word for
word. The reporter must correlate properly and keep firmly in mind the
facts gleaned in the interview, then get as quickly as possible to some
place where he can record what he has learned. Many an interviewer will
listen a half-hour without taking a note, then spend the next half-hour
on a horse-block or a curb writing down what the person interviewed has
said. Other reporters with shorter memories carry pencil stubs and bits
of specially cut white cardboard, and while looking the interviewed man
in the eye, take down statistics and characteristic phrases on the
cards. Some even, as on the stage and in the moving pictures, take
occasional notes on their cuffs,--all this in an effort to make the one
interviewed talk unrestrainedly.

=76. Use of Shorthand.=--A word may be said here concerning shorthand.
Its use in interviewing and in general news reports should not be too
much encouraged, even when a man is entirely willing to have his exact
words recorded. Often it deadens the presentation of news. Shorthand has
its value as far as accuracy and record of occasional statements are
concerned, and may well be used, but its too faithful use has a tendency
to take from news stories the imagination that is necessary for a
complete and truthful presentation. The stenographic reporter becomes so
intent upon the words of the person he is quoting that he misses the
spirit of the interview and is liable to produce a formal, lifeless
story. The reporter may well use shorthand as a walking cane, but not as
a crutch.

=77. Precise Questions in Interviews.=--If one finds exactness of
statement a requisite, one may obtain shorthand results by bringing
along a sheet of typewritten questions for submission to the person
interviewed. These questions the person must answer definitely or else
evade, in either case furnishing story material. But whether a reporter
comes armed with such a list of questions or not, he must at least have
definitely in mind the exact purpose of his visit and the precise
questions he wants answered. In the majority of cases the reason that
interviewers meet with such unwelcome receptions from great men is that
the latter are too busy to waste time with pottering reporters.
Certainly the men themselves say so. President Wilson declares that of
the visitors to the White House not one in ten knows precisely why he
has come, states definitely what he wants, and leaves promptly when he
has finished. Such p