The Central Nevadan. [volume] (Battle Mountain, Nev.) 1885-1907, 1889-11-21


hair breadth escapes he was forced to
eaptu.aie. and so on. And the
stories aie laughed at and believed as
sober statements of fact Many people
living OH the other side Of tire big
pond believe that the New York news
papers keep large corps of men
whose sole business it is to pounce
upon the unwary foreigner as soon as
he arrives and ask him what he thinks
of the country.
AS matter Of fact, only foreigners
who really amount to something from
one or more points of view get inter-
viewed in these days by New York
newspapers. They must have some-
thing more than title to commend
them to public attention. Many IN,
p s." and lords and swells, big and
little, pass through New York annu-
ally, without ever being asked for
their "views" on any subject.
Some people think that newspapers
print many bogus interviews.
Though it may be making too great
demands ON their credulity to ask
them to credit newspaper proprietors
with common honesty they might at
least credit them with some common
sense. 1t doesn't pay to print bogus"
interviews. No newspaper of any
standing prints interviews that are
known to be fictitious. The fraud 10
sure to be detected and exposed by
some ''loathsome contemporary. Still
less would it pay to write them. A
reporter who should make practice Of
it could never make living out Of
newspapers, though he might succeed
as an author of sensational and So
called realistic novels.
believe that there are not many
reporters who would write bogus in.
terviews even if it did pay. Good
workmen like to do honest work.
Reporters take great deal more
trouble than sceptical public will
ever credit them with tAkin, to be
accurate in what they write.
Very few verbatim interviews are
written. There are very few men
who can talk off hand, 50 well that
their conversation can he reproduced
in print without doing violence even
to some Of the fundamental rules of
grammar. II is y very common thing
for public n,an 10 ~ay tos reporter,
after having been interviewed:
I've given You my rough ideas on
the subject. You VIII, Of course. Tx
them up in good shape"
This means often that the reporter
is to pick up the crumbs OF ideas that
have been spread before hun and
make oil them a compact loaf that will
.flord satisfaction 10 thousands vi
readers at their breakfast tables next
morning. Intervening is by no
means the mere mechanical work that
some people think it is.
don't doubt for moment that the
late w. II. Vanderbilt used in All in.
terview, that celebrated phrase: "The
public be ID" which he subse-
quently repudiated. But he didn't
mean 1t in the sense in which it was
Understood. He expected that the
reporter would "Ex up" the inter-
view, and not give prominence to a
mere hssty expression. But he hap
pened to be talking to . Chicago re.
porter. New York reporters never
printed Mr.. Vandsrbilt's"cuss words. &"
What q chorus of indignant denials
would arise if New York newspaper
should print the profane adjectives
that man interviewed often interjscts
into an interview. Public men feel
that they can swear in the presence Of
New York reporters without any
danger Of being quoted, and not few
avail themselves of the privilege.
Few can talk we'll To- note books.
1t makes them self conscious. They
wonder how their sentences are going
to look in print, and that prevents
anything like free flow of ideas. /
write shorthand, but l seld,m use it
in getting interviews except to take an
occasional note of fact or date. The
best interviews are carried in the head
of the interviewer BY q process OF
unconscious cersbration the points
worth retaining adhere to the tablets
Of ones memory, and the useless ones
N =. as..s