Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1878 — As to Reporters. [ARTICLE]

As to Reporters.

The newspaper reporter is undoubtedly a peculiar person, and none know his peculiarities so well as those who employ him. As a species of the human family, presenting, of course, a certain proportion of abnormal exceptions to the general rule, he is a person of enthusiasm, enterprise and much endurance. He is not always or generally imaginative. His best types ran rather toward systematic accuracy as to facts, the tendency toward imaginative flights being usually crushed out by editors, who prefer facts to fancy in their news columns. The fancy reporter, of whom “Gath” is perhaps the highest American type, dwells wholly in the regions of imagination, and wins literary renown and reward at the sacrifice of moral reputation as a person mindful of the truth. But the regular, average daily reporter is a hard-worked drudge, for whom a great diversity of gifts is needed. He must be übiquitous. He must be of all parties, schools and creeds, or else of no party, school, or creed. He must be ambidextrous, and capable of living without food or sleep. He must “keep the ran” of a variety of things, past, present and to come, as incongruous and conflicting as the articles in a cyclopedia. He must never make a mistake. He must have the patience of Griselda, and, the sweet temper of a saint. He must return snubs with smiles, and when he is refused at the front door, he must get his information at the back gate. He must be intensely interested in the most intensely stupid people and things, and must frequently sit in the seat of the scorned at the feast which he is to glorify in the next day’s paper. He must be as methodical as a clock, and as versatile as a weathercock. He must be all things to all men, if by any means he may get an item. He must be a person knowing all things, and having no opinions about anything. He must contribute largely to his newspaper, and never have his individuality recognized. —Philadelphia Bulletin.