Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-11-03
AS ONE WOMAN SEES II
Some Remarks by a Chauffeur Con-
cernlng the Technique OF Get
ting Out a Newspaper
by SARAH ID. LOwRIE

BY SARAH ID. LOwRIE
IF YOU think Of chance encounters as
4 mere chance you miss half the adventure.
IL you think Of them as part of the plot and
your lines quite as necessary to the denoue-
nient as those of the leading lady, IL makes
best seller read tamely.
knew woman once who thought every
time the whistle blew from a train on the
elevated It was q signal to her to get up and
save the state. That Is going rather far In
making much out Of little! But, on the
other hand, 1t Is quite possible to make little
out of much.
I was exercising the dog the other day and
trying to get window shades to fit windows
longer and wider than the stock sizes, win
dows of a vintage older than the Centennial.
When had run them to earth in q very
downtown store the pup and / were too
fatigued to walk home, 80 1 hailed a cab
looked carefully at the serious young
thug, that was driving the car, 80 IL he
killed me I'd know him. and then resigned
myself to his careless keeping. Cabs being
rather q luxury for me, l bethought me OF
combining business with ease and picking
up g pair Of andirons that belonged to me
no sooner said than done! My friend, on
lifting them into the taxi, said something
l do not know quite what-about my writ.
ing up her favorite charity for this column
In the paper.
T JUST grinned and let it 60. But after we
Il had driven away the chauffeur leaned
back across the open window between us
and as he drove with one hand remarked
casually to me that his best pal had been
reporter.
we broke into the newspaper game to-
gether five years ago." he said.
And you find chaufing more remuner-
ativeg" said I, considering him open eyed.
"Well,' he said, "I went to the war and
dropped reporting then, and have just not
gone back to it,
but does this pay better3'' said.
lie nodded emphatically. Much better"
! looked at the taxi; ! looked at him I
looked at the ticker running up toward the
dollar mark: Then said persuasively--for
the honor of the guild of writers--"but you
must get very good stories from the people
You drive"'
well. so I do; mighty good ones! Too
good to print with the names. I'll use them
some day, but not in a newspaper-in a
WE HAD arrived at my door by then and
w the ticker had arrived at eighty cents.
l fished out dollar and begged him--as we
were in the same business---to keep the
change. He eyed me calmly and did so.
What Is your name?" lie asked.
told him. "Mine," said he. 'is Charles
- and then he mentioned a perfectly
familiar name up the state. i.
achho"Iedged that IL was famllar. MY
uncle was Brigader General -" he re-
marked ewing me seriously. But" he
ended, II find this pays better than writing
at present." and he drove off.
T HAVE pondered upon this episode all
L week. Today I got further light on the
boys point of view from a well seasoned
newspaper man who has now retired from
the fray into a more lucrative, If less ex
citing, occupation.
He said the boys starting in were not
worth to the papers $50 week more than
likely. but they were worth more than that
on other Jobs that took less vitality and
ended for even the mediocre ones in a surer
raise.
There will always be high class men for
the big jobs. but fewer fine young men to
start in at the bottom to work up unless
the minimum pay Is such that they can live
on it. was his verdict.
He said that since he had got out OF the
rush he had begun to consider what the
news was the public read, and he had come
to the humiiating conclusion that 1t was
mostly the headlines. He seemed TO thinl,
that was a great discovery. Whereas. Of
course, to the rank and file Of us readers
Of the daily news it goes without saying.
T ASKED him why he thought it was that
i the headlines were SO often misleading.
SO that one got an entirely false impression
was born, not made, and that there were
very few.
But he added somewhat pessimistically
that a youngster going on a paper thought
copy readers were ere, shelyed .s men l. and never
there. just as an ordinary editor misses out
on the small item" he ended rather
gloomily.
at isn't always the EDITORS fault some
times it In the reporters missing the little
al tkat nlray thn bipn ,I.n
not story" he added. and to point his
criticism he showed me news item that
had been in all the papers that morning.
The rector emeritus Of the Church Of the
died out at Laurel Hill Cemetery while
reading the committal service over the grave
of his wife. This fact and the main facts
Of his life were given. from the cavalry
record he had held in the Civil War to his
being made rector emeritus by his grateful
congregation after over forty years of
service. ., .,o,,
this:
"He was very old and his wife had shared
md slender means without her help to finish
serenely. So, knowing how he felt. his
parshioners stood about him. troubled for
his future and troubled at the strain he had
placed upon his feelings to say the prayers
at her grave. He got to the part,
" The Lord gveth and the Lord taketh
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!'
when he sank very. very gently to his knees.
so gently they thought he was praying
silently before closing-but he was dead
"Now that was very wonderful and happy.
But you did not quite get that from the
way it wos left. without the little finishing
touches. 1t was not told az those who were
there felt i'll"
did not read the reports, so do not
know how far he was justified in his criti-
cism. but his telling of the story was very
touching. A long life as a copy reader had
not dulled his sense of beauty and goodness.