Show PARIS REPORTERS fp BE SUCCESSFUL THEY MUST BB BORN WITH THE TALENT What Is Expected of Them and How Their Work Is Graded Why If qno ot Them Ar Old enone Reporters Experience In Securing Important Information When the chief of tho service of in formations consents to annex a debutante de-butante his aptitudes are first utilized in the department des chiens creves This is the professional slang for picking pick-ing up such items at the policq stationi as sire not sent in to the prefecture Foi this work he will be paid 2 or 3 centimes cen-times a line for those inserted on the average about one in twenty of what he minds in These modest auxiliaries have only exceptionally the perspective of power to make themselves rioted Indeed In-deed their role is limited for if they learn of an accident or im affair out of the common run theymust telephone the fact to their papers from whence the chief sends as soon as possible one or two staff reporters but if the lateness late-ness ot the ltanr or the gravity of tie wen justifies sucu r initiativo the titular of the chiens creves1 I becomes somebody In this case if he is clever he can render his journal special service by avoiding a beat and he will be well recompensed This is why over at tho Cafe du Coq dOr consumers sometimes some-times hear a young man at a neighboring neighbor-ing table shout gleefully to his comrades com-rades At last Ihavemyflrstcrimei1 J and the comrades press his hand and congratulate him warmly Perhaps he is promoted to the dignity of enquetour or interviewer Now he receives a retaining salary of 50 to 60 a month and is paid extra for all tho lines he writes so that he usually earns 25 to h30 weekly Ho must give his definite measure however and show if he really has the gift of the profession profes-sion for after two or three failures ho would be thanked and have his head cut off Of the 150 reporters who each I year spring up on the Parisian pleas eight or ten at most survive and become corporals and sergeants in tho profession profes-sion To succeed it is necessary not pnlv to have good health perfect Bearing Q Qourtes7 and education which permit of being received tW fYWl w0 but gtct t ft W tf S t r 1 r f i power of assimulation The reporter may know nothing but he must be qnick at understanding everything It is necessary that n question being given he should know in a few instants who is the person in Paris the most probable to solve it He must go to see this person per-son or some one olso equally informed and in 20 phrases of an interview gather a clear net and precise resume of the responses to make He must also have the scent of a detective and above all love for his profession I know a Paris reporter who was sent out to writo about the doings of a for i eign sovereign then at a French watering water-ing place Ho went to tho chateau where tho monarch was stopping but was politely po-litely kicked out by the grand chamberlain chamber-lain We telegraph daily the latter said news relative to his majesty to our national papers You can take from them for your columns This did not satisfy my confrere Ho had been sent at much expense on this special work and it would never do for him to do nothing during his sojourn A brilliant idea struck him Ho had got acquainted with an old man who had formerly been employed in tho telegraphy department of the army So he said to the exlien tenant Would you ba capable of writing writ-ing out the value of tho letters transmitted trans-mitted by the Morse system by simply hearing the ticktack of tho instrument Parbleu that is only the infancy of business answered the other Well sir I will give you a louis every morning morn-ing if you will come and pass a quarter of an hour at the postofiice The next day at the hour when the dispatches from the chateau arrived those two men were very busy in the office over an imaginary correspondence but as soon as the Morse instrument begin be-gin to tick tho old man inscribed on a sheet of paper letters of foreign words ho did not understand The reporter read these words over his shoulder He immediately translated them and the official dispatch was scarcely off wher ho sent tho same thing in French to his Paris paper The telegraph employees naturally supposed that this literal translation was given to its sender by one of the sovereigns household while as for the royal guest and his grand chamberlain they had the pleasure of reading in tho Paris journal details cou corujngHiIieinselvcsIcmgfbaforo their national papers arrived When a reporter has in analogous circumstances cir-cumstances shown the resources of his mind he generally obtains a fixed salary which assures him a revenue dependent depend-ent of tho fluctuation of actualities He is for instance charged with relations rela-tions with a cabinet minister reports of expositions public reunions etc but even in favorable conditions it is exceptional excep-tional that he gains more than 200 a month Moreover tho fatigue is such and the nervous tension so constant that the employment cannot bo filled for many years This is the reason why there are no old reporters in Paris and why those who are more than 40 years of ago are pointed out with pride Long before that age those who are able to make their careers as journalists are classed as artioliers They have shown that they can do reporting otherwise other-wise than with their legs and hen they know the honor of the first page and the joys of signatures I am glad to add that generally these articliers whatever what-ever their rank or employment preserve in their hearts good ppinion of these reporters re-porters and there is a local saying to the effect that one becomes a journalist ist he is born a reporter Paris Cor New Orleans Picayune |