SOME CURIOSITIES OF REPORTING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6490, 15 December 1881, Page 3

SOME CURIOSITIES OF REPORTING.

(Ckambm’ Journal.)

It would be manifestly unfair—as we havo on former occasions admitted—to credit the compositor, who has quite enough to answer for in respect of his own misdeeds, with all or even most of the curious and ridiculous things that appear in our newspapers. A very 0 nsidorable snare of thece is traceable to the editorial, sub editorial, telegraphic, and reporting departments 1 and the hut-mentioned source bac proved as prolific as any of the others, if not more so. It would not be easy to ngtna my sphere of literary work in which there is greater scope and opportunity for bun .ling, and in which a man’s capabilities may bo more readily gauged, than that of the newspaper reporter. Of reporters ae a class, it may be said that they are on the whole capable and intelligent men, who lolly appreciate the responsibilities of their office, and oonieientioniy endeavour to discharge their onerous function in a thorough and businesslike fashion. Yet in this as in all other professions there are to be found carelet*, inexperienced, and incompetent persons, whoso inefficiency is inevitably reflected from time to time in their work.

In the course of an Introductory lecture to his students, the late Professor Hodgson on one occasion remarked that the economic world was “ a chaos of discordant and conflicting atoms, with only a superficial and deceptive semblance of peace.” What mast have been the feelings of the professor when he found next morning that one of the newspapers bad made him speak of the economic world ns “a chaos of discordant end conflicting demons!” In this instance, the word “atoms,” which in phonography somewhat resembles “ demons,” was so translated, having been imperfectly written. A much more extraordinary series of blunders which had occurred in the same way - that is, by the misrepresentation of shorthand characters —appeared some time ago in a Glasgow paper. The Her Fergus Ferguson was the victim on this occasion 1 and he, in

the coarse of a second letter to the editor on the subject says:—“The report was, in all essentials, as remarked in your note, and already admitted by me, a reproduction of the opening passages of the lecture, followed by a correct outline of the whole. But, in support of the suggestion I Lave made as to the origin of the mistakes, I may say that 'exhibited ’ occurs twice for explicit, ‘ doctrines * for document-, ‘ uut’Oßs ’ for notions,' invaluable ’ twice for infallible, * unions ’ for communions, and, in a very important passage, ‘good \ for God.” It is but fair to the inventor of phonography to say that only very bad or careless writing could have led to such an exhibition . nacouraoy.

Imperfect hearing is a common source of error. In ;a report of a Roman Catholic festival in Ormfries some years ago, where there was a good deal of noisy demonstration, a reverend father was represented as having appealed to his hearers whether they should be degraded by the presence of “ the triangle” in Borne. It was the presence of Tictor-Bmmanuel to which the reverend gentleman objected; and the mistake can only be accounted for by a misapprehension on the port of the reporter, in consequence, no doubt, of the rapid articulation of the speaker and the enthusiastic response of the audience. It was probably under somewhat similar circumstances that a. temperance orator was made to speak about getting farther and farther from the “ Land of Promise,” when he was only deploring retrogression from the ** van of progress." Reports are liable to he rendered misleading or absurd in the process of condensation. A large proportion oi our public oratory is exceedingly “ spongy,” and easily “squeezed” into the required compass; at the same time it is often necessary greatly to condense speeches and lectures, almost every word of which, were space available, would be worthy of reproduction. In such circumstances, the reporter must exercise his discretion and ingenuity in reducing into the most concentrated form the opinions and statements with which he has to deal. It would not do to dismiss the oration, as an American paper recently did a lecture on Ireland’s miseries, with the words—" It is too long to report and too good to condense.” An intelligible account of the matter must be given, though “ in a line,” as the editor’s instructions frequently are. There may, however, be snob a thing as condensation overdone. Perhaps the funniest instance of this on record is one which occurred in a report of the inauguration of the Brace Statue at Lochmaben, in the autumn of 1879. On that occasion a veto of thanks was awarded to the Rev William Graham, Newhaven, for the part he had taken in promoting the statue, and in acknowledging the compliment, the reverend gentleman quoted the lines: I’ve travelled east. I’ve travelled west, E’en dreamt I've been in Eden; Bat Brace’s birthplace tais the gree; There’s nae place like Lochmaben. This was spoken in the open air, amid tremendous cheering and with an involuntary pause at the end of every line. One of the reporters, curiously failed to recognise the poetic form of the words, and selecting this as the most remarkable part of the speech, not only wrote it out in the form of prose, bat summarised it, and gave it in the third person. It accordingly appeared as follows: “Mr Graham, in responding, said he had travelled east and west, and had oven dreamed he was in Sden; but Bruce's birthplace took * the gree ’ —there was no place fixe Loohmaben.” (It may bo well to explain that the Scotch phrase “take the “ gree” signifies unequalled.) Sometimes a report is incomplete because the reporter has not succeeded in procuring the necessary information, or, for some other reason, is unable to accomplish his task. It is seldom, however, that one comes aoross such a refreshingly candid confession as that of the gentleman who concluded his report of a banquet with the statement—“lt is not distinctly remembered who made the last speech.” This recalls an account of the speech of the evening at a Bums Anniversary Dinner, which stated that “the cloth being removed, after a very excellent dinner, the Chairman addressed the meeting for ten minutes, in a strain of eloquence so overpowering that there was not a dry eye in the room; and though several skinful shorthand writers were present, not oneef them seemed inclined or felt it possible to attempt the exercise of his art. The impression of this speech will be long felt; but it is impossible by any effort of memory to give any conception of the enthusism, feeling, and glowing expression evinoed on this occasion.” Without in the the least disparaging the Chairman’s oratory, one can hardly restrain the suspicion that something still more overpowering was responsible for the loss to the world of this panegyric on the poet. A good story is told about the banquet fven by the Corporation of London to the rinoe of Wales, on his return from India. It was arranged that the gathering, which was to be one of great splendour, should take place on a Thursday evening. A London penny-a-liner thought he would write an account of the banquet for the metropolitan newspapers. Failing to get a ticket of admission, he was neither defeated nor discouraged. With a fertile pen and an uncommon power of imagination, ho sac down and prepared his narrative. Hot satisfied with producing an ordinary paragraph, he wrote a comparatively long report. He began by de scribing the procession from Marlborough House to the Guildhall, the oordial greeting and tumultuous oheering of the crowds that lined the streets, and the personal appearance of the Prince and Princess of Wales. His capacity for descriptive writing was not exhausted here. Other important figures in the group that gathered round the Lord Mayor’s board were elaborately drawn, and an' aetenishing power of detail wee expended on the mote prominent statesmen who cat on the right and left of the oivlo dignitary. Special care was taken with Lord Beaconsfield, who was described as pale and worn out, in consequence of a severe stress of work mingled with anxiety. Lord Derby, Sir Stafford Northeote, and tho First Lord of the Admiralty were also portrayed with more or less exactness; and the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress had the full benefit of a graceful and easy pen. A minute account of the magnificent decorations was also given* the knowledge of flowers manifested in the description being almost equal to that po»” 1

sensed by any gardener. The proceedings w«r« then reported in detail. First, of course, came the toast of “ The Queen,” followed by the playing of the National Anthem and the other customary loyal toasts. Then came the Lord Mayor’s speech in proposing the toast of the evening in which the remarkable social and genial qualities of the Prinoe of Wales were referred to, and suitable allusion was made to the great advantages which His Boyal Highness must have derived from his visit to India. A brief philosophical dissertation followed respecting the immense blessings which the visit had conferred upon the Indian people, and, finally, a peroration on the prospective advantages of the journey in bnilding up and cementing our noble Indian Empire. All the usual “ Hear, hears," and “ loud cheers ” were carefully inserted. Equally detailed was t' e reply of the royal guest, the Prince himself 5 while the to«at of " Her M jesty’s ministers and the reply of the liurl of Beaconsflold were likewise written <u<(, at considerable length. Other "peeche« were briefly summarised ; and some account of the closing proceeding* and the mu ic brought the report to an end.

This ingenious fabrication was so cleverly executed that the deception might not have been discovered had it not been for one simple but fatal mistake. The reporter thought the banquet was on the Wednesday instead of the Thursday evening. About eleven o’clock, therefore, on the former night he sent the report to several London and pro* vincial newspapers, in some instances carrying it himself. The amusement the affair occasioned in the newspaper offices that night may be imagined. The unfortunate journalist was not seen in that neighbourhood for ten months after, and it was believed that he had entirely deserted the profession. Of late, however, there baa been some reason to fear that he has resumed his old practices If this snsficion is unfounded, it can only be said that is mantle appears to have fallen upon some no less gifted adventurer in the field of romance. How otherwise are we to account for the following letter, which a member of parliament had occasion to write to the Daily Newt in December last ?—“ dir, in the Daily Nmci of to-day there app’a-s what purports to be a report of a speech I &n d to my constituents at Dunfermline i --- ng' t. I think it right to state that it i- a p ; rc fair!-, cation. Hod it been merely an uifijr.-. eL report , 1 should not hare troubled ,au -n the subject; but although it follows the sequence of mj topics, I cannot recognisa a jingle sentence as my dvm, bub fro a- beginning to end the words and phrases arc the creation of some one else. In proof of what I say, I beg to inclose a copy of a fairly accurate report, which appears in the Scotsman of today.” Ignorance and carelessness on the part of reporters have led to some very amusing blunders. “Fratricide at Haddington ” was the title given some ago in an Edinburgh paper to the case of a man who was tried for the murder of his father. An American reporter once transformed the quotation “Amicut Plato, amicus Socrates, sed major Veritas” into “I may cuaPiato, I may ens Hocrates, said Major Verity a. The next morning’s feelings of the orator to whose words this extraordinary rendering was given may be more easilv imagined than described. It was a Welsh reporter who headed a paragraph—“ Suicide of Two Persons—Statement of the One that Survive J.” This seems mow like a product of the sister isle, and if the writer was not of Hibernian birth or extraction, ho might at all events claim affinity in genius. The erroneous use of the word “other” has occasioned many a curious blunder. A Scotch paper recently announced that “a man named Alexander Baohbnaa, and two other women,” were charged with assault

r Nothing is more ridiculous than some of the ; attempts at fine writing, molting usually in ( pointless euphuism, indulged in bj some young, eccentric, or would-be eloquent writers for the Press. Mr T. A. Reed, in his He- | porter's Guide, cautions youthful aspirants f against this snare, and points out the . absurdity of saying that “ Sol’s effulgent rays Qlnmiued the scene with unaecus- [ tomed brightness,” instead of simply recording that the son shone brightly. As Mr Reed ’ observes, however, such bald simplicity would be too much to expect from a young and ’ ardent “ contemporary historian.” Singularly ( enough, these flights seem to occur more frequently in descriptions of the weather than \ in almost any other connection. This was how a poetic youth wanted to inform the ■ prosaic world that there had been a fall of snow: “The angels rustled their wings at 1 the hour when Aurora goes forth to fulfil her mission, and the earth was covered with a fleecy mantle of white.” But the editor quietly dropped it into the waste-basket, and wrote wrote instead, “ Snow fell this morning." Hera is an example, from a country paper, of the ambitious style of a weather paragraph: “ After a long period of unsettled weather, it must have gladdened every one yesterday morning when the sun, with all his glorious brilliancy and splendour, shone forth, with golden ray scattering cloud and mist, and with his cheering beam* and glowing smile causing the bird* to sing, the trees • of the forest to rejoice, and the flowers of the field to unfold themselves in bright array.” It was also a country brother who thus began a paragraph announcing the sudden demise of a local shoemake*: “We are being constantly reminded of the inexorability of Death—the certain, and it may he sadden visit of 'the angel with the amaranthine wreath,’as death is so beautifully designed by Longfellow; and it is our painful duty to-day to chronicle the melancholy fact that one who had played his part, and played it well in life, has passed through Nature to Eternity.” The reporter is often blamed by speechmakers for condensing their orations. A reporter, responding to the toat of ‘‘The ttess," told his hearers that they were often much more indebted to the representatives ef the press for what they left out of their roiports than for what they gave: and there was a great deal of truth in the remark. By reproducing all the silly and childish things that are said at public meetings, reporters might, if they chose, make _ the speakers appear in a most unenviable light, while by judicious condensation they almost every day make presentable, and even telling, speeches which, as spoken, were incoherent, rambling, and it may be, ungrammatical. The reporters in the Legislative Assembly of Now South Wales recently dealt with one of the members in a way which ought to act as a salutary warning to him and other toe exacting orators. This gentleman, angry at the abridgement of his speeches, joined with others in demanding that full reports should be ‘given; and the reporters accordingly granted his desire, printing several of his subsequent orations verbatim, to the great amusement of the public, and the mortification of the member himself. Reporters as n rule are persevering mea, and like to gire good value for their services. A good story is told of Lord Palmerston’s experience of importunate reporters. ALondon scribe having heard that His Lordship was to be present at an archery meeting in a small country village in Hampshire, posted down to the place and attended the meeting. Lord Palmerston’s task was to distribute prizes to some half-dozen blushing young ladies, and the whole company present did not number much above a score. Elia Lordship performed the task with his customary grace and good-humour, giving the young ladies a kindly pat on the head, but making only the most commonplace observations. The reporter waited anxiously in his place until, to his horror, ho saw the proceedings brought to a close without any formal speech from the Premier. Thu was more than ho could stand. He rushed from his corner to the noble Lord, who was passing out of the room. “My lord, I beg your pardon, but really this won’t do. “ What do you mean ?” was the reply of the astonished statesman. « Why, you’ve made no speech! Ire corse all the way from London to report it, and L must have a speech of some sort. Whereupon, it is on record tlut the goo« tempered old gentleman turned back, and* Uiced the retreating * u . d ' e “ c * Minnfjtfl while he nvt them ® »• t_ “a £.«*. Ed .1 » particular.