Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1892-06-17
REpoRToRIAL GENIUS.
Flashes of Humor and Dashes of Pic

Flashes of Humor and Dashes of Pic
torial Strength in Ordinary News.
Did you ever think about the vast guam
tity of genius annually wasted on the
newspapers by merely local reporters who
are not paid for originality or style, but
merely to write it up?" Probably not,
but I have, and tell you there is enough
of it if saved in book form to make literary
fame for hundred men. And let me tell
you another thing, there are men of liter
airy fame who steal a good deal of it and
sell it for money as their own.
When friend shows me bit of good
work, either in prose or poetry, and tells
me that he just ''threw it OFF, last night !
praise him openly to his face, while secret
ly doubt his word and if the composition
is extremely good | suspect that it is due
to the oil and the toll of many nights and
the thought of many days. But when there
is only one evening between the deed and
the printed story of it then l know that
the writer of the story ''threw it off last
night" and give him credit accordingly;
as, for instance, the account of yesterdays
election which i find in this mornings
paper, and which I thank the reporter for
presenting to me in well fitting dress,
with flowers of humor and fancy in the
buttonhole and embroidery of rhetoric,
where such adornment ought to be.
Like a dash of Worcestershire sauce on a
tender steak, is the sarcasm, pungent and
refined which excites my appetite when ]
read that the voters of certain ward,
Collected to Cooper because he wore silk
hat and went into good society" What
further description of that ward is neces-
sary? see it's alleys and courts and
saloons as in a photograph, and l know
without looking at the returns what be-
came of Cooper.
So there is equal pictorial strength and
saving of words, too mind you, for which
economy, am told, the reporter gets no
pay, in the description of winning candi-
date, who, proud and victorious, tramped
down Ashland avenue, with his big red
face divided by triumphant smile. +"
There isshigh art in that, for know with
out looking that the victorious candidate
is saloon keeper, and see him laughing
clear across his face from ear to ear. ellis
face divided by smile" is humorous
poetry, worthy of Butler, and 1 maintain
there is no more expressive line in Hudi-
bras. peaceful as tramp in a hay
stack said of the Twenty-third ward, is
a picturesque description that saves null
titude of words I cannot imagine any
thing more sleepy, quiet and careless than
a tramp in haystack, and the comparison
: is poetical too.
Of a certain candidate notorious for his
expansive liberality on election days !
learn that "about o'clock he went to his
house on Twentieth street and laid in a
new stock of campaign arguments in small
denominations No coarse and ugly dead
wall statement there but delicate and
genteel euphemisn which tell it all in a
vivid and effective way. 1t is the bright
rapier instead of the dull club. The mu-
nificence of that candidate is made visible
in the same artistic style, so delightful to
read and so easy to understand, thus:
"Then he went to the saloon of Jan Novak
and put up for new freshet of beer,
which soon had theneighborhood in a slop-
Ply condition"
Not kegs of beer, nor barrels of beer as a
commonplace reporter would have had it,
but ''freshet'' of beer, and the poetical
exaggeration is ingeniously corroborated
by the further testimony that the neigh
borhood was made sloppy" with beer, and
by this evidence the fact of the freshet
proved.
l have read, in another paper, another
account of that same election. It contains
just as much information as the one have
spoken of in these comments; but there is
no yeast of witty Imagination in it to
"raise" it and make it light and easy of
digestion. 1t is dull, soggy, inelastic
dough, and altogether too much of i'm.
NJ Trumbull in Open Court.