The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-15
INTERVIEWING FAMOUS MEN
THE PRESIDENT IS. NEVER IN
 TERVIEWED
For PabIIeatfon-HOw Speaker Hen-
 derson was Captured.

ScIhlCS COIilIHlSSIoEeF, pOIlce cOIllillS- sioner, lieutenant-colonel of rough riders governor of the state he was born in, and so on, he was generally very approachable by the reporter al- ways providing he wasn't too busy.
 A reporter who went to see him one day at police headquarters in New York had a rather curious experience. MT. Roosevelt was out when the reporters card was sent in. It was nearly an hour before the commissioner returned. By that time 20 or more persons were waiting, Then a stir at the door made them all sit up and take notice, and Roosevelt rushed through the ante room like a dark-brown streak to the door of his office, scattering his visitors right and left, and shutting the door behind him with a slam. The reporter was the first caller and entitled to pre- cedence, but he preferred to wait and 1t was nearly another hour before he had his audience.
 Russell Sage has never been a hard man to interview when he wanted to let the public know what he thinks about something, but. otherwise you might as well seek information from a stone. In Tact, Mir. Sage will not be seen at all in such an instance, and it is useless to try to convince the clerk who poked his head out of the little barred window in the thin partition that shuts in the the thin partition that shuts in thecap- italist's office. Sometimes MT. Sage has been known to invite an interview by causing the insertion of little five or 10-line item in the newspapers.
 Cht1i cia printed, saying that Sage was about to lend his backing to a man who had a spectacular, but not wholly successful career in the world of railroad finance. The statement seemed so preposterous, though, that the reporters were not sent to Sage's office. A correspondent of an out-of-town paper, however, short of material for his daily dispatches, went to Mr. Sages office, and, showing the little item to the clerk at the window, was admitted without ceremony. MT Sage seemed pleased, and the corre- spondent got creditable scoop" on all the New York papers. Sage didn't verify the item explicitly, but what he said amounted to the same thing. MT. Sage has always been more than will ing to talk about his horses, of which he is very fond, and more than one re- porter anxious to get his views on current financial topic, has gained ad- nlittance to his private office by asking for some information about these pets. He is always ready also to talk of the methods by which success in life may be attained, and when he does his talk < is always hopeful. He thinks the < struggling young man of to-day has just as good a chance to win as the K young man who started out early in tEe last century, and is full of anecdotes and Incidents to prove that he is right.
 Of all the men big enough to be inter- viewed, Roscoe Conkling was one of the easiest Proud and naughty in his bearing to most men Of his own class, he was generally accessible to news paper writers. and sometimes he would take reporter into his confidence in a way that was startling. But 1t was another thing to get permission to print what the man with the hyperion curl had said. .s
 Just after the last speaker of the House was made sure of his election to his post a newspaper man was sent from < New York to get facts about a subject then exciting general attention. The correspondent was unknown to Col. Henderson, and, being sure that he would hesitate to talk to a stranger, took along several strong letters of in- troduction. The colonel was found in the rotunda of the hotel in Dubuque, which has been his home for many years when he is not in Washington. To him the correspondent presented the letters, which Henderson read through with great care before responding. Then he returned all the letters except x one. II don't mind those letters," he said; Nthey mean nothing to me. But this one is from a. man I can't well re- fuse. Iwish had him here. He ought to be kicked. But you come up stairs with me and I'll talk, providing you don't say in your article that you got your information from me-" So, fum- ing over the action of his friend, who had made it virtually impossible to re- fuse to be interviewed, the colonel led the way to his rooms, and there, puffine away at their cigars, the speaker-e elect and the correspondent talked out fully the topic which the latter had traveleC 1900 miles in investigate. Like the pres. ' ident, the speaker of the house is rarely Interviewed, so far as the public knows and Henderson was just then so nearly a speaker that the correspondent fully understood his reason for not beins quoted. '.'
 The late Abram S. Hewitt varied ir a his treatment of interviewers, anG newspaper men who knew him tel many anecdotes of their meetings witt him. One reporter who went, stranger, to ask him a lot of question. x on certain municipal matters, found him sitting alone in his little office 3@% T don't know you," said MT. Hewitt briskly, not to say sharply, 'and don know how correctly you will print wha may say, but I'm willing to talk witt you if you won't bring out your note book. Notebooks always make m, nervous. No, don't want to see you copy after it's written. Nobody'll be lieve it if you make me say ridiculous things, and, of course, you'll never conn to me again if you don't report me ac Y curately."
 Then he talked rapidly and full, A while the reporter listened without talk. ing note and wondering the while whether he would be able to re- member all that was said well enougl