The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1877-05-16
NIiseries of Being Reported in
the NEWSPAPERS.

little room for long speeches, anC
no time to read them. Some meI
won wide repute as reporters many
years ago, Mr.. Gales, of the Na
tiOnaE IpteElingepcer, was a distin
guished reporter, and very promi
nent public man, Arthur j. STAINS
bury made a name and money by
his perfect reports of speeches in
| Congress, He reported, for the
! ". Y. Observer, the great ecclesias.
teal trial, for heresy, or DR.. Lyman
Beecher. Henry j, Raymond, found
er of the ~. Y. Times, was an admir-
able reporter. He frequently report
ed public meetings for the Observer
he was the hardest worker on the
press whom l ever knew. Neither
Raymond nor Stansbury used short
hand. They wrote the principal
words Of the speaker. and filled up
the sentences afterwards. Some re-
porters drop all voWels and silent
letters, and easily add them in writ
ing out. They make sad blunders
sometimes: DR.. Bethune said ''the
devil sowed tares;" the reporter
made him say sawed trees = u.s.
ing the right consonants but adding
the wrong vowels, No speakers
suffer so many things at the hands
of reporters as ministers. The re-
porter is usually one who is unfami-
liar with 1.-THE language of Canaan"
and a man who could give political
speech with accuracy, is all astray
on a sermon. He does not under
stand the subject. and makes of his
hOthooks nonsense, when he writes
out his notes. He was a very able
reporter who was coming down
Broadway, and seeing the large
sign, panorama of Bunyan's Pill
grim's Progress turned in to see it
but was refused admission. He
said, I'm member of the press, a
reporter on the Daily" Being
told that he was a stranger and
could not be admitted: ''Well," said
he, "let me see Mr.. Bunyan, he'll let
me in" This young man knew
every politician in the country, by
name, but had never heard of old
John Bunyau before, and supposed
him to be the proprietor of the Pan
Drama.
There is also, at the present day.
q propensity to fun, waggery. amuse-
ment, that has sadly interferred with
accurate reporting. My own suffer
ings in this way have prompted this
writing. l gave a lecture on the
Dast last winter; and the papers re-
ported me as saying that, while 1
was in Constantlnople, the Sultan
invited me to visit his harem, and
that did so. Some wag did the
incident into rhyme. The papers
copied it, and now l get copies from
distant parts Of the country, sent to
me by astonished friends, who want
to know if it be true? [ did not
mention the word Constantinople,
sultan, harem, or anything of the
kind. | said, when in Egypt, the
Chamberlain Of the Palace of the
Khedive gave me an entertainment
in the banquet hall. Out of that
the reporter made the story of
the Sultan and the harem.
Much worse WAS my experience in
speaking of wit in the pulpit - the
reporter put into my mouth a tissue
of words that had no sort ofreiation
TO what [ said words that misrep-
resented the purpose and sentiment
of my discourse and now | am get
ting letters filed with buse; one calls
me a "liar'' and q "mass Of stupid.
ty,'' and destitute of "brains and re-
ligion too;'' and all this because a
well-meaniDg but incompetent re-
porter made me say what l never
thought of saying, and would not
have said if | had thought of it.
Monday morning we have fear
ful deluge of reported sermons
Some of them are made without
even hearing the discourse. A re-
porter takes two or three churches,
and flies from one to another: gets
part Of one and another sermon;
asks what was the text: writes out
what he can CLEAN: draws on his
fancy for the most of it, and that is
the report Some pastors in this
city have told me that sermons have
been attributed to them Of which
they never said one word Others
have had the first part of their dis
course reported, and the conclusion
invented.
But this is not the worst. A Pc
riodical is now issued, protesting to
give the sermons of the day : these
reports in the newspapers, thus
manufactured, are reprinted as the
actual discourses of the living
preachers, | have known these re-
ports to be sent to the preacher for
his correction; and, on his declin-
ing to perform the impossible task,
the horrible tumble of unmitigated
nonsense was embalmed in the pc
riOdical and sent out to the world
This is a fraud on the religious pub
lie, deserving exposure and punish
ment. Only last week [ received a
newspaper from a distant city, con-
tanning a sharp criticism of a senti-
ment imputed to Rev. DR.. Duryea /:
it had been in one of these reports /;
but any thoughtful writer would he
state before he condemned a man
for error on the testimony of a news
paper sketch of his sermon. No
public speaking requires greater
precision OF statement than that of
religious doctrine. Yet any youth,
of either sex. feels quite competent
in olive an outline of the nrofound-
est sermon. There are some reli-
gious speeches easily enough report
ed. thin, diffuse, repetitious, horta-
tory; years ago | was reporting a
public meeting in Boston; distin-
guisl.ed divine was on the platform.