Wichita eagle., 1886-10-10
1ailS& zgae1e
THE DAILY NEWSPAPER.
FRANK OPINIONS FROM A MAN WHO
IS I'm THE SWlM."
When Well Done, the Interview" r. Ono
Of tho Highest Examples of Literary
Art-Hartyrs to Realism-The Coming
Man-Stenography.

Of the Highest Examples Of Literary
Man-Stenography.
@What do I think OF the interview as q
feature of the American newspaper" replied
julius Chambers, The New York Herald cor
respondent, as he sat on the porch Of theNVest
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 1t should present vivid picture Of the
man or woman with whom the conversation
Is held; should incidentally depict the takers
mannerisnrs, physical and mental, and should
convey his ideas in the same sequence as he
utters them. l mean by this that the sin
terview' should not be dressed up
Its English should be that of the
speaker not necessarily verbatim, but pos
sessed of the mans characteristics Do I
make myself clear? For example, nearly
every man with whom you talk for ten
minutes displays a fondness for a pet phrase,
or bizarre word. Treasure that; use it as
he does and you set the person off q great deal
better than if you described him, by length,
breadth and thickness, to the extent Of a
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 III America,
exclaims go tor half dozen times ia a brief
chat He applies it to himself, to his COM
panion, to Hypothetical persons, and to ideal
lied specimens of inanmate creation
MARTYRS TO REALISM
"a grave and dignified old bank president.
whom knew in 'the storm and stress period
of my apprenticeship in this business, never
forgave me for depicting his idiosyncracies
truthfulIy. lie complained most of the I'M
deniable fact that he couldn't break himself
of adding to nearly every sentence: and SO
it is was anxious TO present a truthful
and accurate picture of the old chap, and re-
produced his pet phrase, just as a faithful
portrait painter must give the wart on his
sitter's chin. he never forgave me- SO, you
see, martyrs to realism and truth still exist"
And then we both smiled
"Should these conversations be reported
stenographically?
"No; stenography is q dead art 50 far rs
daily journalism is concerned. It is fatal to
the vitality of a conversation. 1t appears to
destroy the marrow in the bones of a really
u
lied framework containing dates and proper
names, is far better. As for the art of short
hand itself, it is dead fall to ambition. I'm
less young man wants TO be shelved in
court, or to become a private secretary to
somebody, he should avoid stenography as he
would thaplaguc. 1t destroys the style of
a writer and retards his progress towards a
high salary. Stenography is well enough for
i- &,
him to learn. The journalist can make use
Of him. The art Of debating to a stenog-
rapher, or to a typewriter, is something to
be learned as early as possible, for in hours
of great emergency one capable man can ac-
complsh the work of half dozen 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 stcnographer But he
plays fourth fiddle, while they WELD the
baton. That's the stenographers place, I
fear"
THE COMING MAN.
"Who do you regard as the coming man on
the American newspaper?" was asked
"The reporter, unqualifiedly," answered his
elder brother, tho correspondent. "IIis growth
in the sixteen years that ! have known him
what he has done for the city editor. He
has lifted that post to the second place on
the staff. \ generation hence the reporter
will be the best 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 cLiropodists,
transforming actors and country lawyers.
ba oil
But OF that hereafter.
"We were talking of the reporter. Have
you not observed the waning OF the 'cdi-
torial' page: OF course you have tell you,
it is doomed The kid-gloved essayists. who
for the past fifty years have furnished plati-
tudeS and skinned milk advice to nursery
maids and honest voters have had a fall.
The people do their own thinking now -a-tlays.
and DO it deuced sight better than NEST
editorial writer's l was an editorial writer
myself for two years. and wrote as badly as
any of taeIn; in my own opinien, l was one
of the very worst, because sat down to my
work with q sacrifice Of self-respect in every
instance. II is news that sells papers Idefy
anybody TO prove that any single editorial
article ever sold an additional copy of any
ono issue of q journal. Long Branch News
The American citizen would do well TO con-
slider a few facts in the case. There are now
.0,G4e 900 acres of land in the United States
owned 10y twenty nine foreign landlords and
foreign syndicates The amount of land thus
owned is as large rs Ireland Indeed, one
Irish landlord is said to draw S400, ,oOG annual
income in rack rents from his estate in
Illinois. One English gentleman IN London
owns 100000 acres of American land The
census of 1850 showed that there wore l,Gi-
Col tenant farmers in the United States
That number must have increased consider
ably i'll sis, years, and at the present time our
American ''poasantry" probably outltmbers
that OF Great Britain and Ireland combined.
AT any rate there are IN ireland to-day only
a1 ,2.22 tenant holdings: in England and
Wales together but 4l4,S0i, and in al Scot.
land 80, l0l. The stote of Illinois alone has
10000 moro land tenants than Scotland.
France has to-day 100000 small rural pro-
prietors and 2,0a9,oI0 large proprietors and
owners of real estate in towns Altogether.
both great and small, the number of landed
proprietors IL the United States is net quite
3,0G0, 700, and yet we have q greater ropula-
ton than France by 12,0oo,oo0 and manr
times MS much land as that countrv-Profes-
Dry, Io0-ig1f5 positions are salor rnan
such as -a;o elevated and exposed. The close
neighbSrhood of water courses should always
he avoided. 1t is better to lie lat upon the
ground than il is 10 stand or sit. If shelter
=. I, =. i.