The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-01-28
NOTES OF AN INTERvIEWER
Row Ingerson, Rev. DR.. Hall, Governor
Mckinley and Others Meet Reporters.
rSr1ecial C.,TreSno1daroa


living by the practice of interviewing
that the greater the man the more easily
and gracefully will he submit to ques-
tions from an interviewer. One of the
pleasantest interviews I ever engineered
was with Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll.
I was not at all certain he would be
willing to answer the questions desired
to put to him, but did feel reasonably
sure that if he concluded to answer
them at all he would be better pleased
if his words were taken down in short
hand than if they were reported from
memory or longhand notes. According
~, when went to his Office in this city,
took with me a shorthand reporter. I
found the colonel up to his ears in work,
as had expected, and, as had feared,
he hesitated a little about talking on
the subjects I asked about.
4 do not object, % he said finally, ''to
answering your questions if you feel GER
tain the public would be interested in
what may say. but am in great haste
and want to be perfectly sure that am
reported with absolute accuracy. Do you
write shorthand?''
Then l called in my shorthand report
er, who had been waiting in the outer
Office. Colonel Ingersoll talked for 10
minutes, and his words made a good
column when written out.
General Nelson S. Miles, the hero of
the Pine Ridge and other notable Indian
campaigns, is not an unpleasant man to
the interviewer. In his manner General
Miles in inclined to be abrupt, and the
stranger might even think him gruff,
~. L. L.
gree Of frankness and directness which
tend to make him one of the most salts
factory men to interview it has ever
been my luck to meet.
Rev. DR.. John Hall. pastor of the Fifth
Avenue Presbyterian church of New
York, knows how to decline an inter
view without being discourteous as well
as any man ever saw. I have called to
interview him four or five times. The
first time he listened to my inquiries
with grave courtesy, and then slowly
shook his head.
my friend, - he said, ''you will have
to excuse me from answering these
queries of yours. In the first place, l
know nothing about the matters they
involve, and, in the second place, / am
not sure that if I did | would wish to
make my views upon them public, but
I am always ready to talk to the press
whenever have anything really worth
saying, and I should be glad to see you
at any time" 1t was perhaps fort
night later when I again called. This
time the subject upon which I wished
to interview him was not uncongenial.
We had long and delightful informal
conversation about it, and there We're no
restrictions as to the doctors words be-
ing printed.
Thoroughly cordial in his manner to-
ward newspaper men is the Hon. De-
! witt @. Cregier, ex-mayor Of Chicago
and now superintendent of Uncle Sam S
Indian warehouse in that city.
Mr.. Cregier, though advanced in
years, has all the sprightliness of man
of 20 or 80, and he answers questions
with directness and quickness quite
unusual His life has been an eventful
one. He was born in New York so long
/ ago that the city had not more than
$50, 900 inhabitants, if as many as that.
He left the town when it had 800, 600,
and for some two or three years after
ward passed his time in the interior of
the Empire State. He built the first two
| steam boats that ever piled the waters of
! Oneida lake, and after they had been
safely launched transferred his activi-
ties to Chicago, where he constructed
the first waterworks of the city. He
likes to talk about this, and I don't
blame him, for the stories of his strug-
| giles and successes are highly interest
/ ing.
Governor Mckinley of Ohio is pleas
ant man to interview, whether he de-
cides to tell yon anything or not. Since
he has been made governor he has stud
ied-more closely than ever before, !
am told-how to read men, and who
ever calls upon him, whether an inter-
viewer, an Office seeker, politician or
what not, is sure to be impressed by the
strong, steady gaze of the gubernatorial
eye straight into his own. For a moment
or two the governor will converse upon
the weather perhaps, eying his caller
all the time. AS soon, however, as he
has made up his mind as to the charao-
ter of the visitor Major Mckinley goes
straight at the business in hand.
Samuel Gompers, for many years presi-
dent of the American Federation Of
Labor and now ex president, though
with excellent prospects of again becom-
ing an incumbent of the Office, never
turns away reporter discourteously, no
matter how busy he may be. He likes
to consider his answers well, however,
and sometimes requests the interviewer
to call later. When he is ready to be
pumped, Mr.. Gompers' face takes on a
thoughtful look, and he speaks with
great deliberation.
| John R11rDs Nj p London oonntv
councilman and British labor leader,
who lately left these shores for his ma
tive England. after inspecting and criti-
eising America for several weeks, was
subject to an enormous number of inter
views here. called upon him at his no.
tel in New York, and we talked for
about two hours. At first he seemed re-
luctant to consent to be interviewed,