WHAT DID HE SAY?

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 44, 21 October 1915, Page 4

WHAT DID HE SAY?

There are many people in this wicked world who give their fellows cause to he amused, and not least amongst theni is the man who somehow has gained a seat, on a public body and takes himself very, very seriously. i Not infrequently from the dark depths of black ignorance, and when with glaring eye lie speaks, what he says is certainly not what he thinks he says or even what he would like to have said, even il his words were audibly understandable. Consequently occasionally a faithful and conscientious reporter finds himself in trouble with this class of orator, and the latter, ' finding what he is reported to have •said is not what he would like to see, it stated he gave utterance to, rises in his wrath and pours torrents of stupid and abusive insinuation on the scribe's devoted head. Xot that the .scribe minds much anyhow: newspaper reporters don't take themselves

too seriously as a general rule, or if they do it does not happen more than once or twice. Of course also, such a picture as above could not possibly refer to Cr L. Baskin, whose ; gentle placidness endears him to fellow-coun-cillors and Council servants and everybody in fact with whom lie comes in contact, though he was unusually violent in his outburst at yesterday's meeting of the Stratford Comity Council. Such an outbreak on the part of a man who avoids argument. makes one wonder what a gentleman of the kind outlined above would have done. Perhaps he would have "drawn a bead" on the reporter! Horrible thought! Cr Baskin did (if our reporter was not again mistaken) say something in his wordy wanderings regarding "reporting by'arrangement." Well, if Cr Baskin will ask nicely we will instruct our reporter to give a really graphic and verbatim report of at least a portion of one oi his speeches in the near future. If only some orators could hear themselves reproduced by phonograph' record, they would receive the surprise of their lives—and even Cr Baskin might be mildly astonished at his own utterances.