The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-03-19
THE GENTLE ART
OF INTERVIEWING.
Story of How Roosevelt, when n
Police Commissioner, Hit Ii on
With a Reporter.

With a Reporter.
President Roosevelt is never inter
viewed for publication" No Presi-
dent is.
But in the davs when he was civil
service commissioner, police commits
sioner. lieutenant colonel Of the 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.
reporter who went to see him
one day at police headquarters in New
York had a rather curious experience.
Mr.. Roosevelt was out when the re-
porter's card was sent it. 1t was
nearly an hour before the commits
or more OF 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
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 precedence,
but he preferred to wait and it was
nearly another hour before he had his
audience.
The future President was cordial
in his greeting. and after looking at
his watch. said he could give twenty
minutes to the interview. but made it
understood in short order that he was
a professional writer as well as a pub
lie man.
THE subject you suggest is an i'm
portant and interesting one" said
the commissioner. with his character
istic smile. but I haven't time to
think it all out now. Besides, l may
want to write about it myself. What
else have you in mind?"
Fortunately for him, the reporter
had other "talkable" topics to suggest,
but his spirits fell as he called them
off in succession. for the first half
dozen all appealed to Mr.. Roosevelt
as too good to be spoiled by being
interviewed about them. Finally,
though, a suitable subject was agreed
upon and an hour instead of twenty
minutes was given up to the inter-
view.
Interviewing Russell Sage.
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 fact, Mr.. Sage, will not
be seen at all in such an instance, and
it is useless to try to convince the
clerk who pokes his head out of the
little barred window in the thin parti-
ton that shuts in the capitalists Office.
Sometimes Mr.. Sage has been known
to invite an interview by causing the
insertion of a little five or ten line
item in the newspapers.
On one occasion such an item was
printed saying that Sge was about to
lend his backing to a man who had
had a spectacular, but not wholly sue
cessful career in the world of railroad
finance. The statement seemed so pre-
posterous though, that the reporters
were not sent to Sage's office. A cor
respondent 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. Mr. Sage seemed
pleased, and the correspondent got a
creditable scoop on all the New York
papers. Sage didn't verify the item
explicitly, but what he said amounted
TO the same thing.
THE man mentioned in the item"
said Mr. Sage, lis one of the brightest
men now before the public, and have
learned more from him than from al
most any one l ever met"
BY the time he had finished, the cor
respondent had material for a column
and a half dispatch, the accuracy of
which was questioned at first by the
New York papers, but afterward con-
firmed with all the dignity of display
type. The result was that the man
mentioned was able to get on his feet
again-for a while.
Mr.. Sage has always been more than
willing to talk about his horses, of
which he is very fond, and more than
one reporter, anxious to get his views
on a current financial topic, has gained
admittance 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 optimistic.
He thinks the struggling young man
of to-day has just as good a chance to
win as the young man who started out
early in the last century, and is full
of anecdotes and incidents to prove
that he is right.
1t is not of record. though. that any
ingenious reporter ever got Mr.. Sage
to talk on something he didn't intend
TO by questioning him about either
horses or success in life.
COnI<lin Scared His Man.
OF all the men big enough to be in
terviewed 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
newspaper writers, and sometimes he
would take a reporter into his conf
dence in a way that was startling. But
it was another thing to get permission
to print what the man with the hy-
perion curl had said.
As one young reporter, to whom Mr..
Conkling had devoted a long two hours
of the most interesting talk, which
threw much illumination on current
political matters rose to leave the Of
fee with his note book safely button
ed in his inside pocket, Conkling smiled
and said:
Let me look at your notes a mo-
ment, my boy"
The book was produced, when Con-
king stuck it carefully in a pigeon
hole.
Il didn't tell you all this to have il
printed" he said, for that would new
er do, but because l like you and be-
cause | thought it would be a good
thing for you to know the inside OF
csome things. Knowing what you dc
now, you will understand better how
TO treat certain topics you are assign
ed to cover"
The reporter had to submit and the
information that had been given was
of much use to him afterward, as
Conkling said it might be.
Another reporter who didn't know