The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-06-09
REPORTORIAL GENIUS.
Flashes of Humor and Dashes of Pho
forial r.. in ord

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 l 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 a friend shows me bit of good
work, either in prose or poetry, and tells
me that he just threw it OFF, last night l
! praise him openly to his face. while secret
| ~ doubt his word, and if the composition
| is extremely good l suspect that it is due
| to the oil and the toll of many nights ami
the thought OF many days. But when there
is only one evening between the deed and
the printed story of it then | 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 | find in this mornings
paper, and which l thank the reporter for
| presenting to me in a 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
tender steak, is the sarcasm, pungent and
refined which excites my appetite when
read that the voters of a certain ward,
Objected to Cooper because he wore a sill
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 photograph, and | 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, l 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 is nigh art in that, for know with
out looking that the victorious candidate
is saloon keeper, and l see him laughing
clear across his face from ear to ear. His
face divided by a smile" is humorous
poetry, worthy OF Butler, and l maintain
there is no more expressive line in Hudi-
bras Peaceful as a tramp in hay
stack" said of the Twenty-third ward, is
picturesque description that saves a null
titude of words. l 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 l
learn that "about 2 o'clock he went to his
house on Twentieth street and laid in
new stock of campaign arguments in small
denominations" No coarse and ugly dead
wall statement there, but delicate and
genteel euphemism which tell it all in
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
'sThen he went to the saloon of Jan Novak
and put up for a new freshet of beer,
which soon had theneighborhood in 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.
| have read, in another paper, another
account of that same election. It contains
just as much information as the one I 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 it.-M.
NJ. Trumbull in Open Court.