Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1894-07-06
PARIS REPORTERS.
TO BE SUCCESSFUL THEY MUST BE
BORN WITH THE TALENT.
What Is Expected of Them and How Their
Work Is Graded-Why Mono Of Them Arc
Old Men-One Reporters Experience IN
Securing Important Information.


Old Men-One Reporters Experience IN
Securing Important Information.
When the "chief of the service Of in
formations" consents to annex q de-
butante, his aptitudes are first utilized
in the department DIES chiens creves -
This is the professional slang for nick
ing up such items at the police stations
as are not sent in to the prefecture. For
this work he will be paid 2 or 8 CEN
times line for those inserted, on the
average about one in twenty of what ha
hands i'll. These modest auXiliaries have
only exceptionally the perspective of
power to make themselves noted. In.
learn Of an accident or an affair cat Of
the common run they must Telephone
the fact to their papers, from whence
the chief sends as soon as possible ono
or two staff reporters, but if the late
ness of the hour or the gravity Of the
event justifies such an initiative, tho
titular of the ''chiens creves" becomes
somebody. In this case, if he is clover,
he can render his journal special service
by avoiding beat" and he will %
well recompensed. This is why, over at
the Cafe du Coz dor, consumers some
times hear young man at a neighbor-
ing table shout gleefully to his COM
rades. AT last l have my first criIae."
and the comrades press his hand aud
congratulate him warmly
Perhaps he is promoted to the dignity
of ''enqueteur, or interviewer Now
he receives a retaining salary of $50 to
500 month and is paid extra for al
the lines he writes, SO that he usually
earns S25 to $50 weekly. He must give
his definite measure, however, and show
if he really has the gift of the profos-
sion, for after two or three failures he
would be thanked and have his head
cut off. OF the $50 reporters who each
year spring up on the Partisan press
eight or ten at most survive and become
corporals and serGeants in the profess
sion. To succeed it is necessary not only
to have good health, perfect bearing, a
courtesy and education which permit of
being received everywhere, but great
clearness OF ideas and remarkable
power of assimilation. The reporter
may know nothing, but lie must be
quick at understanding everything. Il
is necessary that, Z question being given,
he should know III n few instants who
is the person in Paris the most probable
to solve it. He must so to see this per-
son or some one else equally informed,
and in 90 phrases of an interview gather
a clear, net and precise resume OF the
responses to make. He must also have
the scent of Il detective and above IL
love for his profession.
/ know a Paris reporter who was sent
out to writo about the doings of a for
eign sovereign then ut a French water
ing place He went to the chateau v here
the monarch was stopping, but wa po-
htely kicked ont by the grand chamber
lain. Eve telegraph daily" the latter
said, news relative to his majes-y to
our national papers. You can take from
them for your columns " This dil not
satisfy my confrere. He had been sent
at much expense on this special work,
and it would never do for him to 90
nothing during his sojourn. A brilliant
idea struck him. He had got acquainted
with an old man who had formerly been
employed IL the telesraphy department
of the army. So he said to the ex-lieu-
tenant, ''Would you be capable of witt
ing out tho value Of the letters trans
mitted by the Morse system by simply
hearing the ticlztack Of ,hc instrument
''Parblou, that is only the infancy Of
business, answered the other. wen,
sir, viii give you Il louis every morn
ing if you will como and pass quarter
Of an hour at the postofficc.
The next day, at the hour when the
dispatches from the chateau arrived,
those two men were very busy i'll the
office over an imaginary correspondence,
but as soon rs the Morse instrument be-
gan to tick the old man inscribed on a
sheet of paper letters of foreign words
he did not understand. The reporter
read these words over his shoulder Ee
immediately translated them, and the
official dispatch was scarcely off when
he sent the same thing i'll French to his
Paris paper. The telegraph employees
naturally supposed that this E,oral
translation was given to its sendor iy
one of the sovereign's household, while,
40 III tAiS Ivy S,utOt anu LIS = shAAti
chamberlain, they had the pleasure of
reading i'll the Paris journal details con-
corning themselves long before their
national papers arrived.
When a reporter has in analogous Cir
cumstances shown the resources of his
mind, he generally obtains n fixed salary
which assures him Il revenue indepeud-
ent of the fluctuation of actualities.
He is, for instance, charged with rela-
tions with a cabinet minister, reports
of expositions, public reunions, ETC., but
even in favorable conditions it is cxccp-
tional that he gains more than $500 81
month. Moreover, the fatigue is such
and the nervous tension SO constant that
the employment cannot be filled for
many years. This is the reason why
there are no old reporters in Paris, and
why those who are more than 40 years of
age are pointed out with pride. Long
before that age those who are able to
make their careers as journalists are
classed as ''articliers. r" They have
shown that they can do reporting other
II Al i