The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1894-06-30
PARIS REPORTERS.
70 &c SUCCESSFUL THEY MUST BE
BORN WITH THE TALENT.

What Is Expected of Them and How Their
Work Is Graded-Vhy None of Them Ara
Old Men-One Reporters Experience IL
Securing Important Information
When the t'chief of the service of in
formations consents to annex a de-
butarte, his aptitudes are first utilized
in the department DIES chiens creves. =
This is the professional slang for pick
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 4 line for those inserted, on the
average about one in twenty Of what he
hands in. These modest auxiliaries have
only exceptionally the perspective 81
power to make themselves noted. In
deed their role is limited, for if they
learn Of an accident or an afTair u Of
the common run they must telephone
the fact to their papers, from whence
the chief sends as o o as possible one
or two staff reporters, but if the late
ness Of the hour or the gravity Of the
event i~ustifies such an initiative, the
titular of the "chiens creves' becomes
somebody. In this case, if he is clever,
he can render his journal special service
by avoiding q beat" and he will be
well recompensed. This is why, over at
the Cafe du Cog dor, consumers some
times hear a young man at a nelghbor-
ing table shout gleefully to his com
rades, AT last / have my first crime!"
and the comrades press his hand and
congratulate him warmly.
Perhaps he is promoted to the dignity
of ''enqueteur," or interviewer. Now
he receives a retaining salary of $50 to
$50 a month and is paid extra for all
the lines he writes, S that he usually
earns $50 to $50 weekly. He must give
his definite measure, however, and show
if he really has the gift of the profes-
sion, for after two OF 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 profes-
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
c~learness of ideas and a remarkable
power Of assimilation. The reporter
may know nothing, but he must be
quick at understanding everything. 1t
is necessary that, aquestion being given.
he should know in g few instants who
is the person in Paris the most probable
to solve it. He must go to see this per
son or some one else equally informed,
and in 20 phrases Of an interview gather
a clear, net and precise resume Of the
responses to make. He must also have
! the scent Of a detective and above al
love for his profession.
know a Paris reporter who was sen,
out to write about the doings Of a for
eign sovereign then at q French water
ing place. Hcwent to the chateau where
the monarch was stopping, bat was po-
litely kicked out BY the grand chamber
lain. "We telegraph daily, the latter
said, news relative to his majesty t
our national papers. You can take from
them for your columns" This did not
satisfy my confrere. he had been sent
at much expense On this special work.
and it would never do for him to dc
nothing during his %sojourn. A brilliant
idea struck him. He had got acquainted
with an old man who had formerly been
employed il TIE biography department
of the army. So he said to the ex-lieu-
tenant, would you be capable Of writ
ing out the value of the letters trans
n,iffol nv tho f5orco c-c+on, b- ciy,rI-
hearing the tic,1tack Of the instrument"
"Parbleu, that is only the infancy Of
business, answered the other. well,
sir, will give you a louis every morn
ing if you will come and pass a quarter
of an hour at the postoffce."
The next day, at the hour when the
dispatches from the chateau arrived.
those two men were very busy in the
Office over an imaginary correspondence,
but as sooa as 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. He
Immediately translated them, and the
official dispatch was scarcely eff when
he sent the same thing in French to his
Paris paper. The telegraph employees
naturally supposed hat this literal
translation was given to its sender BY
one Of the sovereign's household. while,
IS for the royal guest and his grand
chamberlain, they had the pleasure Of
reading in the Paris journal details con-
corning themselves long before their
national papers arrived.
When a reporter has in analogous cir
cumstances shown the of his
Wind bo popor,11r obtains n Gvo1 colorv