Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-01-10

introducing j. Clement Murphy,
dean Of the corps of newspaper cor
respondents at the State Capitol while
the Legislature is in session and pro-
prietor and sole director of the Muir
ply News Emporium, Limited, of Au-
gusta.
Ladies and gents. meet Mr. Murphy.
If you haven't already met him before
and it is likely that a good many of
you have, especially if you have been
engaged in the delightful task of help
ing make new laws for the State of
Maine and revamp or do away with old
ones, within the last few years.
The legislators of reasonably recent
vintage who haven't formed Glenn
Murphy's acquaintance have been so
few and far between that you couldn't
dignity the bunch by calling it posse
and you know that sometimes that
word posse is applied to pretty small
group. And those who do not know
friend and confidant whom they hold in
esteem second to none in their entire
list Of friends. in all probability.
They know him for man who, when
he puts matters before the public in
the form Of news, gets them right;
they know him for chap who means
just what he says, and always gives
you a yes" or mo" straight from
the shoulder, never going around Robin
Hoods barn to answer a question; they
recognize him as one to whom they
can tell anything without the slightest
fear that it will be revealed without
their sanction: they know that, with
his keen perception of men and mat
detect insincerity as quickly as any
body who has ever graced the hub Of
help with his presence: in short, all
of 'em see in him a regular feller-and
what better tribute could one pay to
him?
AS dean Of the legislative cores
pondents, Glen Murphy occupies a
position once held by his father. the
late Thomas Murphy, beloved by all
the scribes who have crossed the
threshold of the hub in their count
less goings to and fro as his CO.
workers-Tom Murphy of blessed
memory to the old timers.
Now to be a dean in the news
paper room at the State House
doesn't mean simply that man is
a sort of fossilized relic Of them
days that's gone forever in the
journalistic profession. It ocsn't
signify that he sits in an easy chair
somewhere in the midst of the hum
---for-i'iings. dc hum afttr the solons
get to humming themselves in their
TWO houses-and deliver lectures on
the why and wherefore of every
story that every man writes-it
doesn't mean, too, that every morn
ing and afternoon when the cores
pondents set forth upon their assign
nents they stand before the dean
and do a bit of kow- towing-Lord
help them if they did
In short, a dean in the hub Of hell,
(as the news room is caalleO is a
boss if you prefer to call him that-a
man who maps out the work for the
bunch and does a divvil of a lot of
work himself. For be it known that
no one man can cover all that's going
on when the Legislature is in session
any more than his majesty, King
George of Great Britain and emperor
of the Indies gould have distributed
himself about every sector of the
world war and alone and single
Austrian armies. The legislative
work has to be divided up among the
newspaper men, and it is so divided
that each gets a fair share Of what is
to be performed. When the houses
are in session this method is pur-
sued, it is also used in covering hear
ings and preparing the lists of bills
that have been thrown into the hop
pers of the House and Senate the
night before each session.
But let us not linger too long on
technicalitics. 1t is Glen Murphy