia partner of J. P. Morgan. At once the press took up the cry that a "rich man" was using his power to escape the law. Very little more ever transpired, however, than the fact that Mitchell, alias Marshall, had known the murdered woman.

Then Mr. Mitchell went abroad with his wife and two children. Last week they returned. There are five English-speaking morning dailies in Manhattan. Thus did four of them record the arrival of Mr. Mitchell:

The Daily News (so called "gum-chewers' sheetlet") published his picture on its front page. Caption: "TRIED TO FORGET.--J. K. Mitchell 'heavy sugar papa' of slain Dot King, returned with wife from Europe yesterday. They're shown leaving ship here."

The New York Times (in headline): "J. K. MITCHELL HOME. MAN WHOSE NAME FIGURED IN DOROTHY KING MURDER CASE RETURNS."

The New York Herald-Tribune: MITCHELLS HOME. Mr. and Mrs. John Kearsley Mitchell and their two children, Miss Frances Mitchell and John, Jr., returned yesterday by the White Star liner Majestic after a five months tour of France, Italy and Egypt. Mr. Mitchell was an acquaintance of Dorothy Keenan and brought into investigation of her mysterious death. Mrs. Mitchell is a daughter of E.T. Stotesbury."

The New York American (picture on inside page): " 'MR. MARSHALL' RETURNS--John Kearsley Mitchell, of Philadelphia, noted as the mysterious 'Mr. Marshall' of the 'Dot' King slaying case of last year and also of eminent social position and family connections, returns from European sojourn."

Only The New York World let pass the opportunity to mongerize. Said the World: "The Mitchells toured the Continent about five months and made a trip down the Nile. They will return at once to Philadelphia."