Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-04-28
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
How Metropolitan Journals Hus-
tie for Wall Street News.
The Boom In stock Trading Has Made
the Gathering of Financial IntcIIi-
Eence n Department by UseIf-A
Detail or Two.

the Gathering of Financial InteIIi-
Eence n Department by ItaeIf-A
Detail or Two.
NEW YORK April 27.-[Special One
of the most interesting features of the cur
rent activity in Wall street is the unprece-
dcnted attention which the newspapers
have been obliged to give to Wall street
news ever since the boom began some
months ago. There was time when one
man, or at most two, could furnish nearly
any one of New York's newspapers with
all the news thought worth printing about
the street. Today it requires nothing less
than n well organized staff of trained
newspaper workers to put such news into
printable shape every "a hours. The Even
ing Post, for instance, is obliged to keep
six men at work on nothing save Wall
street news and the six do not include the
messengers, the extra compositors, the
railroad reporters, the bank reporters or
the city men who are almost daily detached
temporarily from ordinary news reporting
to help gather information for the financial
department.
Probably no other newspaper Office in
New York, outside those of The Sun,
World, Herald and journal, which print
both morning and evening editions, en-
ploys as many doing strictly Wall street
news as The Post. But, all told, not in
Guiding the correspondents for the London
papers and the interior papers of the Unit
ed States, there are at least 90 or 60 men
hustling every day for the newspapers in
Wall street Probably ms many more
financial newsgatherers, moreover are
employed by the Wall street agencies, be-
sides very respectable force kept busy
ont tut hn Ex
change floor for the tickers.
Wall street Newspaper Offices.
In the old days the financial editors of
the various papers either did not have
offices in the Wall street district at all or
were content with desk room accorded in
brokers Offices generally by courtesy.
Now every newspaper, with probably not
an exception, has its own rented Office in
the heart of the financial district. In these
offices Mt some time every day, generally
when the activities of the street are great
est, you will find the men who serve the
journals of New York city as financial edi-
tors.
Each of their offices is completely out
fitted with desks chairs, tickers and all
| facilities for getting up the current fnan-
cial news The Wall street reporters, prop
erly speaking, turn in their copy mt these
offices. Some Of them indeed never go To
the main offices of the papers at all except
| once IA week to draw their pay, and If they
| did would be strangers to the workers and
| editors in the other departments. Wall
| street reporters are naturally selected be-
| cause they possess special qualifications
differing somewhat from those required
| in the reporter of miscellaneous news.
| The latter must have general knowledge
nj al rfC Of t 10 bT
| Is who in the world Of finance, of course,
| but he must also be well posted concern
| ing the personality of men prominent in
| politics, in general business, in official cir
Giles, and the like. Above all, he must be
| able to write picturesque story, and his
value. other things being equal, is more
| dependent upon this qualification than
| anything else
1t is different with the Wall street re-
| porter. He must not be posted i'm the
financial world merely; he must know it
| through and through He must have the
character and history Of every stock prom
inent and otherwise, at his tongue : end,
or rather, at the end of his fingers. He
| must be quick at figures; he must under
stand what news sources are thoroughly
trustworthy and what are likely TO be col
ored one way or the other, and he must he
|
| picturesque. His copy must be cold col
orless matter Of fact and, above all, accu-
rate The day he begins to inject effective
bits of word painting into his reports that
day is likely to he the beginning of the
| end of his usefulness as a Wall street news
| gatherer. Intimate knowledge of general
news matters is not at all essential. For
| these reasons the Wall street reporter Is
more likely to be selected from stock
broker Office than from the "city room, ~
though there is no rule in this any more
than in anything else pertaining to jour
nalism.
New school Wall street writer's.
The financial editor Is, of course, the
head of every Wall street staff. Fontane
of The World, Alloway of The Times.
| Armstrong of The sun, Moves of The
| Post, Hamilton of The Herald, Jack son
of The Mail and Express Moore of The
Tribune and the rest Of them are as
autocratic in their departments from day
to day as the managing editors are with
| regard to general news or the sporting
editors with regard TO intelligence from
the ball field, the race track, the golf links
and so on.
Most of tho financial editors Of New
York are exceedingly bright and clever
subordinates can deal in fetching phrases
or resort TO alterations artful aid or use
any of the other tricks of the trade in
order to produce "a good story" yet each
must be master hand at corralling the
news as it flies and putting it down in
clear, concise and direct English. A few
years ago the Wall street reports and the
Wall street reviews were about as per-
functory pieces of writing as a rule ms
could anywhere be found, but such writ
ing has no place today in the financial
columns of most New York papers
THE market opened with an upward
Tor downward trend, selling being active
Tor sluggish) for the first hour" and so
on. This is fair sample of what l mean
by the old style, and it used to go, but TO.
day it doesn't suit at all, and for this rca-
son a livelier lot of men are now engaged
in financial journalism than ever before
men who are able to get out of the rut Of
routine expression and avoid the perfectly
obvious in their work.
Foreign Demand For Wall Street
News.
A feature Of the situation with regard
to Wall street news is the unprecedented
demand from abroad for daily reports.
One of the best known financial editors
of the town told Inc this morning that he
had recently been obliged to turn down
three several requests for daily cable re.
ports, and he added that he knew of sew
I