MODERN REPORTERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4387, 12 April 1875, Page 5

MODERN REPORTERS.

(From the London Echo, January 9.) In old times, when etiquette ruled all things, the rule was that no one should speak to the king until the king had first addressed him. But this is quite changed now, and before a king is well seated upon his throne, and almost before he is a king, an “interviewer” pounces upon him, and croasexamines him as if he were a doubtful witness in a court of justice. The now King of Spain’s crown, though ordered, had not as yet, we believe, been sent home by the maker, before an emissary of the New York Herald called at the Hotel Basilewaky and said to the porter, “ King Alphonao at home ?” “Well, sir,” said the porter, “he is at home, but—“ Just take him up my card ; he’ll see me ; don't be afraid.” A few minutes afterwards in comes the King, trying to look as old as he can. “ Please to answer a few questions, and be good enough to speak slowly, as I’ve got to take down the answers,” says the emissary of the New York Herald. “Now, then, are you prepared to negotiate in respect to Gibraltar ?” “ Yes,” replies the King, not quite understanding the question, but thinking that his interlocutor expects “yes.” “Good, Would you

like to settle the Cuban difficulty ?” “Of course I would,*Vsays the King, “but it isn’t so easy.” “Oh, where there is a will there is a way,” says the interviewer encouragingly. “By the bye, have you got the Pope’s bless* ing? Ah, that’s all right. We’ll sell some 10,000 additional copies on the strength of that to the New York Irish.” This is nearly the sort of thing that kings seem glad to put up with nowadays.