, 1885-01-15
INTERVIEWING 4 GREAT MAN.


49, -
rBrooklyn EAgle1
Perhaps there Is NO clas Of work from
which a reporter gcts 80 much amusement as
be does from interviewing The element Of
chance enters into it TO such q largo extent
as to make It enticing. He Is usually sent
out In n desperate hurry. A great man has
arrived or win arrive, the Telegraph brought
word OF the event In a few meagre lines. per
haps like this: - viii DO at the Fifth Av-
enue hotel at Is o'clock to-day" Shouts the
city editor. Il want you to go over to3New
York and Interview this man on his views of
the political situation to the extsnt Of a half
column. Up jumps the reporter addressed,
dons his coat and hat, glancss at the clock,
picks up a roll Of paper and goes through the
door like a fash When be gets 70 the hotel
In question he probably finds tho newly ar
rived statesman surrounded by friends while
iegions Of other friends hang about his 0
attempting 70 gain admission. He finds that
he Is only one OF twenty or moro reporters
all come on the same errand All these COM
bine their forces and notify tho great man
that they want to see him Immediately.
There are very few public men in the
United States who would keep that repro
zentation of the press waiting longer than
five or ten minutes The reporters are In
vited inside. and like a swarm Of flies o
a sugar cask, fhey surround tho distinguished
citizen. Questions fy right and left; in ten
or fifteen minutes, or even less time, the
whole press Of Brooklyn and New York
have boon accommodated, and the inter
viewed gentleman Is free to enjoy the rest Of
the day as he may desire. Next day some
paper may desire to interview him at consid-
cradle length on particular points, but after
he has spsnt two or three days In town the
papers cave ain alone until some new event
calls attention 10 him again.
This would DO very easy interviewing.
Public men are always very accessible to the
press because they knows Its moods They
are sometimes so completely occupied, though,
that 10 seems utterly impossible TO get near
them, and these are the times In which the
value OF q given reporter is tested. He may
DO cooling his heels in an ante-room with half
a score Of other people-each OF whom thinks
his claim TO be next Is best-and turning
over this proposition In his mind. 1T is now
half past l o'clock, my paper comes out at 4;
the very latest my city editor viii ALLOW me
to write Is 3,45. l want half a column at
least from this gentleman, it viii a k me
ton minutes to interview him and ten minutes
to get down to my Office. l must see him
this very moment, no matter IL he Is talking
to the president
The average citizen asks, why, what Is
all the hurry about Why amt the reporter
wait till the next dayf' Bless the innocent
soul of the man who made that remark,
what the reporter is after is news Next day
it would be stale. Maybe some other paper
has interviewed the great man in question al
ready. A day makes all the difference In
tho world to a live newspaper. The truth Is
that the reporter Is like a race-horse steepls-
chasing. He has come to an apparently in
surmountable obstacle, but his paper, like a
determined jockey, Is forcing him at the bar
rier, and be must try to go over 1t. Il is like the
meeting Of an irresistible force with an i'm
movable body-but not precisely similar. It
Is a situation which brings out the strong
points OF a reporters character.