Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-03-16
THE AMERICAN PRESS.
WHAT A SCOTCH OBSERVER SAYS OF
 OUR NEWSPAPERS.
The Vast and Valuable Service Performed in the Interests of the Public-Detec- ton of Crime and Fraud-Work of Re- porters and Editors.

porters and Editors.
 The American press is the most incom- prehensible of American institutions to strangers. Day after day it's columns are freighted with astounding crimes, with marvellous adventures, with social scan dals, with political programmes and re- ligious heresies. One wonders how it is possible such surprises should be con- stantly happening, and how their details should be so extensively wrought out. But the astonishmeat subsidies when it is known that the American press in organi- zation, in enterprise, in talent leads the world; that it deals not with one country, as ln the Old World, but represents whole continent; that the population it controls and informs is drawn from every Euro pean and several Asiatic nations; that among these are crowds of dangerous and lawless emigrants, some of whom have escaped from European jails and many from the European police. And whatever contempt for law and order the native American may inherit is deepeued by con- tact with the frenzied men driven to American shores by the regimes of Bis marck and Salisbury.
 DETECTION OF CRIME.
 Forced upon it by such surroundings the American press has accepted func. l. tions which no other nations newspapers have had delegated to them. The fore l most of these has been tho detection of crime and the defeat of fraud, and in the performance of both tasks American press men have won the admiration of the American people, and ought to be a source of pride and surprise to press men every where. American criminals may tamper with American judges; they may evade the police; they may defy the law; they are never safe from the press. Again and again have assassins been hung on the gallows wholly through the astuteness and amazing ability Of American press reporters. Again and again have scan dalous swindles been exploded through the single handed efforts of press men. The great Tweed ring was burst up by the persistency of newspaper men. The Preller murder was cleared up through the acuteness of press inquiries but illus trations are endless.
 Why such services are seldom att tempted by the British press is easily ex- plained. The British press man is short hand writer, whose work is mainly to re produce the speeches of the people who would hardly be listened to on this side of the Atlantic. In America verbatim re- porting Is hardly wanted; it is reckoned a very secondary accomplishment. The American press man must have require meuts the British reporter may do with out. The American must be born de- teotive, have an intuitive faculty of fol- lowing up the course criminals, advent urers and delinquents pursue in planning crimes and eyading their conviction. He 1 must have an address which fits all sorts 1 of people on all sorts of occasions. He must be equally ready to speak on level terms with statesman or confab with a thief; and it is his business to get at the intentions of both. The American press man must be an educated man of the world, who can represent his journal under any circumstances, and this is at once apparent to any stranger who has op- portunities of coming in contact with the leading representatives of the New York journals.
 A GREAT CONTRAST.
 To any one who has seen the position old country press men have to bend to the contrast is great. The American who for gets that an American press man is an American gentleman would find himself rebuked in way he never would forget But such rudeness is hardly ever risked. The high position taken by the staff of the American newspapers is too widely recognized, and men of the proudest posi- tion are pleased to meet the American interviewer, treat Eim graciously and give him whatever assistance is wanted. To be polite, frank and affable is the Americans prerogativo. The Old World snob who affects airs meets with supreme ridicule in the United States. I have met one or two in the hotels utterly horri- fled at American familiarity; even the negro walters laugh at their comical pre- tensions.
 There Is none of the rivalry and shop jealousy between the staff of one Ameri- can paper and the staff of another SO ab- surdly fostered in the old country. The l American press men treat each other as gentlemen simply because they are SO. Bad manners and stupidity go together and I have not come across any stupid press men in America. Editors and city editors make no distinction of persons in their staff, and they have no reason to do so A clever reporter knows he will get a good situation sooner than either editor or city editor, and, if anything, the re- porter is master of the situation. As may be inferred, talent of the highest order is the only passport to & position on the without brains could not keep berth on the New York press for twenty-four hours. With such racking work of brain } and body, it may be surmised, the strain 1, is tremendous, and in proof the American ]. press mans professional life is 8 short one. Among the many American news. paper men cannot recollect seeing one white haired man. No doubt some of the more brilliant press men find their way into congress and into public life, and not a few fall into other and more lucrative pursuits. Many of the American million. hires have started life as interviewers and owe their success to the training so ob' tained. And no other point can better il. illustrate the ability 50 essentially inter. llaced with the American press. To grasp Ithe salient points of 8 public question, to , intercept whatever enlightenment fit ex- ponent may throw upon these, requires nc lordinary acumen, and to place before the , Ilpublic in attractive form whatever insight has been obtained calls for subtle and in. , cisive faculties. which, displayed in any line of life, are bound to lead to suceess.- , J. D. Bell in Edinburgh Leader.
 , Experiences of Night watchmen. , Night watchmen have very differen, 2 experiences winter and summer. Wher } otLe1 folks enjoy themselves In the city ? they have. to work hardest. The nigh,
 watchman's fun begins when the bis
 hOusea on Fifth Rveuup are closed fur thl