According to an article written by Haselmaier of Fehring, titled “The Special Correspondents in Ragusa, and published in the “Gemeinde-Zeitung unabhängiges politisches Journal”, we can read that when a Montenegrin entered Ragusa, the correspondents would immediately surround the Montenegrin, and interview him for details about the Montenegrin-Turkish wars. The Montenegrin in turn would exaggerate the Turkish losses and the Montenegrin victories, according to the German reporter “Haselmaier of Fehring”. The correspondents would then send out these telegrams, full of lies, to the world, and then return to playing card and drinking coffe.
Cited:
“Various Observations by Haselmaier of Fehring; The Special Correspondents in Ragusa;
I would like to kindly ask the esteemed readers of the Gemeinde-Zeitung to send me any information they deem suitable; I shall process it in my own way. My heartfelt thanks for the submissions received thus far. The burnt-out municipal fire engine; how to evade the dog tax. Our veteran correspondent in Ragusa describes to me, in vivid detail, how the special correspondents stationed there—hailing from all corners of the globe—compose their reports and dispatches for their respective newspapers.
Naturally, not a single one of them is actually at the theater of war—for shots are flying back and forth there—whereas one learns the very latest, precise news much sooner (and without any risk to life or limb) in a Ragusan coffeehouse than at the Montenegrin or Serbian headquarters themselves. At present, there are no fewer than fifteen special correspondents in Ragusa.
To pass the time, they play billiards or cards with zeal, drink coffee and maraschino, and smoke genuine Turkish tobacco—until suddenly, a Montenegrin cap appears, beneath which sits a head sporting a fearsome mustache and the usual accompanying features. In an instant, cards and billiard cues are cast aside; the fifteen special correspondents crowd around the “red-cap,” nearly tearing him apart in their eagerness.
Wine, schnapps, coffee, tobacco—in short, whatever the café proprietor has on hand—is served up, and the man with the black mustache must now recount what has transpired. The more he consumes, the more he reveals; and every sip of wine or schnapps, every puff from a pipe or cigar, costs another hundred Turks their lives. Then, the special correspondents put their heads together and concoct their telegrams, roughly in this form:
“Great, unprecedented battle; Turkish losses: 5,000 dead; Montenegrin losses: 300 dead; 900 flags, 170 cannons, and 20,000 rifles—all breech-loaders—captured; no prisoners.” One of the correspondents then sets the scene in a different location… …about whose situation he hasn’t the faintest clue—and so the telegraph carries these great lies out into the wide world.
The fifteen correspondents, meanwhile, calmly stuff their pipes again and placidly start their games all over from the beginning, until a new dispatch arrives. And the reader of their papers can scarcely recover from the astonishment or horror provoked by all these dispatches…”
Source
Extra Beilage zur Gemeinde Zeitung Donnerstag Ausgabe Nr 34 Sammlung von Original Romanen Novellen Erzählungen Beitbildern und Biografien hervorragender persönlichkeiten aus allen Ständen Wien Donnerstag den 24 August 1876 Nr 100 15 Jahrgang Gartenlaube der Gemeinde Zeitung.
