The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-16
SOME WARM WEATHER YARNS
IN REGARD TO THE DOINGS OF
SEVERAL LEADING PUBLIC
CHARACTERS.
AN EXPERIENCE IN NEW ENGLAND
Senator Jones, of Arkansas, Tells a
Very Good Story About Cir
cumstantiaI Evidence.
Special Correspondence of the Globe.


seeing a number of statesmen in the
undress of summer, and can bear wit
ness that no man relaxes so thorough
ly as congressman who has just fin
ished off a job of tariff making. Most
OF the New England congressman are
men OF some means. Ind they have no
actlVe occupation but lawmaking.
speaker Reed tells me he has not prac-
uced law in many years. Senator
Lodge told me at his home in Nahant
that he found time for only the most
fragmentary literary work. Congress-
man Dingley looks after his newspa r5er
IN Lewiston when he is at home but It
is IN good hands and runs along as well
without him. Senator Hale. if he docs
not go to Europe. spends his time at
roland springs resting after his ardu-
oHs laoors at Washington Senator
RYE visits his camp on the RangeIey
lakes In the fishing and hunting sea-
sons, and spends the warmer weather
at Squirrel island on the coast. Sena-
tor Chandler is the most active of the
new England statesmen He spends
the summer months writing red-hot no.
Htical editorials for his paper at Con-
cord. Senator Morrill, spends the sum-
mer quietly at his old home in Strait
ford.
AN INTERVIEWER'S TROUBLES.
Two years ago I made a like trip
through New England I was on an
Interviewing tour then, and had some
experiences 1 shall not forget Most Of
them were agreeable, and none was
pleasanter than an afternoon I spent
with Speaker Reed driving about Port
land. Mr.. Reed was not intervieWable.
partly because he was a candidate for
the presidency and partly because he
nnds 1t profitable to put his thoughts
on paper and sell them at the rate of
about 10 cents a word Mr.. Reed. by
the way, may be financially sound in
this, but politically I think he makes
a mistake. His writings do not add
much to his reputation, while in con-
Versation or short range debate no one
displays keener wit or a more ready
tongue.
In the course Of my journey through
New England I called on a public man
I won't say what his title is-and
interviewed him. He knew he was
being interviewed because I told him
so specifically and offered to submit the
manuscript to him for revision. AS
he Is VIGOROUSLY inf1ammatory and in
cautious in conversation, 1 edited what
ne had said before using it. One phrase
was left in unwisely, and it threatened
the public man with trouble. so he
wrote to me sometime afterward, de-
ny1ng the accuracy of the interview.
replied, quoting unpublished things
ne had said to corrObOrate the accuracy
of the public phrase, but he answered.
again denying 1t, and there, so far as
knew, the matter rested. Eight or
nine months later I met a man who
knew the statesman. He referred to
the story and said Blank tells me he
never even saw you; that the interview
was made up from beginning to end. .
replied that his friend must have
been Joking, as I spent an entire even
ing in his library talking with him.
very recently l met one Of our for
e1gn ministers, recently appointed from
the public mans state. He, too, re-
ferred to the interview and said some
thing about wicked newspaper men.
why. Blank tells me-" said he, that
he did not have a word with you:
that you passed him in a boat some
where, and he merely nodded to YOU -
There was only one reply to be made
to that. I said that Blank was a
liar. Perhaps Blank meant both these
statements in pleasantly, but they
were lies and calculated to damage
the reputation of another man; so thew
were open to criticism as we'll as cor
rection.
RESULT OF AN AFTERTHOUGHT
1 had an amusing experience of the
same nature with the general of the
army just before he started for Europe
to view the war which had ended be
lore he sailed. Gen. Miles is a very
pleasant man to meet, and he Is ex
tremely obliging to newspaper CORE
spondents when they want his views
on military matters. He is an agreea
Die man to interview, partly for this
reason and partly because he ALWAYS
has something to say which is worth
publishing. One day not long before
he went to Europe I called by apDofnt
ment and had an interview with him
1t was so brief and there was so much
packed into it that I asked him if he
would like to see proof of the mat
Ter ana revise 1t before publication.
He SAID he would, so when the matter
was In type 1 sent a copy Of 1t to him
ana the bearer Of the proof stood by
the generals desk while he went over
II. He made only some unimportant
verbal changes in it and handed IT
pack with his approval.
NOW in this interview, remembering
W
namlte gun in Cuba, asked him If he
thought the dynamite gun was to be
FACTOR In the next great war, and he
replied that it had been tested unsuc
ceSSfully by the war department and
that 1T had been failure in Cuba. so
that he did not consider it a serious
possibility among the factors of the
next great conflict. When this state
ment' was published, 1t attracted the
attent1on OF the makers of the dynamite
gun, and they called the general to &C
count: l suppose, for there appeared
In a New York paper, the day after
the general sailed for Europe, an
authorized statement from him
which said, not that he had made a
mistake in speaking Of the test Of the
dynamite gun, but that he had been
misquoted by the interviewer.
These are characteristic experiences.
Newspaper tnterviewers are not infal-
hble, neither are military men nor
lawmakers, and 1t happens frequently,
probably in the experience or knowl-
edge OF every public man, that the in
terviews which are denied by public
men are accurate and that the public
men are lying about them. know of
one case where man gave a prepared
interview to the correspondent of a
Western newspaper at Washington.
with the request that it be published
This man was q member of the house
Some one called him to account on the
floor Of the house for something he
had said in the interview, and the man
fatty repudiated the remarks In do
ing so he branded the CORRESPONDENCE
who had sent out the interview as
liar. AS soon as the house had adj
Journed this man went to the office of
the newspaper correspondent and