Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-12-12

Gladstone Will Have a Long Obit-
uary.
i You must not suppose that the obit-
uary is written in the newspaper office
when the news Of the death Of some
public parsonage arrives. All the big
daily papers have obituaries of every
nan and woman of distinction who
are advanced in years pigeonholed, or
in pickle" as the phrase goes in
journalistic circles. Some Of these
obituaries are brief; others extend to
three or four or five columns, accord
ing to the relative Importance Of the
subject; but they are all at the editors
hand, ready for publication at any mo-
ment, and he is thus enabled to give
a sketch, columns long. of the career
of a public man, a few hours, in some
instances, after that career had closed
, forever.
The average newspaper reader will
read with greater interest and more
| at length the obituary Of public
man who is suddenly cut off, than the
obituary Of one who has had a long
illness, and for whose death the pub
: lie is prepared. But, of course, it is OF
the latter that the best obituary is
published. When a public man be-
comes seriously i'll, his obituary is
taken from the pigeonhole, carefully
gone over, freshened and frightened
tn loft hU
ton of the more recent events of his
career, says a writer in Chambers
Journal. Of that phase of Journalism
we have had some illustrations within
the past few years in the excellent
obituaries which were published of
] Lord Tennyson, Professor Tyndal DR..
! Oliver Wendell Holmes and J. A.
! Froude, all of whom had a long strug
gle with death before they finally sue
! cumbed.
There are many obituaries pigeon
hOled in newspaper offices the writer's
of which will never see them in print,
/ for they themselves have died before
the subjects of their biographical es
says. A curious instance of this is al
forded by the case of the Times obit
uary of Earl Russell DIETER known as
Lord John Russell'D, who died in
1878, at the ripe old age of Sc years,
sixty-fve of which were spent in pub
| lie life. The obituary was written
twenty years before the earl's death.
1t was added to as time went on; but
strange fata1ty!-every one of it's
contributors died before the subject
himself. In the end, Notwithstanding
the general freedom from superstition
Of journalists, no one could be got to
touch the biography until the time
came for it's publication.
! To take another instance: There is
not a daily newspaper in the kingdom
that has not had in readiness for
years an obituary notice of Mr. Glad
stone. Twenty years ago. in 1875, the
aged statesman wrote to Lord Gran
vile resigning the leadership of the
liberal party, as, he said, he was too
old for public affairs and it was time
for him to turn his thoughts to the
other world. But, as every one knows,
he came back to public life after a few
years of retirement, and since then
has made more history than in the
previous forty years of his public ca
reer. When he goes what excitement
and confusion the event will create in
the newspaper offices of the kingdom
J. NJ. Barry, in his entertaining
story of newspaper life When a Mans
Single, tells us that the foreman
printer and the sub-editor of the Sill
chester Daily Mirror often talked with
bated breath of the amount of copy
that would come in should anything
happen to Mr.. Gladstone "The sub
editor, if he was in. respondent mood,
predicted" writes Mr. Barry facetious.
1y, that it would occur at midnight
Thinking of this had made him a con-
sentative"
Such an event occurring late at
night would completely upset the in
ternal economy of every newspaper
office in the country. At midnight the
next mornings paper is practically all
in type; and should the prophecy
which the sub-editor of the Mirror in
dulged in when in a respondent mood
come true, from five to ten columns of
the matter in type would have to be
discarded for the account of Mr.. Glad
stones long and eminent career
The dangerous illness of the prince
Of Wales, in December, 1871, was the
cause of events curious and amusing
which will ever find a place in the
history of British journalism. The
death of the prince seemed inevitable,
for the doctor had begun to despair.
One day the announcement went forth
that his royal highness could not sur
vive many hours, and accordingly
every daily paper in the city had its
obituary of the prince ''set" or put into
type But the expected telegram an
nouncing the death never came, and
so at midnight, when the hour for go
ing to press was close at hand, many a
newspaper editor who had relied on
= his biographical sketch of the prince
filing six or eight columns of his pa
per was compelled to fill up tie blank
. columns with standing" matter of al
= kinds, such as old advertisements and
, cider news. The principal newspaper
. editors subsequently sent the prince
: at his own request, proofs" OF the
obituaries; and pasted in a bulky
scrapbook, they now form one of the