The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-12-15
INTERVIEWING KITCHENER
STORY OF ONE WHO FAILED
Reporter for New York World Tried 1t and After -Four
Months Was Convinced That 1t Couldn't Be Done
His Experiences

DIN Ell - u u
NV Own Sad Story.
And now something about my own
efforts, hard as it is to admit failure
where another succeeded. When l
reached London SO many things
were happening that | gave little
thought to the possibility of inter
viewing Kitchener. The American
! tourist panic was in full flood and
there were a thousand things TO see
and describe, and tn re was the per
picking problem Of how to get your
dispatches sent after you had pre-
pared them. For at this time the
press censorship was at the height OF
it's asinine stupidity, incompetent,
farcical. ridiculous.
But on every hand I heard stolid.
self-compiacent Britishers conclude
their Indifferent. careless, self-satiS-
fled observations about the war
Which to them was merely another
sort of beastly nuisance, like Ameri-
can visitOrS-by remarking: oh,
well, Kitchener will jolly soon put an
end to it all"
Then other American writer's began
asking me: Have you interviewed
Kitchener YETI"
Write Kitchener.
Shortly afterward Kitchener made
his first speech in the HOuse of Lords,
and ] noticed thai the average Lon
doner concluded that the war was
over. 30 L CoICluOeO J. iIllSll as Wen
get the interview over and AVE lone
with it.
If it had been in the United States
l would have dropped around to the
War Department and sent in my card
to the Secretary, but 1 knew they
didn't do things that way in Eng
land. After getting a friend to tell
me just how to address an Earl and
just how many letters of the alphabet
to put OF the envelope, and which
ones to leave off, l wrote Kitchener
a letter. l told him hat l was en-
ployed b ythe biggest newspaper in
the United States; that Americans
considered linn the biggest military
figure Of modern times; hat they
would read anything that he might
say with intense interest, and asked
him to name the time and place most
convenient to him for an interview.
1 Am Thanked.
A few days later [ got the follow
ing reply:
21st September, 1914.
Dear Sir: Lord Kitchener asks
me to thank 0 for your letter
of the 18th instant i'll which you
ask him for an interview. The
pressure Of his present work will
5 unfortunately prevent him from
accedlng to your request. The
Secretary of State has in the
, present circumstances been con-
strained to decline all such in
vitations. Might I suggest that
you communicate with Mr.. Ac-
land, the Under Secretary of
4 State for Foreign Affairs, who,
: l have reason to believe. would
. be very glad to see you? Yours
very truly,
II. j. GREEDY,
t Private Secretary.
Again the Legend.
Well, this was a sad blow, l naOQ
asked TO interview Mr.. Acland
\ Kitchener was the man l was afte
TX. Of K. the man who was goin
n to settle things in a jiffy.
e Mr.. Acland is a very courteou;
d gentleman, who sees all the news
a paper men and gives them wonderfr
a interviews-and then tells them the
n mustn't print them. Obviously, h
wasn't the man 1 was after. So
began to make inquiries about tn
= man Kitchener, who so lightly turne
down an opportunity to talk to mil
le IONS of American newspaper reader
= l went to twenty different men {
u prominence, some o. them men {
title, and each one assured me thu
l. he believed the thing could not /
done.
he ! was mad now and I wrote a lette
Ut to the editor CT The World in which
G. said: Yes. / may interview Kitche1
Of er, but IL l do it will be i'll anotht
I'd world, where newspapers won't Ia.
Mt any longer than the proverbiaI SNOW
1e ball"
r. '"I1leTr Goes Kitchener
Then / got to haunting the War O
flee at all hours of the day to stut
this ma n see if chance might n,
e polnt n way to unSealing the lii
10 of this Sphinx. I saw him pass in al
n out a score of ti1nes-a tall, sinew
ne slightly stopped. khaki-clad, Iarc1
n 1Qflf-faco man with n nnJ1 ofoo1
Jet gray eye. But il was ust less to t
to waylay him. I firmly believe
a bayonet thrust or a bullet would ha'
is closely guarded. I got to kno
SO every outline Of his figure, and on
rs caused a small commotion in
n crowded bus by exclaiming: 1.-THE
h goes Kitchener" as we whirled alo,
,e- Whitehall. His tall figure was ju
is, disappearing into the War Office, al
he in the general scramble all the 9th
ng passengers missed him. Then tn
all glared at me so ac%cusingly and