The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-01-23
WAX UuRRE sPU DENTS.


American aGctlfous C~ontrasscd with
sk'fAose u
Cleveland Motfett. a well-Known Amer
lean journalist, has a very interesting
article III the illustrated American" on
TIL failure of the American WA Cor-
respondent"
The reasons assigned by him for the
lack OF direct cable news from the scene
of war are twofold. First, the parsimony
of the American publishers, and second,
the fact that they have no experienced
war correspondents in their employ. He
says:
The American war correspondent is
merely an American reporter assigned
to cover a war! The American reporter
is the victim of the most heartless, en-
acting, crushing system in the world.
Twelve or fifteen hours of nauseating
work a day for six, often sever days a
week, leaves no time and soon kills the
taste for home life, for culture or for
self-improvement.
"A war correspondent should be a we'll
read man, especially in history and the
political sciences: but American newspa-
per men read little save their own arti-
cles. They have never been taught to
\ write, or rather they have been taught
all too we'll to write badly. How shall a
maj describe a battle or a sea fight in
stirring words, when for years he has
been made to understand that the use of
stirring words is a crime.
ITO his surprise he finds that the pa
per he represents, let it be even the New
York Herald or the New York World
is by no means a great name to conjure
with, He discovers that other Amer
lean correspondents have been on the
ground before him., without. always
smoothing the way. The fact IS, Amer
out Europe as a queer lot, and often
with reason. To add to his embarrass-
ment, the supply of money allowed the
newcomer for expenses is often alto
gether inadequate to his needs. know
several cases where New York Herald
men were sent to Vienna, Berlin or Rome
on a salary of $40 a week, n instruc-
lions that neither cabs nor an allowance
for entertainment would be allowed.
| They were expected to cable important
news, state secrets, beats on the whole
world, the procuring Of which threw
whose courtesies they were literally I'M
able to return. It is hard to invite a man
| to a cheap table d'hote dinner, when the
night before he dined and wined you like
a gentleman
And OF. the method of ~despatching a
nsapad to It the S,m seat NOT of M War apd sa what Is ex-
THE first lesson an American reporter
learns is to distrust h moves him
| Whatever strikes nlIn as DGaGttlQl II
gle. In course Of TING there forms
about him an armor of fippancy and in
difference. protecting him in a measure
| ten spelling him for high achievement.
"All great war correspondents have
been men Of t~remepdosYs ranpastness IKE IKE
were themselves moved by the horrors
they witnessed, and SO We're able to move
In contrast with the English CORE
| spondents who nave had years of train
ing in their special line and who are given
| ample allowances for expenses, he pre-
| sents the position of the American CORE
spondent abroad:
H has scant knowledge of the coun,
can claim little in the way of influential
consul, VIC is so oa9N glad to to See him
Suppose something of unusual impor-
lance has happened in one of the Euro
pean countries where the Lyndon press
Some New York paper, wish
ing to dazzle its readers eH md
respondent on the spot, which means
sending him from New. York. This de-
| cision is usually reached in a great
hurry; and on that same evening one. of
the reporters. on coming in from writing
up a scandal, a hanging or a bicycle
r rasee neoI him m to ont take the first steamer
once, say to Bucharest, and cable stories
| ABOUT the ROunndnAaH. cTlSlS- s@.
AFTER travelling night and day the
American correspondent finally reaches
bucharest, usually arriving in the very
thick of the crisis, the business office
policy delaying his departure until the
last moment so as to avoid risking the
mans expenses, unless trouble is abso-
lutely certain.
1.-THE chances are that the correspond
ent, on reaching his hotel. will find two
or three savage cablegrams from his man
aging editor, wanting to know why he
has sent nothing. and calling for an i'm
mediate cable containing a detailed SEN
s~ational account of the situation, with
duced trouble and a prophecy as to the
probable outcome.
This order is imperative. and the I'M
fortunate correspondent promptly sends
for writing materials and cocktails and
proceeds to execute it. less disconnected
than might be imagined.