The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1878-12-17
"oNLY A REPoRTERn

country, along there times, look out Tor
jeeoeraI refseshing dish Of tall lying. Ever,
ncwsPsper man in the land will place him
self in his arm chair ~ plscidlly as . suck
ing dive. and ~ he looks out at that beau
Iiful NOV that covers the dairies and o
many Lost opportunities, he siraightwa!
rrcliDes back against the rim Of the siore
said chair. which Is already higher thar
his head, aud begins 10 think.
Then look out.
A reporter never thinks bu; n certsin in
iervAls. Those intervals invariably occul
At crises in his life ar in Nature. 4 rox
With boarding b,-, constitutes one. The
FIRST snow the other.
But the reporter ia n bad, yet necessary
bug. in the grand economy OF nature
M"ses forgot about the reporter when he
vas writing tie cummsnJments-or he
sould have slid Cd on some very ''impor-
tant business after swindl:ns the reporter
into writing them.
But here is hos Tennie Matthews de-
scribes . reporter. and at the came tunes
sives some ''shoddyes" terrible reading
up:
Young lady. you hit the nail on the
head that curl Of the upper lip clinche,l il.
Yon might write = volume ON the subject,
but you couldn't say more. You have
6oated away in the dance, anil the chance
expression il already forgoiien-as much Of
the past With yos, - any idle remark Of
your long ago school days, when you vore
short dresses and rouped wiih the boys. In
all your young lie j, has probably never
occurred to you what j, Is to be "only . re-
p"rter." You have vague idea that re-
porter il . kind Of society supe, tolerated
evil, whose proper station - . Pro-cenium
wing TO note the shifting scenes on the
stage Of fashion. You certainly never give
him higher cast in lilies drama than that
Of general utility" In your fashionable
opinion he ranks in the soci ii scale 80 far
beneath CLAW hammered coulter-hopper,
or the antimonial kid-gloved ninnies Of
uprertendom. that comparisons are odions.
To be 40 regarded is the fate Of him who-e
vocation and in.igni6cance you imperiou-ly
epitOmize ~ "Only reporter"
lobe ''only . reporter" Miss, is too fire..
quenily to be but a pack hor-e, a beast Of
burden, IN under .erf Of s,ciety. He be-
comes responsible for the photography and
grammar Of every man or woman who
writes line for the paper. For every iy-
biographical error, for every misprint, he is
held to severe accountability by the pub
lie. Lunch-graSbers, and street Corner
!oafers. dead heads AMI dead beats, who
sponge on the bsrroom or barber shop Tor
every paper they read, read only to carp
and cri,icise. and are overjoyed ii they find
rven . misplaced type. or . capital letter
in the wrong place. In every community
you find . class Of curb atone socialists
whose only mission on earth seems to be to
read the morning daily lat the expense Of
aome one else) aud then find fault With the
reporter. II items are scarce the reporter
il to blame. II there il surfeit Of serss-
lions he doesn't half write them mp. Argus
hal an hundred eyes. The reporter IL
popularity supposed to have twice that
many, and each particular eye more bril-
liant than the eye Of . lynx. He is never
expected to cloae them. Who ever
heard Of . reporter that could 20
10 brd With any assurance that he would
be permitted to sieep quietly until
He must be ubiquitous. He
must be able to describe . fight on Rich !
nond Hill. . revolt At the penitentiary,
and row at the market house. all occur |
ring simultaneously, with - much exact !
nes - though he had been present and
participated in each. II there is one hun |
ired happenings and he scoops ninety-n,ne,
10 il abused for missing the one and re-
,eives No credit for what he has done. Not
! day pa<es over his head that he is not !
reminded that the other paper il wider
awake; not day that some brsinle-s idiot
ioesn't tell him that he ought to whoop up
hings little iivelier; not a day that the
tereoiype question Is not put to him,
why don't you 60 for -" II he lets .
60 in rerbaim, ct fteratin.
( spellafim. ct punofsatim, he is cursed and
Tanned by the author. Ii he dresses it up
md puts it in readable shape, he is never 80
much o. thanked. He writes man into no
oriety, his complimentary puff about him
re copied all over the State. and he has
he satisfaction Of being continually ad-
lressed BY the recipient With Haven't I
net you somewhere He may worry all
lay through an avalanche Of exchange.
Tipping such items ~ he thinks may BE-
cad With interest, traverse every street
md alley in the meanwhile in
earch Of local happenings. and then, At
light when his brain is weary, and his
'ody needs rest. he is sent to . fashionable
gathering like this. and II, in giving an nc
.ount Of those present, he accidentally
'mi,s inst one name, he makes an enemy
or life.
You know he Is "only q reporter" my
lear Mis-. but there are many thing. YOU
10 not know. You do not know that every
hinsle Of the roof that shelters you il
rsiehied With . mortgage; you certainly
ne not aware thst your indulgent Papa
,as been dunned to dizziness to paw for that
ilk drea. you carefully draw aside lest il
hould accidentally sweep against 'only a
rporter." You have never been shown the
keletou in the family closet, though the
knows Of it. You have never
,een permitted to trare your genealOgy
rack to home spun ancestors Who ioIled At
rsdes you have been laugh: to regard -
nenial. Dress il your God, and very sweet
% your ears the idle compliments and