Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-01-08
eAv WHAT YOU MEAN.
How the Elder Bennett Taught Young
Reporter Lesson.

me- an. Elder Bennett Taught Young
Reporter a Lesson.
There should be a rule in every
newspaper Office prohibiting the use OF
certain phrases and expressions, SAID
INV friend. the old war correspondent,
as he threw down a paper in the ele-
waited car ''It distresses me to see
moor. old. hackDeyed, worn out express
sions kept at work daily when they
should have been retired long ago
WHY should reporter always refer to
a mans immaculate linen when be
means 10 say that the man wore clean
shirt9 And why in heavens name
should a man or woman be described
as well groomedr 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 a cemetery for
senile and used up words and phrases
that have outlved their usefulness,
If they ever were useful, and about a
thousand of them should be laid away
in uuicklime at once and never resur
rected.
Speaking of cemeteries, why should
man, as soon as he is dead, be re-
ferred to as 'poorp Here read of a
railroad conductor, who was killed in
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 VIC
lence. It is not used in connection
with great men. You never read OF
hear of poor Napoleon, poor Shake
speare' or poor Frederick the Great,
do you9
II do not expect the reporters to re-
form so long as their employers allow
the use of such idiotic words and
phrases. When l was younger than !
am today, and thought knew about as
much as an ordinary man could be ex-
pected to know this side of the grave,
was reporter on The Herald under the
elder Bennett. Mr.. 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.. BennettT
| said
"No, sir; you invariably write that
you 'drifted in and when you do drift
in you never meet the man.
"'Never meet himW
mo; observe that in every case
after drifting in you either run against
or stumble across the object of your
pursuit. l wish that in future you
would simply walk into the hotel and
meet these people. That's all sir
II was angry, for l prided myself
on my English and on my literary
style. l said, Mr.. Bennett, | have been
writing now nine or ten years and have
worked on a number of newspapers as
good as The Herald. flatter myself
that know something about the Eng
lish language, and p
"'Young man, interrupted Mr.. Ben
net, did you ever read of how 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, it is only a
stick after all"
What did you say to that7" asked
my friend, the war correspondent.
II maintained a tumultuous silence,
and-no, l did not drift out went
out of the room. u. Annoy Knox.