Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1892-01-13
SAY WHAT YOU MEAN.
How the Elder Benssst Taught . YsunS
 Reporter . Lesson.

HOW ths Elder benseft Taught q NaunS Reporter Lessoss
 There should be q rule in every newspaper office prohibiting the use of certain phrases and expressions, said my friend. the old war correspondent, as he threw down a paper in the ele- vated car. "lt distresses me to zee poor. old, hackneyed. worn out expres- sions kept at work daily when they should have been retired long ago. Why should a reporter always refer to mans Immaculate linen,' when he means to say that the man wore clean shirtf And why in heavens name should man or woman be described as well groolnedr Here they are both in one paragraph, and just beside them Is the man who. according to the re- porter, is always saying something real devlish with twinkle in his eye, and the other fellow who made this or that remark 'as he lit fresh cigar
 There should be cemetery for senile and used up words and phrases that have outlived their usefulness, if they ever were useful, and about n thousand of them should be laid away in quicklime at once and never resur. rected.
 Speaking of cemeteries, why should man, as soon as he is dead, be re- ferred to as 'poorf Here l read of railroad conductor, who was killed in a railroad collision. Yesterday he was the genial Conductor Brown, today he Is poor Brown The word seemed to be applied especially to men who in life were good fellows, and also to those whose death was caused by vio- lence. 1t Is not used in connection with great men. You never read or hear of poor Napoleon, poor Shake speare' or poor Frederick the Great do youi
 ''I do not expect the reporters to re- form so long as their employers allow the use of such idiotic words and phrases. When was younger than l am today, and thought knew about as much as an ordinary man could be ex- pected to know this side of the grave, I was reporter on The Herald under the elder Bennett. Mfr. Bennett sent for me one day. He said: Young man, notice that in your efforts to find men whom you have been instructed to in terview you never enter hotel
 Never enter hotel, Mr. Bennettf l said.
 No, sir; you invariably write that you 'drifted' in and when you do drift in you never meet the man.
 "'Never meet himT'
 No; observe that in every case after drifting in you either run against or stumble across the object of your pursuit. I wish that in future you would simply walk into the hotel and meet these people. That's ali sir
 ''I was angry, for I prided myself on my English and on my literary style. said, Mir Bonnet, have been writing now nine or ten years and have worked on number of newspapers as good as The Herald. fiatter myself that know something about the Eng fish language, and r--
 "foung man, interrupted Mir. Ben net did you ever read of how a man once boasted to Sidney Smith that the stick he carried had been twice around the world, and how Smith took the stick and, after carefully examining it, said, And yet-and yet. 1t Is only stick after all"
 What did you say to thatP' asked my friend, the war correspondent
 Il maintained n tumultuous silence, and-no. l did not drift out-I went out of the room. n--J. Armoy Knox.