Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-04-16
NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS,
HELPING FOLKS TO SEE THEMSELVES
 AS OTHERS SEE THEM.


 of the Weakness of Mankind-Gather-
 ing Press Notices.
 The business of reading newspapers for other people, which was started in this city in small way not very long ago, is said to be in a fair way to swamp itself by too rapid growth Two concerns are now devoted to | the business and each claims to have all if can attend to to keep pace with its own growth. The original clipper, Henry Ro- meike, who experimented with tho idea in Paris, and then went into the business in London on larger scale, has made stock company of his establishment there, and come to this country to carry out his system here The promise, he says, is of something gigantic in the line of scissors and paste pot manipulation, Seven thousand papers were read and 5000 notices clipped from them last week for several hundred clients on his lists.
 CLIENTS AND THEIR WANTS.
 A glance at his books gives curious in- sight into the weaknesses of men and women whose names are familiar in widely different circles of life. The name of each client heads page, and under it is a brief note of what particular news or information that person wants from the papers. Fully half of the names have after them but the one word,
 
 selves they want. It would be great satis- faction to scores of snubbed reporters about town to see in these books the evidence of the anxiety of great lawyers who have nothing to say to reporters, city officials who have no time to bother with newspaper men, and society women who wouldn't have their names in the paper for anything to sec whatever is printed about them. Everything about the Sharp case" was an order that drew much money from the pockets of one lawyer last year. "Everything about her reception" is under the name of a leading society woman. "Everything bearing on fraud at elections is the curious order of city official. Artists and literary men are the worst. They all want to see everything that is printed about their latest picture or their newest book About the time the picture is exhibited, or the book printed, they send in an order for all the paragraphs referring to the work, and then probably quit work for a week, in order to revel in the evidence of the tide of popular ity that they expect will roll over them. Of ten there is not solicitary clipping charged to their account Many times there are one or two only. If the picture is a daub or the book bad, the paragraphs may run up into the hundreds; but statistics on this point are incomplete, as the order is always cancelled after week of this
 Political men, and especially congressman, seem to be the steadiest patrons of the insti- tuition, but they generally mean business and not vanity. Through it they collect masses of statistics as to some particular interest for which they stand sponsor, or get evidence of the tendency of public sentiment by which they can trim their sails. They all add "Per- sonal" to their order, however. Himself and the Pacific Railroads" is one order. A senator wants "Himself and the Chinese question:" 'Himsef and Peru" is the order of we'll known ex-mayor, Mayor Francis of St. Louis gets lots of complimentary notices now on the subject of the convention and St. Louis, and he wants them all. A common order limits the clippings to paragraphs att taclxing him only" Lord Randalph Chur- chill once gave an order of that sort to the London institution, and his bill the first month was for 1000 clippings. Great Heavens can't stand this," he said. Send me the favorable ones after this for a a change,n and his bill fell to nominal figures
 MEN WHO HAVE HOBBIES.
 Men with hobbies are steady patrons. All that is printed about Volapuk goes to one college professor in this city. Paragraphs on the Nicaraguan canal go to another man, and a French official here gets all the De Lesseps items. One engineers wants every reference to the Quaker bridge dam, another paragraphs of the Harlem bridge, and sev- eral are getting all there is printed about Hudson river tunnel and bridge schemes. Several leading firms of architects and engi- neers want the earliest mentions of the pro- posed erection of large buildings, bridges, dams, or other structures These are clipped from local papers all over the country, and whenever the firm sees a prospect of job it sends in an application for the work of de- signing or constructing. Usually they are thus the first applicants, and have propor- tionately better chance for the work. Two firework manufacturing companies keep themselves posted in the same way as to the coming celebrations all over the country, the nature of the exercises amount to be ex- pended, and similar matters Contractors and others with an eye out for new lines of railroad to be constructed, are also patrons of the paper readers. Important events in business are apt to bring patrons around. ''Himself and his failure," is common en- try. As general thing the patrons are only those who think they are likely to get com plimentry press notices. People whose no- toriety is of an unpleasant nature, do not care to see what the papers say about them. No body involved in scandal, divorce suit or Q similar affair, has yet asked for clippings.
 The growth of the business has necessitated the introduction into it of a complicated sys- tenn and has developed it in several novel di- rections. The leading topics of newspaper comment such as art iterate, the drama, politics and similar subjects, are made sepa- rate divisions of the business, and everything pertaining to each is clipped by the first read CTS These clippings are then gone over by the men in charge of each department, and those which may fit the orders of any patron arc sorted out at the close of each days work and mailed to him at once He has paid in advance $5 for 100 "clips," or at de- creasing rates up to $40 for 1000, and when he has received the number paid for the service stops until new payment is made. A mans account may run along for months without his getting over forty or fifty of the 1000 paragraphs he has paid for, and then he may kill his mother-in-law, or do some other famous thing and get the balance of his 'sclips" in less than week.
 Clippings are also made on speculation. If 0 well-know man dies, all his obituaries are collected and afterward offered to some sor- rowing relative for certain amount of cash. Notices of weddings and other events are collected and peddled in the same way, and it is said that the instances are comparatively rare in which sale is not effected.-New York Sun.