The record-union., 1898-02-07

some features of American journalism
are, the general respect for reporter
over there is such that never once, even
when l have had such a disagreeable
assignment as going to q house where
father or husband, son or brother, lay
dead, in order to get up facts for an
obituary, have 1 ever been received
with anything except the greatest cour-
tesy and given the information 1 want
ed. The average for courtesy, certain
ly for polish, is higher here than it is
there, but an Englishman can never
get it out of his head that an interview
er is an intruder. He has not been
educated up to the fact that his bust
ness is also other peoples business. 1t
takes more tact and diplomacy to find
out from an Englishman the merest
detail of everyday life than it would
to make good friends of France and
Germany.
To interview a man on anything ex
cept something he wants to get into
the paper as puff is an art. You
try to make a good first impression on
your victim, then endeavor to give him
an idea that it would be no harm to
anybody and great favor to you if
he would tell about a few unimportant
little facts OF course, this is only the
A B of the science. Sometimes a
man too artful to be easily caught is
surprised into telling all he knows by
bluff of knowing all about it any
way; or by telling him that some out
rageous canard floating about is what
you are going to print the following
day, if he cannot aid you by showing
how false it is.
Almost any Englishman of any i'm
portance that have ever talked with
has punctured his conversation with
We'll, 1 really can't see how that would
be of any interest to the public" THAT
would rather be going on private
ground, would it not?" Now can tell
you just where to find that. 1t was
printed in the Times last February a
year ago, or, let me see, wasn't it two
years ago." Then Englishmen are as
yet so little accustomed to seeing Them
selves interviewed, or so punctilious
| over the matter of comma or so,
sometimes so Mortified that they have
been saying more than they had any in
| tention of (things do look so different
| in type that they generally write let
that the interview as published is a
tissue of falsehoods," and unless an
| apology is at once published he will
hear from the interviewed mans solic-
| tor. l once interviewed a woman
who claimed she was the daughter of
| the Hon Mrs -, and was robbed. The
next day her husband demanded pub
| lie retraction-which was not given
1 h. IF
the Hon. Mrs. was turned out of the
hotel for not paying her bill and for be-
| ing common swindler.
| POLICE AND REPORTERS.
| Outside of a large and varied ac-
quaintance, the police and detectives
are the New York reporters strong suit.
Journalism here allows a huge mass of
| the most interesting and exciting stories
to filter through Scotland Yard without
any man getting hint of them. Out
side of the known robberies and muir
| ders like the Camp case, 1t would be in
| teresting to know how many crimes
| this intelligent department has sue
/ ceeded not only in not Furnishing, but
| in even hiding entirely from the public.
| / have spent time, money and pa
/ thence enough in trying to get a little
| information out of Scotland Yard to
move a little world if applied in more
wisely chosen direction, but the most
ever got was to be saved from follow
| ing wrong scent by some particularly
| friendly officer telling me mo, l do not
believe there is anything in that" In
| New York the police are sometimes. SO
/ frank with their information that the
reporters frequently take the business
| Of discovering the criminal over into
their own hands with eminent success.
| Undoubtedly this method sometimes de-
feats the ends Of justice, but for one
bad trick it plays it performs twenty
a hundred miracles. How many years
would IL take the smartest detective TO
make the inquiries a newspaper makes
every morning and in far better, more
| discreet way?
| 1t is almost a certainty that if the
Camp murder case had been reported
as fully the morning after it was COM
mitted as il was the next day the GRIM
inal would have been promptly discov-
cred. The police We're so successful in
| hiding the details of this crime that the
morning papers had only meager para
graphs where they should have had
| columns and the murderer had hours
more time to cover up his movements,
get rid of the evidences Of the deed,
and make his escape.
The District Attorney of New York
| County has this TO say over the con-
viction of Martin Thorn for the muir
der of William Guldensuppe: "Of course
every one recognizes the splendid work
done by the Journal in accomplishing
this result, and / do not hesitate to ac-
| knowledge anew the assistance which
it rendered me in fixing the guilt after
it had already pointed out to the
police authorities the perpetrators of
the murder 1t was a remarka bic jour
nalistie achievement which will long be
| remembered" In an even more re-
markable and mysterious crime than
that of the murder of Guldensuppe, two
reporters of a New York paper not only
| detected. but held their revolvers On
the murderer until the police could be
summoned TO arrest him.
Another great difficulty, for an Amer
lean reporter in England, is the Post
office Directory i have sat up nights
over this thing, and after nearly two
years of consa ant application confess
that It's charms as an ingenious and
unsolvable puzzle are greater than
ever The office boys and the editor
are generally required when I am try
ing to find an address. Finding a
mans home, so as to ring him up at a
late hour of the night and get his views
on some South African or Turkish move
that has just been made, is impossible
here, as only the house addresses Of the
few who figure in court are given
-.