UNKNOWN

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 219, 20 October 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

UNKNOWN

■ PRESSMAN S ae a whispering dern newspaper jets a good idea of what -is going on all over the globs. Despite the restrictions of the Press Bureau and the machinations of ths Gorman wireless Ananias, we know fairly well what is going on in the great world war, and at the end of the < r ,le the Press will again get back to a position of more freedom and less responsibility. Journalism within the last ten or inteen years has tended more and more in the direction of specialisation. The general all-round man of intelkgenco and wide experience is still needed, but the tendency ha,s been for one man to tako charge of a special department, whether golf, volunteering, football, yachting, flying, or agriculture. Press work is often worrying, but is usually interestng and full of variety. Journalists nowadays do not as a rule live very long, but they live a gre-tt deal in the time. Gleams of humour and ghnts of pathos mingle strangely »n the journalist's life. One day he mav be attending a monarch's funeral an! the next a peer's wedding; one day at a great political meeting, and the next st a sensational murder trial. The man must bo made of iron who is not affected by the scenes at a pit mouth after an acident, as body after body is brought up and the search goes on fo- men imprisoned or dead many fathoms down, while weeping wives and bairns wait and watch and pray. A journalist must be graver than Nestor if ho does not smile at the comedies that hr sees and hears in court or council chamber or political meeting.

GREAT-POLITICAL SPEAKERS. It is a liberal education in politics to listen to British political leaders in strenuous times, and the journalist gets to know the argument on loth sides on all the great matters of {vblic controversy. The writer has heard all th i chief public speakers during the pas's generation. Ho is incline 3t" give the palm to Mr. Gladstone at his best. In h : s great Midlothian campaign he couli play upon a great meeting l'ke a great musician on a migltty instrument. Gladstone could bring out at will as he t-ouched the stops, cheers or hisses, at laughter. Mr. Goschen (as he then was) wa.s the best public debater I hav-j ever hear !. With a hoarse, croaking voice, he had great argumentative powers, and he was quicker than any man I ever knew at beguiling an interrupter into throwing in a remark, and then tripping him tip neatly. Lord Morley's speeches were always better to read than to listen to, but they weee always permeated by a strenuous monl fervour, a depth of knowledge, and a wide outlook that arc conspicuous by their absence in many of the speakers to-day. I heard Mr. Asqmth at the first public meeting he addressed in Edinburgh. He was not well known then, but I was struck by ithe quiet, clear, logical way in which he mustered his facts, and by his ability in defending the Free Trade portion. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain was one of the ablest debaters and critics I have ever listened to, but his speeches were rasping, with a strong vitriolic flavour. Lord Rosebery at his best was one of our most lovable public speakers. H's speeches were gay, genial, lull of humour, and dotted with happy sentence and purple patches that lin get »xl in the memory.

A CHANGE IN ORATORY. A great change has com© ever political oratory during the past generation. There was a classical flavour and a studied diction about the old speakers that have largely disappeared I havu seen repeatedly a little slip of pape" handed down from the platfcim to the reporters' table. The speaker, for In-' own credit, wanted the papers to get it correctly, and he knew that, despite their versatility, all the gentlemen of the pencil had not been at Balliol or Trinity. Nowadays a classical quotation in a political speech is hardly to l>e found. The majority of + he hearers at a great political demonstration today are probably working men and the ..speaker lias no time to waste on V frills." He has to "get there," and t.> appeal to the reason or experience or prejudices of his hearers in a specJi that, if he is wise, will not greatly exceed an hour. Some of our most effective speakers nowadays belong to the working classes. They have not always an Imperial outlook, tliey do no always speak grammatically, they often advocate a bread and butter policy, but they know the life and trials and grievances of the workers, tney have usually intense earnestness, sometimes a strong fund of humour and a terse, graphic style, and, above all, they can Int. The late Professor Blackre provided a largo supply of amusing "copy" Nir reporters. He said many wise and witty, as well as many nonsensical things in the course of his rambling unconventional speeches. Hi- used to complain that the reporters left out his good things and gave the public onlj tlio nonsens.'. 1 have known nlackie punctuato a speech by thumping the platform with his "kailrunt, and everv now and again shaking his stick" at a young reporter below. and ordering him 10 "take that down."

REPORTERS AND SALVATION. The Into General Booth's at Salvation Army meetings, as everybody knows, wero thoroughly earnest;, •lit they were, us ially original, nnl often, to the outs'der, amusing. Here is u report of what is said to have taken place at a Sunderland meeting. After urging his hearers to show a joyful air. sunny temperament, tho General tloclared that "the devil sometimes sent people to their gatherings out of curiosity or to scoff, and they sometimes i<mained to pray. ('Hallelujah ! ) Reporters, of course, came on business, nut they were hard to catch. (Groans. He had, however, seen a reporter ivitii a tear in his eve. ('No,' and cries of 'Glory he to (Jod!' He once saw a reporter put a shilling in a collect!»: liox. (Expressions of incredulity from various parts of tlie hall, and laughter i There was hope, therefore, for the reporters— ('Lord have mercy on them!'* —that was, if they were (audit heior-e thev came to Ik l editors. 1 hen the\ wero gone.'' (Laughter.) Amuv'ng hlunders occur daily -'.o newspaper reports. Some of those re ported are ri]>o< i ;»•■•>!, Imf every newpiper man has > lo'lection drawn from his own expoi • u >• v 'me tiie slips are due to th to the error or ignre i. • "■ ' an 1 others to th- • i.i.V i < mnposito;', linotyper, ,•!>.«>; i 1 ""I>-r. We give a few sample .. An English Mayor, annoyed by mi interrupter at a me.'t;: is rejHirtf-d have exhorted him t • am! go out." A Trade !'■ v., a great gathering dec" • ! nuate I.a hour reprosc secured in Parliamer longer let the tn'l wr / should wag our own m beaten, however, by the ■-<* et el a temperance demonstrafon in an l.nglisli t»wn, who declared that "w>.\ 'he

Licensing Act is passed we can wag ou tails and crow."

IN THE SANCTUM.

The drudgery of the editorial and sub-editorial room is beguiled by queer letters from correspondents and queerer personal visitors. All sorts and conditions of men and women come—longhaired men who have a mission, 01 think they have; strong-minded females who would not have winced under the catastrophe that befel Jonah, who have much to say and plenty oi time to say it in; crack-brained or cranky individuals with all kinds of bees in their bonnets —all anxious to "see the editor." I have known of a man calling at a newspaper office declaring that he was tlio Messiah, and presenting a manuscript which he wanted published; and another who came in distress with a gigantic megaphone to catch his words in order to entrap him. No journalist .is an "Admiral Crichton," though what the Rev. Dr. Ma gregor of St. Cuthbert's onco called "the awe-inspiring, faith-compelling 'wo'" goes a long way with some readers. A capable, experienced leaderwriter, even if he us not thoroughly up in a question, can usually lay his hand on up-to-date reference books, an I ut'Jise the information on the spot. must take a snapshot, liit or miss. Training develops the pen of the readv writer, and if the "expert critic" win finds the editorial article in his daily paper "shallow" will make up a list rf the subjects tackled in a single week by the editor and try to "write a short article on each, he will be surprised tc find how much he does not know. Mixed metaphors of an amusing often appear in newspapers. I knew an able editor addicted to the use of fanciinl and forcible expressions who once alluded to same pet aversion as a putrid shadow." Many curious slips are made in Parliament even by capab'e and experienced speakers. Mr. Gladstone, in a speech in the Hon,so in response to an opponent who shook hi 5 lead at some statement attributed to ■iim, retorted:—"lt will not do for tin lion, member to shake his head in the teeth of his own words." Mr. Asquith, one of the cleverest and most logical tl ml'n, was once so far left to himself as -o declare that "redistribution is a thorny subject, which requires delicate people's toes." A late cx-lndian official, formerly member for Kirkcaldy, once declared that two mililons pounds "ivas a mere flea-bite in the ocean." and on another occasion ventured the assertion that the "pale face of the Britisn soldier was the backbone of the Indiau Army." PICTURESQUE ENGLISH.

Olio journalist began his editorial summary on the closing year thus: — "With one foot stretched out to touch the silver strand of the New Year, and with the other lingering 011 the fasrreceding vst-a of the past." An American editor thus replied to a correspondent who dared to write disagreeing with him : —'Front time immemorial it has been customary for ants, and fleas, and flies, and scoundrels. and scallywags, and skunks. Januses, jackasses, aticl Judasses, lizards, leaches, and lice to assail mankind in general, and their superiors in particular." British newspaper cr'-tic-ism of the drama and opera, is sometimes fairly outspoken, but for brutal frankness it is not in it with the following, from an American paper :—The Faust of Signor was industriously stupid. Its fervour was clam-like in .'its flabbiness . In its most thrilling moments it never rose above the calm insipidity i.f a cold potato." The British newspaper which published a criticism of that kini would probably be sued for libel.—J. V.