New-York tribune., 1874-08-18

their profession. GLOW is il possible SAID
an interviewer to MIR. Tilton, "t that you can
"call your wife pure at hearth That no
doubt was a question which had come into
many persons minds; but time was when no
decent person would have ventured to put it
into words and no decent husband would have
hesitated to answer it with blow. I'm the
modern code of ethics prOfcssed by the Cheap
Jack newspapers, any question is proper which
the mob wishes to hear answered, and any
details are fit to be printed which idle and
prurent persons are likely to read. When a
wcllknown lawyer and politician went to dine
with one of the parties to the brooklyn scan
dal professional eayesdr0pper hung about
the house, printed the unmeanlng scraps OF
conversation which he heard or pretended
to have heard from the dining-rOOm as the
door was opened to deny him admittancc, and
set forth at full length in his paper how the
servant, on the arrival of the distinguished
guest, went around the corner in great hurry
and shortly came back with a bottle and
cork-sc.ew. Another reporter interviews Mr..
Storrss cook at the area railings while the
Committee are in session in the parlor; anu
we have the details also of long conversations
with Mr. Titon's housekeeper about the crisis
in the family and the rumors chat Mrs. Tiitop
had not enough TO eat
Nor is this the worst. When industry fails
invention supplies its place. reporter III
Chicago sending up his card to lady from
New York at one of the hotels relates how he
instantly followed the card to her bedroom
door, and was unceremoniOusly sent back to
the p1ror. Possibly III revenge for this cava-
ier treatment he printed a scandalous " con-
" versatOnn with the lady about Mr.. Beecher
and other persons, which she declared, IN a
published card, to be mainly fictitious.
Mr.. Henry G.. Bowen has been the victim
of a similar imposition. DR.. Talmage having
refused to talk with a reporter about the
Beecher affair." was made to figure in an i'm
aginary conversation, expressing opinions the
reverse of those he really held; and Miss Anna
Dickinson has been forced to talk nonsense in
q purely fraudulent and fictitious interview
with reporter to whom she had not talked
al all. Listening at the cracks OF the door,
peeping at the key hole tlattenlng his nose
against the scullcry window, caj0lns the cook.
inspecting the larder cropping under the bed,
insulting his victims with the most outrage
ous inquiries, and holding them mp to ridiculc
and repr0ach By invcntinS conversations with
them. the interviewer Of the period lays bare
his back for the cOWhide and invites every
day the treatment meted ont to his represen
tative in Chicago.
This public nuisance, however, has grown
out of a perfectly reputable and useful calling.
interviewing, properly speaking, is nothing but
calling upon the actors in public events for
an authentic statement of facts about which
they know more than anybody else, or inviting
an expression of opinion from persons whose
opinions have peculiar value. Kept within
the bounds of decency ii Is an excellent prac-
tice. And with all the abuses and abslrdtles
70 which it has been pushed during the Brook
lyn inquiry there can he no doubt that 1t has
been of substantial service to morality and
religion. 1t has thrown light into many ugly
corners. and concentrated public attention
upon a case that has certainly needed constant
watching. Ii is not at all unlikely that an IN
yestigation would never have been called Tor
had not "rcportOrial curiosity" made a longer
silence impossible, and we have very little doubt
that timid church members, or foolish friends,
or over-cautious lawyers would have stiiied
the inquiry long ago If it had been possible
to suppress the multitude of pertnacious men
with sharp pencils, eyes like interrogation
points, and checks of brass who have pushed
themselves into the shop, the Office, the
household, and the church, dCggGd the steps
of witnesses in the Streets and followed them
to the seaside and the hills. bristlng all over
with questions and about as sensitive as
hedgehog.
II has not been seldom that foreigners have lifted