St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 8

3 JAN 61998 A8 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH NEWS TUESDAY, JANUARY -6, 1998 http: www.stl net.com Voyage of the solo spirit Kenya's Moi begins 5th term as president, vows corruption battle World-circling trip made 19th-century woman a wonder ft fc a placed third, boycotted the cere- mony and instead issued demands for a government of national unity to forestall civil strife. Moi rebuffed the call, jokingly asking why, if the opposition wanted a government of national unity, they had clamored for mul-i tipartyism in the first place. Electoral Commission figures show Moi achieved a decisive vie-' tory with 40 percent of the vote to Kibaki's 33 percent. The commission declared Moi the winner Sun- day, after voting in often chaotic conditions Dec.

29 and 30. Moi was expected to announce a nam AAiiaimmant onnn 1. A mm Reporter made the news by taking sensational journey around globe By Harry Levins Post-Dispatch Senior Writer Nellie BIy played tortoise to Steve Fossett's hare. She moved more slowly, but she made it all the way around the world. That was in the winter of 1889-90, when Bly labored for Joseph Pulitzer's New York World as a writer of sensational articles.

Her most sensational the one for which the world remembers her involved a round-the-world trip, in 72 days. She thus beat Fi-leas Fogg, hero of Jules Verne's fictional "Around the World in 80 Days." Briefly, BIy became the most famous woman in the world. She was already by far the most famous woman journalist in America. Her career began in Pittsburgh, where she picked up the Dispatch one day in 1884 to read a male columnist's view that women were fit only for marriage. Incensed, she wrote a white-hot letter to the editor, signed "Lonely orphan girl." Curious, the editor ran a squib asking "orphan girl" to get in touch.

So Elizabeth Jane Cochran presented herself in the Dispatch's newsroom and talked her way into a job. Her byline was Nellie BIy (after a Stephen Foster song of that name), and her beat was scandal. She got a job in a sweatshop fac-t6ry and told readers the inside story. By some accounts, the rich and powerful in Pittsburgh leaned on the Dispatch to move her to tamer assignments. For a time, she reported for the Dispatch from Mexico.

Frustrated, she finally quit and headed in 1887 to New York, then as now the center of American journalism. She strode into Pulitzer's New York World, where she offered herself as an undercover reporter. Editor John Cockerill shied from hiring her on the spot in that time and place, journalism was a man's game but made her a dare: If she could get herself committed to a notorious insane asylum, then get out and write about her travails, he'd hire her. She did, and he did, and before long, Nellie Bly was the talk of the town. She went undercover for a long series of scandal stories, tell In the late 1800s, Nellie Bly, a 25-year-old newspaper woman with the New York World, made a record-setting trip around the world in 72 days, 6 hours and 1 1 minutes.

Leader urges opponents to accept election results Reuters News Service NAIROBI, Kenya Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi promised to fight corruption and urged the opposition to accept the results of his election as he was sworn in Monday for his fifth and final term. At a colorful ceremony at Uhu-ru Park in the heart of the capital Nairobi, Moi, 73, who has led Kenya since 1978, celebrated his return to power with a spring in his step and jokes about himself and the opposition. Surrounded by his adoring "wananchi," or common people, the gravel-voiced Moi vowed to dedicate his Daniel final five-year term to fighting corruption, eliminating poverty and rebuilding a dilapidated infrastructure. "Let us set aside personal and ethnic chauvinist interests for the sake of our national interest," Moi said. "The opposition should play their role one of constructive criticism rather than divisive tribal politics." But the opposition was not present to hear his call.

Mwai Kibaki, the runner-up in the presidential election, and Raila Odinga, who Rescue Passers-by pull stricken man from burning car Continued from PageAl highway in rush hour traffic during a rainstorm. Worcester said he was heading home to Lake Saint Louis after getting off work late. Two of the east-bound lanes were blocked off for about an hour, causing a traffic jam. Wente's daughter, Judy Fugate, an intensive care nurse from St. Pe- mi mi Serta Firm Twin Size When sold in sets.

Via ing readers what it was like to be a prostitute, a chorus girl and an unwed mother trying to sell a baby. Today, most editors turn up their noses at the notion of sending reporters out under false colors to get a story. But this is now, and that was then, when a story was a story, damn it, and disguises and false names were crackerjack journalism. Bly's most memorable journalism coincided with the laying of a cornerstone for a grand new World building. Pulitzer wanted a Really Big Story to mark the occasion, and Bly pitched an idea: Why not try to beat Verne by going around the world in less time than 80 days? The World's business manager balked at sending Bly.

She'd need a chaperone, he said, and she'd be burdened with steamer trunks for her womanly wardrobe. Send a man, he said. To which Bly snapped, "Very well. Start the man, and I'll start the same day for some other newspaper and beat him." A visit with Verne The business manager caved in, and Bly shipped out from Jersey City on Nov. 14, 1889, aboard the steamer Augusta Victoria, carrying about $1,000 in British currency (then the world's most muscular) and one small satchel.

Chaperone? Hah. She went alone. In France, she gambled with her schedule by stopping to visit Verne, who seems to have been charmed. (And no wonder; period photos show Bly as a most attractive young woman of 25, with a figure that was positively slender by Victorian standards.) Onward she journeyed to Italy and Egypt, through the Suez Canal to Aden and then on to what is now Sri Lanka, where she fidgeted through a five-day shipping delay. Given the communications of the day, she could send back only skeleton accounts by cable.

The World's rewrite men inflated the cables into long, detailed and occasionally fanciful stories. Meanwhile, in an orgy of shameless self-promotion, the World reprinted accounts from other papers and ran a guess-the-date-she'U-succeed contest. It filled the space and whetted readers' appetites. In Singapore, Bly bought a pet monkey and learned that she had competition. Cosmopolitan magazine had sent its own woman reporter on a westbound trip around the world in an effort to beat Bly's time.

Bly shrugged off the threat, and in fact, the Cosmo girl finished far ing rain not the usual healthy January snow coated areas of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan on Sunday. Mike Palmerino, a forecaster with Weather Services said the Pacific warming known as El Nino could be a factor in the mild weather, but it is not the controlling one. "If you research weather patterns in the decade of the '90s you will generally see, with a few exceptions, a pattern of warmer than normal winters," he said Monday. "There seems to be a trend toward warming conditions in the winter and spring and cooler conditions in the fall. That is really something that is exclusive of glob former mathematics professor who retreated into the life of a wilderness hermit has said in his journals he did not want to be portrayed as 'a sickie." After several meetings with Burrell in late December, defense lawyers Quin Denvir and Judy Clarke withdrew their notice of a "mental defect" defense.

The move appeared designed to mollify their client. But on Friday, they filed papers hinting at a backdoor approach to the mental defense. Clarke said she planned to show be-fore-and-after photos of Kaczynski as a neatly groomed professor and later as a wild-haired recluse. The defense also filed notice that psychiatric experts would testify if the trial moves to the life-or-death penalty phase. Government lawyers complained that the dispute should have been resolved last month, not raised again literally moments before the opening statements were to begin.

'We want this firmly and finally resolved before this jury is sworn," lead prosecutor Robert Cleary said. after being sworn in, state house officials said. Political analysts-say the government's composition could provide clues to Mors succession and to the level of his determination to tackle corruption. arap Moi "My next government will be more sen- sitive to the needs and aspirations of the people," he said. "Those engaging in corruption they should know their time is up." Moi's Kenya African National Union and the opposition both alleged last week that the elections were rigged.

But despite this, do-'' mestic election observer groups6 gave the vote a qualified endorse-. ment and urged Kenyans to ac-, cept the result. Foreign diplomatic observers were due to give their;) final report today. 'i 1 ters, said she was surprised and grateful that her father survived. Somebody was definitely watching over him," Claire Wente said in agreement.

St. Charles Fire Chief Ed Underwood said the immediate response by Worcester and Foeller provided enough blood flow to sustain Wente's brain and until the paramedics arrived. Because of their actions, the chief awarded Worcester and Foeller with plaques at the hospital. "These people are truly heroes," Underwood said. "The efforts that took place have lent themselves to providing a New Year's gift to this family." mr' mm mr Sekla Deluxe Firm Queen Size Full Each Piece $119.

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Noon 5 pm 1 WWJ. 'ft iLMff Utter IrrWVV Warm weather reels in ice fishing, keeps i American people paid such criticism no heed. Nellie Bly was the heroine of the day, a household word and how does a reporter top that? Bly didn't even try. Soon, she bailed out of journalism to marry Robert Seaman, an industrialist 50 years her senior. He died with convenient haste and left her a millionaire widow, although she pro-, ceeded to run the business into the ground.

World War I caught Bly in Austria, where she tried a comeback by writing from an enemy capital. Back home after the war, she had little time left. On Jan. 27, 1922, at age 57, she died of pneu monia, a mild malady today but a killer before antibiotics. She is buried in New York's Woodlawn Cemetery.

In 1978, the members of the New York Press Club erected a handsome new tombstone atop her grave, "in hon or of a famous news reporter." eagles home people had to be rescued from one lake alone during the weekend, according to the Winnebago County Sheriffs Office. At Prairie du Sac the annual Bald Eagle Watching Days festivities set for next weekend were threatened because ice-free waters have coaxed the birds to hang around their homes farther north. The story is much the same in other areas. Officials in North Dakota credit mild weather with keeping seasonal workers on the job, and the state's unemployment rate at rock bottom. Forecasters said the situation will change later in the week when Arctic'air invades the region.

Now there's no excuse for not being on time The Associated Press WASHINGTON Punctuality has gotten a boost. The National Institute of Standards and Technology announced Monday that it has more than doubled the power of its radio signal broadcasting accurate time, all the time. The signal from an atomic clock is used by broadcasters, navigators, scientists and others in need of extremely accurate timekeeping. The signal is broadcast by station WWVB, near Fort Collins, and has operated at 10,000 watts for more than 30 years. It has now been boosted to 23,000 watts.

The signal can be used to automatically set the correct time in clocks, watches, VCRs, cars and electronic gear of all kinds equipped to receive the special signal. out of the money. She made it Bly rode out a typhoon, spent Christmas Day in a leper colony on the Chinese coast and traveled to Yokahama for her last sea leg. On the docks of San Francisco, she eluded the threat of a shipboard smallpox quarantine by jumping onto a tug with her monkey. A chartered train got her in record time to Chicago, where the Pennsylvania Railroad took over and got her in plenty of time to Jersey City, where it had all begun.

A rival journalist sniffed in print that Bly's trip had proved only "that the great majority of the American people dearly love a sensation no matter how flimsy so long as it gives them something to gabble about." But the great majority of the al warming, El Nino or anything else. Weather tends to work this way to lock into patterns that repeat themselves for a decade," he said. In central Wisconsin: A ferry on the Wisconsin River at Merrimac is still running, breaking a record set in 1948 when it operated until the river froze over on Dec. 23. The two big lakes in Madison, Mendota and Monona, remain unfrozen.

A water ski team recently took to the water. The latest the two lakes have ever remained ice-free was on Jan. 30, in 1932. Several snowmobilers have gone through thin ice in parts of Wisconsin in recent days. Fourteen "I'll do the best I can," Burrell replied.

The government decision to seek the death penalty placed the prosecutors in conflict with David Kaczynski. The suspect's family insists that he is mentally ill. Also in court were two men injured in the bombings Yale computer science professor David Ge-lernter and University of California, San Francisco, geneticist Charles Epstein and family members of the two Sacramento men who were killed, computer store owner Hugh Scrutton and timber lobbyist Gilbert Murray. Gelernter, who wore a dark glove on his mangled right hand, and Epstein were among the first witnesses expected to testify. Kaczynski, 55, is charged in a 10-count indictment covering only four of the 16 bombings attributed to the Unabomber.

The government, however, will present evidence trying to link him to all the bombings, which killed three people and injured 29. Midwest temperatures are following '90s pattern Reuters News Service MADISON, Wis. Snow blowers on sale. No ice for ice fishing. Even the bald eagles are wintering in the north.

The winter of 1997-98 is fast becoming a nonwinter in many parts of the upper Midwest. The latest evidence of a wimpy season arrived during the weekend in the form of an ice storm. Freez Unabomber Kaczynski protest delays the start of court session Continued from PageAl Perfect Sleeper Perfect Sleeper Perfect Sleeper Copperton Super Premium Ultra Premium Queen 2 Pc. Set Queen 2 Pc. Set Queen 2 Pc.

Set Closeout Savings mi 1 IE Set-Up OF YOUR NEW BED Removal OF YOUR OLD BED hand tightly as tears streamed down his face. Wanda Kaczynski bowed her head and sobbed. Kaczynski stared straight above their heads, then turned his back, sat down and addressed Burrell. Kaczynski added that he would have stood up to address the judge, but 'I haven't stood up because I'm under orders from the marshals not to stand up." Burrell has held several closed-door hearings with the defense in recent weeks, releasing few details, saying the matter is a private, attorney-client issue. Kaczynski is known to be fighting his federal public defenders over their plan to depict him as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

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