Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1869-01-22

y
kuow"--addinr, perhaps few more
palmer hints OF the Dtluec "Why, you
contounded foolr said Jones' didn't
you ever read Robinson Crusoc before ~
| | am glad t. think, for the honor or our
own country, that incident occurred in
England
Much complaint land with justice, too)
is often made hy speakers of the inaCcu-
racies in their speeches as printed These
mistakes are sometimes due TO the priu-
ter's carelessness, but IL is more often the
fault Of the reporter. remember an ora
tor who was very fond of in'ehArding his
! speeches With Latin quotations. in order to
display his learning. One evening he
| made a great speech a. the Cooper msti.
tute | believe, something in the way ot
composition which he intended should far
transcend anything he had ever been
guilty of before. On this all.imporlant
occasion, he of course could not got along
without giving the audience 3 small dose
of Latin, One of his quotations was IS
follows; dnicHs Socrates, UnlicuS Tpdt0,
sell major r,r1t0s The reader may i'm
| agtne the orators surprise, regret in
! point of fact, his extreme auger-whcn,
on the following morning, on reading over
I his speech in prominent New York
daily, instead Of finding this bit of Latin
italiCised, he found these words printed i'm
the ordinary type IL may Cuss Socrates,
| may Cuss Plato, said Major Ncritas.'
II is seldom the mistake is rs bad as that
More ooen one or two words are
omitted which completely destroy the
sense of the sentence, or wrong words are
substituted which make it equally nOnsen-
steal. To illustrate: Daniel Webster, in
one of his famous speeches, used these
words, "JovG among the gods" The re
porter, in this case, probably not exact
ly hearing the words, wrote them out,
Job among the gods" which, to say the
least, was rather comiCal. The Hon Ben
iamin + Butler, in speech at Washing
ton not long since, said that " pandOra's
box was like the ballot box, because there
was hope at the bottom of it," The gen
theman who reported the speech, possibly
with the idea of improving on the origi
gal, had it printed in this way "Pando
ra's box was like the ballot box, because
there was NJ hole at the bottom of it,"
At social science convention few years
since, an enthusiastic orator remarked
that labor is the only earthly potcntatc
that shall rule on this continent" A very
proper sentiment one would think, and
to which every one would subscribe. But
the reporter seemed to think otherwise
He made it read, Labor is the nail lately
patented that shall rule on this cont.
nent' He hit the nail on the head that
time. There is an ofC-repeatod joke about
the mistake of q certain New York re-
porter 1whom, | believe, the craft call
"Spectacles," from the fact that he wears
gassesG who.was formerly in the habit
of reporting Dr. Chapin's sermons. The
distinguished divine remarked in one OF
his discOurses that Christianity had been
the oriilamme of freedom in all ages"
The Doctor, and those who heard the
sermon, were rather startled when they
read in the paper few days afterwards
that Christianity had been the horn
blower of freedom in all ages" Ese
Some of these mistakes which | have
mentioned may be accounted for by the
fact that the reporters are obliged to write
out their notes some time after they have
been taken. This is not an easy matter
to do by any means, though those who do
not understand the "noble art and mys-
terry of shorthand writing" may think it
is not difficult. Shorthand notes of rapid
speakers, when taken with a pencil and
written careessly (as they nearly always
are), are very different reading from notes
taken in the same manner in the ordinary
writing. But then, it is true that good
reporter should be able to write out his
notes when they are old as an amusing
friend of mine expresses it, reporters
should be able to write out thing after
it gets cold" Very few possess this dcsira-
bic qualification. Only great experience
and constant practice in the art of report
ing will enable reporter to correctly
write out notes long after they have been
taken.
You can generally tell reporter by his
looks and manners. OF course he has a
quick eye, being always on the lookout for
news, or sensation" and like Micawber,
waiting for something to turn up -
oftentimes in a double sense He has only
a limited supply of money in the very best
OF times-more often none at all. You
never heard of a reporter who lived in a
mansion, unless in the direction of the
skies, otherwise garrett or building
private theatre,gOr owning race-hOrse, or
having brown stone house or gold
watch presented to him; or investing in
lots near Central Park nor would you
expect him to make magnificent endow-
ment TO college or a seminary. He does
not dress very well--in fact looks shabby,
because he is poorly paid-less probably,
according to the amount of work he does,
than persons in any other business or pro-
fession in New York A journalist who
generally had pretty seedy appearance
tells this story of himself "I went
to the drugstore early one morning
for dose of morphine for sick friend
The nightclerk objected to give it to me
without the prescription, evidently fear
ing | meant to destroy myself Pshaw,'
said l., do look like man who would
kill himself?' Gazing at me steadily for
half minute, he replied, = don't know.
Seems to me if | looked like you should
be greatly tempted to kill myself"