The daily herald. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1886-1887, 1886-12-24
THE DAILY NEWSPAPER.
FRANK OPINIONS FROM A MAN WHO
IS I'm THE SWIM"

Wnen wen Done, the interview - One
of the Highest Examples of Literary
Art-Martyrs TO Realism--The Coming
Man--stenography.
"What do / think of the interview as a
feature of the American newspaper replied
Julius Chambers, The New York Herald cor
respondent, as he sat ON the porch of theWest
End hotel last night. "When it is well done,
the interview is one OF the highest examples
of literary art; when badly done, it is infa-
nous It should present a vivid picture of the
man OF woman with whom the conversation
is held; should incidentally depict the takers
mannerisms, physical and mental, and should
convey his ideas In the same sequence as he
utters them. I mean by this that the in
terviow' should not be dressed up
Its English should DO that Of the
speaker not necessarily verbatim, but pos
sessed Of the mans characteristics Do l
make myself clearl For example, nearly
every man with whom you talk for ten
minutes displays fondness for pet phrase,
or a bizarre word. Treasure that; use it as
he does and you set the person of great deal
better than II you described him, by length,
breadth and thickness, to the extent of
column. Jolly old Commodore Vanderbilt,
for instance, never talked with young man
three minutes without calling him my SON.
John Boyle O'Reilly, one OF the brightest,
keenest critics Of men and politics in America,
exclaims Go tor half dozen times in brief
chat He applies it to himself, to his COM
panion, to hypothetical persons, and to ideal
lied specimens of inanimate creation.
MARTYRS TO REALISM.
"a grave and dignifled old bank president.
whom knew in the storm and stress period
of my apprenticeship in this business, never
forgave me for depicting his idiosyncracies
truthfully. He complained most of the I'M
deniable fact that he couldn't break himself
of adding to nearly every sentence: And so
1t is was anxious to present a truthful
and accurate picture of the old chap, and re-
produced his pet phrase, just as faithful
portrait painter must give the wart on his
sitter's chin. He never forgave me. So, you
see, martyrs to realism and truth sti1 exist
And then we both smiled
"Should these conversations be reported
stenographicallyP
"No; stenography Is dead art so far as
daily journalism is concerned 1t is fatal TO
the vitality Of a conversation. 1t appears TO
destroy the marrow in the bones Of a really
fine talk. good memory, with a skeleton
lied framework containing dates and proper
names, is far better. As for the art of short
hand itself, it is a dead fall to ambition. I'm
less young man wants to be shelved In
court, or to become private secretary to
somebody, he should avoid stenography as he
would the plague. 1t destroys the style of
a writer and retards his progress towards a
high salary. Stenography is well enough for
q man without ideas 1t is good thing for
him TO learn. The journalist can make use
of him. The art Of debating to stenog-
rapher, or to typewriter, is something to
be learned as early as possible, for in hours
of great emergency one capable man can ac-
complish the work of half a dozou less able
workers. The success Howard, Townsend
and others have attained in that direction
shows to what use men with the real stuff in
them can put the stenographer But he
plays fourth fiddle, while they wiosd the
baton. That's the stenegrapher's place,
fear.n
THE COMING MAN.
HWho do you regard as the coming man on
the American newspaper was asked.
"The reporter, unqualifledly," answered his
elder brother, the correspondent. 'sHis growth
In the sixteen years that have known him
at close range hes been marvellous Look
what be has done for the city editorl He
has nfted that post 70 the second place on
the staff. A generation hence the reporter
win be the1est paid-yes mean it--and the
most respected factor in the business Please
don't say profession when speaking of the art
Of making the newspaper. 1t is an abomin-
able expression, and belongs to chiropodists.
transforming actors and country lawyers
The newspaper Is a commercial enterprise
But Of that hereafter
ave were talking of the reporterl Have
you not observed the waning of the 'edi-
torial pager or course you have. l tell you,
it Is doomed The kid-gloyed essayists, who
for the past fifty years have furnished pIati-
tudes and skimmed-millx advice to nursery
maids and honest voters have had fall
The people do their own thinking nowadays,
and do it deuced sight better than most
editorial writers / was an editorial writer
myself for two years, and wrote as badly as
any Of them; in my own opinion, l was one
OF the very worst, because / sat down to my
work with a sacrifice of self-respect in every
instance. 1t is news that sells papers Idefy
anybody to prove that any single editorial
article ever sold an additional copy OF any
one issue Of journal Long Branch News