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THE "INTERVIEWING" PROCESS IN AMERICA.

Every newspaper reader knows somethin" of the perlinuc'ty with which American newspapers follow the practice of “ inter viewing.” It matters not who is to be the subject of this system of inqnhition, the work has to he performed, and it is performed in a manner, if we may trust the printed reports of the interview, >iu which anything like delicacy as to the method of inquiry appears never to bo even thought of. If am distinguished foreigner enter the States lie hj duly waited on, and questions are put him twitch, wuh his answers, uro icportccl with what professes to be strictly verb 1 accuracy next morning. So with any criminal, who nas been apprehended or condemned. The reporters are pcimitled to visit ami question him, and the results of the intend w an’ alikegiventogratify anews-loving generation. But it seems the very s ihj-ots of such icqmry are theme'ysa by no means averse to such queer pulxicity, for nii'd* tcivq cjoncrnls and politicians and pri •oiicrs, enter into the freest conversation with the ’reporter Tins last-named official qniet’y put', questions such as the “Britisher” would be apt to resort as sheer impertinence, but which the iiuei viewer with the coolness of s\ oarrisler examining a witness, and, so much is the thing looked on as a matter of cours •, he usually obtains answers with almost equal frankness. Thetff-rta of the polio are preceded and almost superseded in many cases, so that the proceedings of the Courts are frequently stripp ’d o| much of their interest, what they disclose in the way of evidence being but a tile that is trd 1. A ref. odiing example of ting kind is contained in the report of an interview winch anpears in a St. Louis paper. •* 'i he person sulj cted to the examination was a certain Rev. <l. A. Irwin, who had been a major in the army having relinquished the sword for the olive bran cl i, but apparently keeping his “haul in” js respects the former profession, by assuming a bclmerer, t attitude towards his third spouse. He was lodged in a police station on a com-da : nt made by his wife and two gent-omen to the effect tr at he had assaulted her, and the reporter of the •St, Louis journal visited the reverend gentleman in durance, and while the report shows the . ulprit to bra disgrace to himac'f, and to his sacred calling, it show's alio—and that is the topic to which wo desire to call special attention—a toleration of what is an almost unbridled license on the part of the *' merierm i n S3, which, if exercised in any British community, would lay foundations for scores of actions for libels. In this Irwin affair there are one or two curious circumstance - One is the freedom with which the polio,’ authorities in America open the cell doors to reporters and permit a system cf questioning wnth a view to the immediate publication of the rep’i- s, which would p G looked on r b rank heresy by English and Colonial polio officials. Jim second point is that men so free y open their minds and commit themselves to the inquiring young gentlemen who peif rtn the work of interrogation. The following samples, taken from the ‘ St. Louis Globe,’ form the best illustration of the lengths to which this remarkable system of “interviewing” has reached in the States:—

KEV. MU 0. A. lUW[N’’s STATEMENT. The reporter informed Mr Irwin that lie had been instructed to find out the whyforc and wherefore of this unpleasantness, and Mr Irwin .stated that there was no trouble at all; that tlie whole thing was a mistake. Reporter : I understand that you struck your wife. Is that the truth ?

Mr Irwin : w hy, my dear friend, I strike a woman !_ I lay my hands on a woman, save in way of kindness ! You are wrongly informed lam a minister. lam a disciple of the Lord’, s.i, I preach the Gospel day after day, and teaca the truth to all. I bear no malice, I wouldn’t touch a woman, sir. Reporter : Haven fc you been drinking tin’s evening, Mr Irwin ?

. bavin : I never touched a drop of liquor in my life. I am a Christian gentleman, and I hope to sink through the floor if I ever touched either spirilous or malt liquor in my life. I have preached three times on the levee to-day. Sir. lam a servant of the Lord. Mho told you I had been drinking ? Reporter : Nobody ; I only thought so. Mr Irwin : I tell you, my friend, you have heard it from her and her parainor ; they have placed me here.

Reporter: Am Ito understand you to mean your wife when you say her? Mr Irwin ; Yes ; she is a bad woman. My mend, after I have been out all day, sometimes from daylight till dark, serving the l ord and t 1 ?-? t0 save souls of His children, Ido not like to see my wife sitting in the lap of another man when I come homo. Reporter ; Of course not. Well ? Mi Irwin : And it greatly displeases me to sec a man getting out of a back window' as I enter by the door. But lam sneaking; to yon confidentially, and you cannot ‘publish what I say.

he?? P ° rter ’’ H ° W long is ifc sil,c: JO" married

Mr Invm : -Rot long—about six weeks. She was a procuress before I married her. and she is one now; that is why I pleaded with her so much tins evening for my Maker’s sake.

Reporter: Have’nt you been drinking this evening, Mr Irwin? (He had, for his breath was pregnant with the odor of ten cent, whisky.) Mr Irwin : My friend, my dear friend, I have told you before that I never touched a drop in my life. They can say what they please now. They told the sergeant that I had a pistol and a me, My Bible is my revolver, and. Testament is my knife. Shall I show them

to you ? Here they are, the blessed hooks. (He kissed them and his eyes rolled heavenward.) My wife and one of those fellows who came with her have invented this story that they may get mo out of the way. But I am the Lord’s servant, and the right is on my side.

Reporter: Is this woman your first wife? JMr Irwin: No; I have been married three times. Oh ; I will he all light in the morning. Mr Wells and my brothers in Jesus will get me out of this. When lam out I will give you a history of the whole thing. I will be with ray belovr d flock on the Jovee, to-morrow, scattering the truth broadcast. Don’t mention this affair. My reputation, you know, is at stake. lam innocent of the charge against me. I never did a wrong to my fellow man. lam a servant (Sf the Lord. That woman is a very bad woman, and I have tried to reform her, but I could not. I have road to her from the Boole of books ; I have prayed with her, but she would not reform. But don’t say anything about it in the ‘Globe,’ for it would hurt the true cause, the groat cause of Christianity, to publish what she will tell about inc. The pleasant acquiescent “Of cour-o not” of the report, r, and the interrogative “Well?” which followed it, are choice instances of the cheerful coolness with which t esc American reporters follow out their caking. Slut this St. Louis member of the fraternity did not rest satisfied with the examination of the husband; ho next visit, d the injured wife at the house where she boarded, and found Mrs Inviu surrounded by a number of friends, ladies and gentlemen, and told her the substance of her husband s stat uneu'-. .‘-he gave the f.-flowing v-rji.n of tin sto y at the request of her • nends, all of whom, we are told, were loud in their Condemnation of Irwki and in their praises of the lady’s virtues, and sympathised deeply with her sufferings He obtains and p-ints Mrs Irwin’s statement, and flic frankness with winch that lady intimates that she had pawned not only t.or j.-wdlery, but oven her “false hair” to hc;p her husband la beyond praise. This is the statement made uy the injured woman, who also, ic appear.;, had had three husbands :

T married Major Irwin about six mouths ar,n; he had been a ma jor in the army, and I married him became lie had pleaded with me for months, savin" that ho could imt live without me, and that I had saved him ■ lie had been married twice before, and so Lad I; my former husbands were hilled in war; last April his. wife attempted to kill him while lie was asleep, by stabbing him in the breast, but a pocket 1 iole saved his life, the knife going almost through it. I have the Bible now. I was Mrs (. Ole when I married him. .11 c has never given mo a cent since ho married me. and I "have pawned my watch, jewellery, and even my false hair to help him to get along. He told me the odier day that he was going to leave me ; that I was unfaithful to him, and that I was a procuress. I tried to reason with him, but lie wouldn’t listen to me, and he swore and used obscene language in too most frightful maimer. He says he (hadn’t drink, but lie docs ; and uiemlsof mine have seen him in the lowest ileus of this City since our marriage. One night lent week he attempted to kill me while I was asleep, bufcmy little daughterherega vo the alarm and it' she hadn’t done so I know he would have stabbed me with a stiletto which beheld in his hand when -I awoke. He has called me all kinds of names and accused me of everything one day, and the next day he would be as loving and kind as ho could he. This evening he came in and swore such awful oaths, I never hum! a man swear so before, ’hie caught me by the shoulder (it pains me terribly now), anti said I had a man in the room. .He made s'-cb a noise, and I was so much afraid that he would kill mo, that I called for holn, and these gentlemen and two policemen came into the room. Me says he has killed men. He is the wickedest man I ever saw in my life. ’ I have always lived a virtuous life and everybody in the house knows that I am ax inn. cent as my little .laughter. He is well known hire and in Cincinnati as a street preacher. He is_ an Episcopalian, but belongs to the Christian Brotherhood,” and is land of an evangelical preacher. Ho professes to bo good when lie is on the atieet, but 1 never saw a man as depraved and low as he is.

The view of the inLiior which these ex tracts give is not a ph-acant mu, socialh console ad, lut it is of course exceptional but the il ustration they offer cf newspaper P’-ogresdon in the Stales is a curious one which lias not as ye t come into vogue in the Colonics, in some of which there is already far 100 much dr.-regard for the sacrcdniss oi :uiva. c life, so that few will dt she to see the American system much more large! v adopted than it has already lie,on.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD18741110.2.18

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Evening Star, Issue 3656, 10 November 1874, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,952

THE "INTERVIEWING" PROCESS IN AMERICA. Evening Star, Issue 3656, 10 November 1874, Page 3

THE "INTERVIEWING" PROCESS IN AMERICA. Evening Star, Issue 3656, 10 November 1874, Page 3

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