Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-01-27
REPORTERS AS THEY ARE.

Their Varied Daily OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
News Is Gathered Tor Every day Readers.
Did it ever occur to the man who
picks up daily paper, here, there and
almost everywhere, that energy and
brain work produced the sheet? Did
IL ever enter into the mind of the
banker, the merchant, the mechanic
or the laborer, when he seats himself
by his coy tircside and picks up his
morning paper TO read that
the information which he
seeks and which he pets
was procured by toilers while he was
asleep and resting from the cares of
the day? Do the good wives, after
having put the children to sleep, and
sitting down by the husbands side,
listening to his reading from these pa
pers, ever take into consideration the
immense amount of toll and trouble
which the news-gatherer has in put
ting bare, we might almost say, "cold
facts" before the people in presenta-
BILE manner?
A reply to all of these questions so
easily propounded would, in nine cases
out of ten, he in the negative. People
who subscribe for, or who purchase a
newspaper from day to day, want to
ii apparently makes no difference to
them where the news comes from, or
who gets it, as long ms they have 1t.
The life of a reporter on a Journal of
metropolitan standing Is one that
should not be envied, but it often is,
and more often to the youngsters who,
having picked up one exclusive"
think that their ability to become re-
porter has been satisfactorily settled,
and that their nose for news has grown
nj least two inches since the time their
maiden effort appeared. They have
an idea that they should do as the
wrestlers do, "eatch MS catch cam
and then make the best OF
| it. They are, as general thing,
ready and willing to work, and when
1 put on an assignment seem willing to
| do their level best, and no matter how
hard and faithfully they may work,
| they are liable to lose their "heads.n
1t is not so with the old-time re-
porter, he who has been in the bust
ness for years, and whose difference in
views with the youngsters is almost as
great as that between the ordinary
subscriber and the paper itself.
But let us take brief glance at the
life and ways and means of reporter
who is expected to gather information
for paper like the NoiDs. In the first
place his duties are varied. One day
he may have to attend to some big
conhagration, and before he gets
through with that he is detailed to
write up suicide. This hardly off of
his hands he is told that there has
been railroad accident a few miles
out of town, and that he is expected,
while ae may have perhaps only Two
hours to do it in, to get accurate infor-
nation and all details. He tolls and
struggles, but he does it, and the pur-
chaser of the paper reads 1t Mt his ma
tutinal meal
Word comes to the Office or is picked
up on the street that man has been
shot and dangerously perhaps fatally,
,, injured in one of the outlying dis
tricts of the city. The reporter hur
ries to the place and finds the body
of some unfortunate cold in death,
There is Il crowd around the corpse
but no one knows or cares to know
I, who he was. A brick or a cigar-boA
may be put under his head and /
there is II dwelling near by shee
!, NAV be had to cover the remains
j "Who is he?n asks one. 81 don
know says another. 80, never
! mind,n says third, 1--WE will find al
!, about it in the morning papers.
I And so they do. But who gets it +!
, Simply the reporter.
A man falls from IL scaftold and Il
: dashed to pieces on the sidewalk
From some fellow-worllman tits foun'
r out where he lives, and the patro
wagon or the city ambulance is calle'
upon TO take the mangled remain
home. The wife, surrounded by hal
n dozon of her little children, receive
!. with agonzing shrieks all that il
: left to her OF what few hours beior
= was loving husband and protector
, Who comforts her in this distress
= WHY, the reporter and while he is do
:, ing this he is al the same time gaininj
= information. to be sure at small bits Il
= n time. but all TO make up connects
story for the readers Of the next day
g paper.
y the cruel wheel of some wagon. IN
/ reporter is on the ground and finds on
= where the child's parents live. IN
; body is sent home and to that desc
late place the newspaper man goes
He finds the father and mother there
perhaps eating supper. lie ASSISTS II
n | carving the cnllu III, anu sets w"
e he went Transformation concernih
Is the child's name, age, and other ma
- tiers of more or less Importance.
~ A big theft is committed, ana
= comes to the ear of the reporter. i
!, order to get ut the bottom facts he di'
= plays as much zeal and energy as doc
= the detective paid by the city FOR Una
. special purpose; and why, you ask, do.
&c he do this? The reply is simply |
y furnish his readers with what has bee
y going on while they are resting an
y : reporter is often dragged int
" places, not because of any incilnatlo
If on his part, but because II is
purely matter of business, where
engaged in any otherpursuit he woul
shun them as he would serpeh
~ Then you ask, why does he go there
- - The reply is simply and briefly state'
- ''To furnish you with the news
! what il going on, so that you can rea
= il at your breakfast table. And so
y is all the way through. The report'
tao. 4 laA sol