Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-09-16
AS OTHERS SEE THEM.
Public Men Who Like to Collect News.
paper Scraps About Themselves
senator Morrilps Birthday Collection
HOW the Two Gibsons Were Con-
fused-Infanta's Scrap Collection.

Inc finance committee of the Senate
oought OF Frank Burrelle recently a scrap
oooK containing the comment of the news
papers OF the United States on President
CleVeiands message. There were nearly
i'0V scraps taken from about 800 newspa-
pers pupished In 500 towns or cities. They
iiieo 800 large pages. II the newspapers ex-
press the sentiment OF the communities in
winch they are published the finance COM
mittee Will have very little difficulty learn
ing what the people want in this financial
emergency.
Inc Senate and House committees have
been active patrons Of the press Clipping
bureaus for several years. When the Me-
hinley bill was under consideration the
Senate finance committee subscribed for
clippings about tariff matters and receivea
several thousand Of them. The committee
on immigration last year subscribed TO all
the clipping bureaus and spent S4a for
ABOUT o,oo newspaper paragraphs. Public
men are very active buyers of press clip
pings. though, strange as IL NAV seer, New
york is better field for the business than
NaSlhs ION. some men who are in Con-
gress subscribe for clippings when they are
ABOUT TO make speeches which will attract
attention. Senator Morrill, subscribed for
clippings when he celebrated his SEVENTEEN
birthday and received several hundred
peasant comments on the anniversary
Representative Durborow of Illinois had a
scrap.bo made about the opening of the
worlds fair
The foreign. legations are buyers of press
clippings The Spanish minister paid 500
Tor ABOUT l4,OU clippings about the Infanta
Eulalia-and they were doubtless the pleas
ATTEST souvenir that she took with her to
Spain. The Russian admiral became a sub
scriber at the time of the naval parade and
a fina %.
ments on the Russian fleet
DR.. Mott Smith, the Hawaiian minister
subscribed for clippings about Hawaii only
two days before the news Of the Hawaiian
revolution reached the United States. He
was deluged with clippings, and when he
had enough to fill a clothes basket he tried
to cancel his order. He could not find the
agent who held his order for some time. and
he was nearly frantic with excitement
when he finally did find him and turned of
the shower.
The White House has fits own scrap COL
lection. One Of the White House clerks
country carefully for news which may in
terest the President-and II is clipped out
and filed away. But even the White House
is patron Of the clipping bureaus at times.
President Harrison subscribed for the obit-
uaries of Mrs. Harrison published all over
the country.
The making o. scrap books is a novelty.
The first work OF the kind was done for
the committee WHICH ndQ Cld[ke OF Inc
quadri-centennial celebration in New York.
The clippings about the celebration filled
twenty-four books. Then the Gould family
gave orders for clippings about Mr.. Gould
at the time of his death, STIMULATING that
only those which spoke OF him pleasantly
should be pasted in the scrap books. The
books containing these clippings would I'll
a broad library shelf A like order was
filled for the Blatchford family at the time
of Justice Blatchfords death.
Rut the Ginning bureaus do not wait for
orders now. Whenever a public man dies
they go to work gathering paragraphs
about him from current publications. Re
fore long they have enough TO fill q scrap
mans family. A very elaborate collection
was made at the time Of Jefferson Davis
death. The clippings have been pasted into
three scrap books. OF which ono is devoted
to favorable comments, one TO unfavorable
comments and the third TO anecdotes. These
books were offered TO Mrs. Davis. but she
refused to buy them. They will doubtless
become the property Of some southern Ii
brary.
A clipping bureau receives more kicks
in every "a hours .har even q news
paper office, and that Is saying a great
deal Every paragraph published in news
papers or magazines which c.ntains the
name OF a subscriber TO the bureau is game
for the reader. The name Is marked with
blue pencil and when the paper goes to the
cutter the paragraph is cut out ready for
pdStlnE- w men a nenDer OF congress
makes a few unimportant remarks on the
silver question or perhaps interrupts q de-
batter to ask a question the press associa-
tons may insert in their reports an an
nouncement that Representatives Brown.
Jones and Robinson also spoke" or that
in response to a question by Representa-
tive Brown the Speaker said" This
statement is published In several hundred
papers and IT is rather aggravating for
Representative Brown TO be deluged with
copies of II at the uniform price of 4 or s
cents each. When Senator Morrill, cele-
brated his SEVENTEEN birthday his mail was
filled with clippings which read like this
Senator Morrill, of Vermont was seventy
years old on the 18th OF April" The Sena-
tor objected strongly to paying for these
paragraphs. Don't you think know that
/ am seventy years old?" he said. Must ]
pay for that Information
Sometimes an allowance is made to a man
whose name appears frequently In the press
dispatches in consideration of duplicates,
but the duplication of paragraphs is not the
only source of complaint There are a
great many public men whose names are
very much alike. They are continually re-
ceiving clippings about each ether. When
Senator Gibson OF Louisiana died Senator
Charles Gibson of Maryland. the Narcissus
Of the Senate, received hundreds Of para
graphs about the event