Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-05-29
TEE RRPoRToRIIL WORLD.
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'"'d sssreas Essiis.
But few men pursue their daily work
under greater difficulties than newspaper
reporters. From early morn until dswy
eve ana far into the night the reporter ia
marching In solemn round after tina,
most aseting Of all things, a readable
item OF news. Reporters are expected
10 be everywhere. and they are every
where, but not being omnipresent they
are not everywhere at the same moment
Of time. but few seconds thereafter he
is there with notebook and pencil in
hand. They are expected TO know
everything. and they come nearer that
acme Of perfection than any other class
Of men in the world. A sciolist would
never make 6rst-class reporter. Morn,
aeon and night the ubiquitous item
snatcher Is on the wing from Pinch TO
Pickering from caucus rooms to court
rooms, from lecture platforms to mass
meetings, from . coroners inquest in u
den Of iniquity to fancy dress ball At the
Exposition building or Rocco hall, from
public hanging TO q discourse in
church, in fact from Daa to BesrshebA,
doing everything ofinterest to the public,
from Ere to a funeral, or interviewing
some self.important fellow.citizen on
some topic that nobody understands
from the outside. The reporter is ex-
pected not 10 miss a single item OF news
important or Insignificant, as It may
strike the mind OF the most idiotic reader
Of his paper The reporter must never
make a mistake-of course nobody
makes mistakes in business except re-
porters-he must never be second be-
hind time. he has TO answer many hun
dred questions day about politics,
crops, weather, cholera, picnics, news,
and if he fails to give satisfactory
answers he is denounced to others as a
odd poor reporter, who don't know
his business" The reporter must
have the knack of turning himself
inside out; he must be a mind
reader, so as to develop into full
hedged puff the meagre lines, barren OF
ideas, presented to him for " writing up"
and ye. il the "puffee" does not like
the article the reportorial "puffer gets
fits, and the pulled " refuses to pay for
the puff. " 1t is the reporters time to
become profane then, after the style of
the gentlemen who composed the En-
glish army in Flanders. The dear pub
lie buys the paper, and expects the most
accurate and most exciting news, with
the latest and fullest details about every
thing, and the paper is pronounced dull
and uninteresting, when in fact the pub
lie failed to produce an item Of news
for either their morning or evening re-
pasts. The public lives upon the labors
of reporters. Its daily mental and
physical bread is found spread out be-
fore it in the closely packed columns of
a newspaper, and the public picks here
and there as if especially particular as
to its diet, but the pablo does not con-
slider the work, the cleverness, the en-
terprise, the industry, that have been ex-
pended in a single days local news. No,
nor does it ever consider that all the news,
whether foreign or domestic, furnished
each day, is the work of some reporter
somewhere. And yet with all this, the
reporters are jolly set of philosophers
who laugh at the world, at its Vagaries,
weaknesses, follies, frivolities and yani-
ties. They know intuitively the springs
of human action; and when the average
citizen is unfolding his mind On some
personal matter, approaching the point
ofiHterest slowly, cautiously and adroitly,
so as to overwhelm the reportorial mind
with the denOucment, that same reporto-
rial mind has, long before the curtain
rises, torn away the mask and is contem-
plating the little personal mouse that the
mountain of talk is bringing FORTH aye,
the reporter is revolving in his mind the
professional words, come to the point,
condense, boil down" in fact, tell me
plainly what the devil you do want as
quickly as possible and in as few words
as the language viii admit Of" And Of
such is the race of reporters.