The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1894-06-30
PARIS REPORTERS.
TO BE SUCCESSFUL THEY MUST BE
BOEN WITH THE TALENT.

What Is Expected of Them end How Their
Work Is Gradsd-Wlsy cfo1a Of Them Are
Old ATen---One Teportor's Experience IL
Securing Important information.
When tho "ohief of the service Of in.
fornations' consents to annex q de-
butante, his aptitudcs are first utilized
in the department DIES chiens crevos.
This is the professional slang for pick
ing up such items at tho police stations
as arc not sent in to tho prefecture. For
this work he will be paid or 8 cen
times line for those inserted, on the
average about one in twenty Of what he
hands in. These modest auxiliaries have
only exceptionally the perspective Of
power to make themselves noted. In
deed their role is limited, for if they
learn Of an accident or an affair out of
tho common run they must telephone
tho fact to their papers, from whence
the chief cends as soon as possible one
or two staff reporters, but il the late
ness of tho hour or the gravity of the
event justifles such an initiative, the
titular Of tho "chiens creves" becomes
somebody. In this case, il he is clever,
he can render his journal special service
by avoiding "beat," and he will be
we'll recompensed. This is why, over at
tho Cafe du Cog dor, consumers some
times hear young man at o neighbor-
ing table shout gleefully to his COM
rades, cat last I have my first crimeV
and the comrades press his hand and
congratulate him warmly.
Perhaps he is promoted to the dignity
of "enqueteur, or interviewer. Now
he receives retaining salary Of $50 to
$50 month and is paid extra for all
the lines he writes SO that he usually
earns $25 60 $50 weekly He must give
his definite measure, however, and show
if he really has the gift of the profess
sion, for after two or three failures he
would be thanked and have his head
cut off. OF the 100 reporters who each
year spring up on the Partisan press
eight or ton 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 o remarkable
power Of assimilation. The reporter
may know nothing, but he must be
quick at understanding everything. 1t
is necessary that, question being given,
he should know in a few instants who
is tho person in Paris the most probable
to solve it. He must go to see this per-
son or some ono else equally informed,
and in 90 phrases Of an interview gather
clear, net and precise resume of the
responses to make. He must also have
tho scent Of O detective and above all
lovo for his profession.
I know Paris reporter who was sent
out to write about the doings Of a for
eign sovereign then at French water
ing place. He went to tho chateau where
tho monarch was stopping, but was po-
litely kicked ont by the grand chamber
lain. "We telegraph daily" the latter
said, "news relative to his majesty to
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 do
nothing during his sojourn. A brilliant
idea struck him. He had got acquainted
with an old man who had formerly been
employed in the 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
mitted by the Morse system by simply
hearing the ticktack of the instrument"
"Parbleu, that is only the infancy Of
business, - answered the other. "Well,
sir, will give you louis every morn
ing if you will come and pass q quarter
of an hour at tho postoffice.
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 soon as the Morse instrument be-
gan to tick tho old man inscribed on
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 off when
he sent the same thing in French to his
Paris paper. The telegraph employees
naturally supposed that this literal
translation wassgiven to its sender by
one Of the sovereign's household, while,
as 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 reporter has in analogous cir
cumstanoes shown the resources of his
mind, he generally obtains a fixed salary
which assures him revenue independ-
emit 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 excep-
tional that he gains more than 5000 a
month. Moreover, the fatigue is such
and the nervous tension so constant that
the employment cannot be filed 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. They have
shown that they can do reporting other
wise than with their legs, and then they
know the honor of the first page and the
joys of signatures. am glad to add
that generally these "articliers,." what
ever their rank or employment, preserve