Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-03-01
REPORTERS AND HEpoRrIx. !.
Something Concerning the Local Page
Of a Daily Paper.
A Few Facts in Relations 60 Phonoc5

breakfast goes to the Office of the paper
with which he is connected, examines care
fully the local pages of all the city papers
of that morning in order to post himself
with regard to public exercises of any kind
which are to take place during the day or
night. Then he gets his instructions and
goes out on the streets, returning to the
the Office no more until late hour I'm the
eyening-that is when there is a lecture or
any thing of that character to report during
the evening.
The results of his days tramp NAV be
found briefly iotted down in his note book,
and are of heleros e leous character, and it
is now his task TO elaborate and swrite up
the items thus collected, which usually
keeps him employed until three o'clock the
next morning. In that time he has writ
ten upon almost all the subjects imaginable.
his note book containing items relative to
marriages, dog fights, horse races, runaway
teams and runaway matches, accidents, ar
rests, murders, suicides, stabbing afirays,
drunken brawls, funerals, proposed city
improvements, complaints of citizens on va
rious subjects, forthcoming entertainments,
fires burgiaries; etc, etc.
LECTURES, SERMONS, ETC.
A reporter hears lectures and other dis
courses upon theology, medicine, law,
astronomy, physiology, painting, sculpture,
education, politics, and various other sub
jects but, viewing both lectures and lectu-
rer in business light, is seldom interest
ed. If he is a shorthand man and has in
structions to ''take him in full,n he cares
more for the speakers pronunciation than
for his graceful gestures (Which he never
r,,I 1.
distinct than distiHgUe. To him the dis
course is but mass of words and the
speaker talking machine, by whom he
cannot be impressed as he loses the effect
of the expression, gestures and ''manners'
which form an important part of the dis
course.
lie finds by experience that speakers who
carefully write out what they have to say,
speak too rapidly, while those who do not
repeat themselves, occupying great deal
of time to no purpose, and delivering
themselves in loose, disconnected way
which necessitates an immense amount of
''doctoring" on the part Of the reporter in
order TO make the speech presentable.
This is especially the case at
BANQUETs AND PUBLIC DINNERS
to which ladies are not admitted, but wine
is. The solids having been disposed, the
liquids are brought on, and then toasts are
in order. The average American is emf
nently Speech-making animal, and when
loud cries are made for Jones 10 respond to
the toast, "The Gay we celebrate" or ''The
Thingumbob Society," lat whose expense
the company is being entertained that in
dividual arises, and holding a glass of wine
in one hand, while he steadies himself with
the other, branches out with mass of very
trashy buncombe, which he would be
ashamed to see in print the next morning,
but which, under the circumstances, passes
for sense and is loudly applauded. He is
followed By Brown, Smith, RobinSOn& Co,
all of whom have been imbibing freely,
and are evenm than ordinarily Impress
ed with the conviction that they possess
oratorical abilities Of high order.
The entire list of local lights having eX-
hausted themselves, the reporter puts his
notebook in his pocket and YEARLY wendS
his way to the office. He knows that the
speeches were very silly, containing but a
grain Of sense to a bushel of rubbish, and
il is his duty TO 90 through that mass of
rubbish, find that grain of sense, and tack
ing on little here and little there, pre-
senis his readers the next morning with
speeches which might have been made, but
were not.
REPoRTER's TRIBULATIoSs.
There are many unpleasant features con-
nected with the business of a reporter. He
never has any time for himself, is liable TO
be sent anywhere at a moments notice,
and is constantly greeted with the inquiry,
Swell. what's new today" by those among
his acquaintances belonging TO that large
class who invariably end their brief letters
with a request to ''sit right down and tell
me everything about everybody" Then
the cOmpositOr wounds his sensitive spirit
at times. For instance. he will originate
an innocent little joke, the point of which
centers in the miSspelling of word, and
in order that the reader may ''see it," in
diCates that the mis-spelling is intentional
by the use of quotation marks. The
printer, having an antipathy to incorrect
photography, spells the word properly, but
leaves the quotation marks. Then the
heart of the reporter is filed with sadness,
and he wishes he was government mule.
On wet DAYS his lot is a hard one, as he
cannot Shirk his regular rounds, be the
weather never so disaSreeable. When fire
bells ring he rushes after the engines with
the speed of a wild gaelic, and in the
midst of the excitement and uproar learns
the name of the owner of the property,
amount of insurance, names of the COM
panies and the amount in each, probable
loss, supposed origin Of the fire, and hasteTTs
back to the Office studyin- up startling
head lines with which to embellish his re
port, if the fire should prove to be large
one; and under these circumstances 1t is
a difficult matter to get his questions an
sWered correctly. A few years since the
writer was endeavOring TO get for his pa
per some information relative TO a startling
event which occurred at a late hour in the
you mind, you reads all
about him in de morning papers" was the
discOuraging response Of the
TeutOnic gentleman 20 whom he applied.
THEIR PAY.
Experienced reporters are paid from
twenty-five to forty dollars per week. \
Shorthand writer, who has a
talent for making acquaintances, who can |
ask questions without giving offence, is
able to cOndense, keeps sober, and can |
'write up" his items after he gets them, has |
no difficulty in securing position in any |
Of our large cities, for such men are not |
plentiful.
sHoRT-HAND.
Notwithstanding the fact that phonOgia-
ply is now taught quite extensively in or
schools, first class short hand writers are
very scarce, while the demand for them is
rapidly increasing, aud it is a remarkable
fact that those who are able to take a speak
ar verbatim, seldom have any liking, or APP
.itude for ordinary local work. The long
reports of meetings held the night before
said reports appear in the morning papers
IRE usually written by professional
short hand men, who make
/ business of taking testi-
many in the courts, and such reports are
laid for at the rate of from five to twelve
lollaTs per column. As it will take rapid
writer five hours to tranScribe an hours
work in short hand, several reporters are
'equired in order to get out a long report in
lime for a morning paper.
Photography is of inestimable value to
he newspaper reading public, and in this
zoe of railroads and telegraphs, could not
le dispensed with. But it is AN intricate
tudy, hard TO master, but easily forgotten.
rapid long hand writer can write forty
words per minute, while an expert phOnOs-
apher writes two hundred without diff
.ulty, but years of practice, good memory
md nimble fingers are indispensable requi-
ties to this rate of speed, and out of ten
thousand photographic students, but one
will get beyond hundred words per min