Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-08-05
Itzig: "A Reporters Boy"


Some Of the best reporters cannot
write sentence correctly. They are
not expected to do so. II Is their
business to collect facts, which they
relate to others who put them in form
as a"news story"
Something is lost, OF course, by this
method Of secondhand telling, for the
writer cannot reproduce n scene from
imagination so well as he could IL he
had seen il, but the assistants, or ''re-
porter's boys" as they are called, are
not sent out alone on any incident
that promises much importance. Their
work is the small news Of the day,
which il intended only for short para
graphs. That their results are often
interesting enough for long accounts
is due, in part, to accident; in part,
however, to the industry and the un-
Outstanding developed by long train
ing Of native intelligence.
Isaac Hofstein, or Itzig, rs he was
called for short, was such an assistant
He was q child of the East Side tene.
ments, and his work, at police head
quarters, was chiefly among the jews
of the New York Ghetto. Shrewd
and accurate, he was always to be
trusted to fetch all the facts and TO
state them correctly. None of the
other boys could "beat" him, and none
was so accurate as Itzig, who never
failed to get names and addresses, and
never get them wrong.
This devotion to completeness and
accuracy made his accounts sometimes
a bore, for he brought in details that
were OF no use, but it was an invalu-
able trait, Of course, and very rare,
except among frst-rate men Of all
sorts. His work was libel.proof, and
mother paper could go over his inves-
tigation and addnc particulars TO his
story. When he came back he was
done; and he would sit down with his
notes and tell all about the fire, acct
dent or crime, with swift ease and un-
hesitating assurance.
One day, however, there was an ex-
ception. He had been to q fire. To
cover so commonplace IN incident was
child's play for him, and something he
liked, because lie reioiced in descrip-
ton and the heroic. II was a never
failing pleasure to him to discover and
celebrate bold rescue by police
man, fireman or a neighbor.
"Say, it was greatp he used TO say,
when he came to tell about such q
deed. civilian J. McGlory, number
four truck, twenty-eight years old,
No. IL Cannon street, he" then, lay
ing down his notes, ItZig wouldrepro-
duce with gestures, grimaces and lau-
guage, often slGngy, vivid picture.
The picturesque details were always
as complete as the names, initials,
addresses, etc.
But OH this day, while several repor-
tiers were waiting for his fire story, he
was shutting and hesitating over
fire. His sense of ''the great" was
evidently struggling with some other
feeling or observation, and it was inn
possible TO make out what was the
matter.
1T wasn't much, only two-alarm
fire, and il didn't do no damage to
speak Of" he said. "Twasn't in q
good neighborhool, either--just q
tenement house, No. 10 Essex street,
fve.story, red brick, full of families
with kids, kids by the hundreds,
eighty.seven. But you see there was
q panic and a--somebody had to
you know how il is when the geese
the East Side Jews--get scare trun
into 'eml Just describe top.noor
families out by way Of the roof to the
next house, third and fourth cooped
up in halls, some of 'em rushing to
the fire-escapes, others too askeered to
move, just shriekin' and 'rending their
garments, as the Bible says.
across the street." he hurried on.
s'the other Notices" another slang
word for East Side Jews" out on
Hre-escapes, with their hands aud
faces raised to the sky, crying, Ell
wei, eli weir You know how il is.
You can describe II an I'll give you
the names. But the tremen were late,
on account of no one knowing how to
ring in an alarm. Samuel Bernstein.
forty-two years old, No. l6 Essex, next
door 10 the fire, tried il first, then"
"0h, come to the pointr' inter.
rupted. "What about it?"
''well, there was fire rescue. II
wasn't very hard, either. You see"
ssGive us the name Of the rescurer,
while you're about IL.