Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-05-07
IAN INTERVIEWED"
Where Some Of the New York Papers
Get Their Most Thrilling
Intelligence.
Chicago Tribune.l

An entirely new line Of business has
been struck out by an enterprising
Eastern journalist who thinks of es-
tablishing himself in the West. He
called at the Tribune office yesterday
and said that he wanted to secure a
situation as an interviewed. "a
what? 2" said the editor-''an inter-
viewer? No; an interviewed, re-
piled the man ; Its a new line of
business-that is, outside of New
York, but | think there is money in
it. kTill explain. Suppose there is
a Zulu war, or a Rooshian Nihilist
assassination, or a negro exodus, or
anything you want an interview about.
Now, | go to a hotel and register as a
missionary from Natal, or Prince Rag
amufinski from Moscow, or Colonel
Blood N, Thunder from Okolona.
Miss, or any one else that it may be
desired to personate. You send your
reporter round to me to interview me
and III reel him off a screed a column
long, full of facts and figures, and Ill
give him such lively incidents from
my own experience as IL make
his eyes bulge out with horror
and the pencil drop from his
astonished grasp. There's my name
and address on the hotel books to
prove it was a bona fde interview. and
where it is necessary | have a first
class wardrobe of dresses, wigs. and SO
on, and | can make up art~istically for
the character it is desired to repre-
sent. My terms are very reasonable.
and no one but you and | need be in
the secret. The reporter can be a
different m every time, and he will
never know he has been getting tafy
given to him. | can show you nv
testimonials from New York. You
may remember the mysterious Hindoo
Brahmin who appeared at midnight in
a boat on New York bay, and was in
teryiewed about the great pralaya? |
was that mysterious Hindoo Brahmin.
suppose you read the interview with
the German colonel sent over by
the RoOshian government to buy arms
for the Zulus? | was that German
colonel, and | can lick the Herald re-
porter that says | wasn't. Let nae
recall TO your memory the interesting
recital which went the rounds of the
assassination of Lord Leitrim, told By
the murderer himself, who escaped tC
this country as a stoUaway. | wa.
that murderer, though | say it thai
shouldn't. A few days ago you MAJ
have noticed a report of a Russian
Nihilist interview, in which some pre-
viously unsupported facts as to til,
ramifcations of the immense socia
and political conspiracy we're pub
lished? Well, sir, let me cleanse m,
foul bosom of the perilous admission
that | was the Rooshian Nihilist il
question-that the sort of hairovitch
pinOfski | am. In this simple manner
you will observe, newspapers ar
enabled to give the latest and mos
interesting intelligence on any givel
subject right on the moment and u
to the handle. | am also prepared t
be a prominent Southern gentlema
who does not desire to have bis nam
mentioned, or a leading Norther
Republican who does not wish hi
identity disclosed. or a member of th
second batch of whisky thieyes-in
deed, | am prepared to be anything
and that on the shortest notice" Tn
editor regretted that he had no vacar
cy at present upon the staff, and tn
great American interviewed said tha
was all right-if he couldn't get
berth on some of the other mornin
papers he'd skip back to New Yorl
though now that the papers there ha
gone in for economy and were inven.
+ ing their own interviews out-and-ou
or even clipping en- out Of the Englis
! papers, their wasn't nearly al mUo
money in the business as there ha
been.