The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1891-03-20
On Our Interviewers.
From Max O'Reli's book on. hi
Amerirafia lin oraes:one. ~ =

II. ssl,o.iuss 1Lvsus A1aaaA OhctlS DOCK on Ms
American i'm pressions: 49,
Journalism has killed literature;
and reporting is killing Journalism. It
! ts the last gasp of the dying literature
Of an epoch; it is the man OF lettcrs re-
placed BY the concierge. So exclaims
M. Albert Millaud. in one of his witty
articles in the Figaro,
In America, reporting has simply
ovcrrnn, swallowed up journalism. It
is demolition of the wall of private
life, the substitution of gossip for
chronicle, of chatter for criticism,
For the interviewer, nothing is
sacred. Audacity is his stock in trade;
the most private details of our daily
life are at his mercy, and unless YOU
blow his brains 0nt--which is not law
ful in New York State-you have no
means of getting rid of him.
DO not believe you llavc got over the
difficulty by having him told that YOU
are not at home. BE win ret return Ii 70 tfe he
charge ten, twenty times; he will stand
sentinel at your door, sleep on the mat
outside yegE, Aetel bedroom, 20 as TO
ponnce s;,S ron as SOON as you
show yonSs Eses in the morning. He
is patient. and II any indisposition
should obligeFou to keep your room,
he will wait till you are well again,
and will have his meals brought to
him in the corridor. Should you
succeed in escaping. the hunter, rather
than return to the newspaper office
empty-handed he will find your wife,
and ask her if you snore, whether you
are an early riser, whether vvu are
more amiablo after dinner or before,
what you eat atsbreakfast, what is your
favorite color in trousers, and what
size boots do you take. He will ask
her when you were married, how long
your honey yf1oon lasted, if you have
children, and whether they have cut
their teeth. With these materials he
will make up column.
There is no question too indiscreet
for these enterprising inqu;sitors; they
would have interviewed St. Anthony
in his hut
Do not'shout victory, either. because
you have succeeding in getting rid of
the interviewer without replying to his
questions. 1t ism such cases that the
American Journalist reveals himself in
all his glory. To your stupcfaction,
the newspapers next day will have an
account of the conversation which YOU
might have had with their reporters.
If my advice be worth giving, the
best thing you can do when the inter-
viewer presents himself and says, II
am reporter, sir and 1 have come to
ask you for few moments clat'' is to
say to him:
"Glad to see you sir; pray be seated"
After all, interviewing is an opera
ton that one survives, and, to be Just,
l must say that American reporters in
general are very courteous, obliging,
and-which is simply astounding
when one considers that they rare
ly take notes accurate in their ac-
counts of interviews.
The courage, too with which the
interviewer braves rebuffs, and the
philosophy with which he pockets
abuse. are nothing short of admirable.
For my part, never could find cross
word to say to these intruders, and
had %X 5ssaass 5sgard in Fsaalpqega il 70 the
operation with such good grace.