Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-06-02

| sent to some friend or relative of the
suffering man, to obtain the main facts
of his life for an obituary sketch, in
case the man should die. II the sick
man RECEIVERS, the sketch is written and
put in type. with blanks left for the
date Of his death, when it occurs at
some future day. Then a proof-sheet
OF the article is fled away in the obitu-
airy department of the paper, known
among newspaper men as 1.-THE grave
yard, and retained until the promin-
ent citizen does die. In these grave
yards" of the great newspapers, there
are kept obituary sketches of the most
prominent men and women of the
world, ready to be filed in with the
date of death and published as soon as
the subject of the sketch, as must hap
pen sooner or later. is claimed by the
King of Terrors.
When noted citizen is dangerously
i'll q reporter keeps watch for his death
each night, until the paper goes to
press. Should the death take place,
the reporter telegraphs at once to his
city editor; the blanks in the obituary
sketch are filled in, and the sketch of
the mans life appears in the paper the
next morning. Commodore Wander
bits last illness was so long, and his
death so lingering that the newspapers
hired room for their reporters in the
vicinity of his residence, and during
his illness the old man sent jocose
messages to the men who were waiting
for his death.
When great accident occurs in the
city, such, for instance, as the crush
of the East River bridge after it was
first opened to the public, when thir-
teen persons were killed, number of
reporters are sent out to work on the
case. Each reporter is detailed to give
only one portion of the account that
shall appear in the next mornings pa
per. For example: When the East
River bridge tragedy took place one
man was directed to obtain such in
formation as would enable him to give
the introduction to the sketch and
general description of the tragical
scene at the time of its occurrence.
There his work ended. Another re-
porter was detailed to ascertain mi
nutely the cause of the accident This
he was to do and nothing more. A
third was sent to the police station,
where the dead were carried, to describe
the sad scenes there. Another reporter
was detailed to visit the hospitals where
the wounded were. and to ascertain late
at night their condition and chances for
recovery. Among five or six other re-
porters was divided the list of names of
the dead and wounded who had been
carried to their homes; and that list,
which comprised names from all over
New York, Brooklyn and Jersey City,
was absolutely verified by personal
visit to the house of each victim. Two
reporters were sent out to interview as
many eye-witnesses of the tragedy as
could be found, and TO give each mans
description of the scene as it appeared
to him. The different sections of the
article were then given 10 the city edi-
tor. who joined them together in their
proper sequence. In this way each
paper the next morning had long and
a reasonably accurate description of
the tragedy.
Reporters are recognized institution
in New York. The value and impor-
lance of their labor is universally con-
coded. Each prominent church has its
reporters table, where are all accom-
modations for the men of the pencil.
Senate committees, commercial organi-
cations, charitable and benevolent,
public and private Institutions, lecturers,
speakers, associations and meetings of
all kinds are careful to send invitations
to their proceedings to every newspaper
in the city, in order that they may
secure historian of their transactions.
Every public entertainment has a
to take care of the 'mem-
bers of the press" who shall be present,
and all public exhibitions have each a |
"press agent" who makes himself
agreeable to the reporters and gives
them all the information they want. |
and generally great deal more.-F.
Marshall White, in Youths Companion. |