Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-04-16

VIC QUlISt1tlll0 SlttUlOA Al ~ AS0A
to telegraph any important news OF
newly-arrived transatlantic steamers;
another visits all the theaters each
night-not to criticise the play. that
comes under another department of the
paper-but to learn of any important
changes in the cast of a performance,
or to obtain any interesting intorma-
ton pertaining TO the stage. The re-
porters also visit all the leading hotels
TO get the names of prominent men
from all over the world. from the hotel
registers.
From a great many of these places
no information worth printing is OBJ
tanned once q year; but q newspaper
takes no risk of being cleft on any
matter of news. The large newspapers
have each a reporter in Brooklyn, Jer-
sey City, Newark and Paterson, who
does not report at the office, but sends
in his copy by a messenger. Besides
these out-of-town men, reporters are
kept by each paper-one On Long
Island, on Staten Island and ono to
travel daily in Westchester County, up
the Hudson between Sing Sing and
New York, to obtain the news from
those places.
But all these arc merely the routine
reporters. who do the same work each
day. Besides these, there arc the men
who do general work" rs it is called
who are sent to religious meetings
and prize-tights; who interview great
men and women; who attend funerals;
who obtain obituary sketches of men of
prominence, whether living OR dead;
who write sketches of street occur
rences; attend important trials in the
courts; report sermons and lectures
and hangings; investigate rumors, and
do Il thousand and one other kinds of
work that goes towards filling the local
columns of the great dailies with cur
rent intelligence. If a wcll-known
citizen is dangerously ill, a reporter is
sent to some friend or relative IF the
suffering man, to obtain the main facts
of his life for an obituary sketch, in
case the man should die. If 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-shees
of the article is filed away in the obitu-
airy department of the paper, known
among newspaper men as ''the grave.
yard" and retained until the promin
ent citizen does die. In these ssgraye-
yards" of the great newspapers, there
are kept obituary sketches of the most
prominent men and women of the
world, ready to be filled in with the
date of death and published as soon as
the subject of the sketch, as must hap.
pen soone or later. is claimed by the
King of Terrors.
When a noted citizen is dangerously
ill a reporter keeps watch for his death
each night, until the paper goes t,
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 q room for their reporters in the
vicinity of his residence, and during
his illness the old mar sent jocose
messages to the men who were waiting
for his death.
When a great accident occa1s il. the
city, such, for instance, us the crush
of the East River bridge after it was
first opened to the public, when thir-
teen persons were killed, a number of
reporters are sent out to work on the
case. Each reporter is detailed to give
only n 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 a
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 a personal
visit to the house of each victim. Two
reporters were SEN out to interview as
many eyewitness 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 to the city edi-
tor, who joined them together in their
proper sequence. In this way each
paper the next morning had a long and
a reasonably accurate description of
the tragedy.
Reporters are a recognizedinstitution
in New York. The value and impor-
lance of their labor is universally con-
coded. Each prominent church has it's
reporters table, where arc 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
in the city, in order that they NAV
secure a historian of their transactions.
Every public entertainment has a