Toronto by Gaslight: The Night Hawks of a Great City: As Seen by the Reporters of "The Toronto News"Toronto News
History
Toronto by Gaslight: The Night Hawks of a Great City: As Seen by the Reporters of "The Toronto News"
Toronto News
Toronto (Ont.) -- Description and travel
until a rival journalist “got on to it.” When the news is actually made
public through his paper, he has no further interest in it. It is a
lemon that has been sucked, and has now no piquancy for him. This is his
attitude towards the information he gleans that is published, but still
more reticent is he in regard to what he does not publish. The reporter,
bit by bit, loses, like the doctor and the lawyer, his faith in human
nature. Like them he often gets glimpses in the back corners of people’s
characters, which back corners are as guiltily hidden from the eye of
man as the favorite sultana of an eastern monarch. As he goes along the
street he sees many men who know him not, but whom he knows well. He
knows of certain facts concerning them which the rest of the world knows
nothing of. He sees them in places of honor and trust, in the mart, and
in the church, and in the ball-room, and yet he knows that were those
little damaging occurrences “learned by rote and cast into his teeth,”
the trader, the deacon and the partner in the dance would shun them like
lepers and pass by on the other side. Many a reputation is saved by his
leniency. One of his commonest experiences, next to requests to put in
certain names in his paper, is requests to keep others out. Gentlemen who
have had the misfortune to appear before the Magistrate in the morning
are the most frequent attenders in reportorial rooms for this purpose.
They have first made application to the reporter in the Police court, and
he has referred them to the city editor. That gentleman generally asks,
Why should the report be mutilated for the purpose of keeping your name
out of the paper? He points out that the public pay their money for a
paper with the understanding that all the city happenings that came under
THE REPORTER’S EYE
should be found recorded therein. The fact that you were discovered at
two in the morning seated on a wood-pile, rocking a loose plank and
singing hush-a-by-baby, evidently suffering from the hallucination that
you were performing a sweet domestic duty, would be a very interesting
item to serve up for the delectation of the people who live next door
to you, and indeed to all those who know you. Now why should I rob them
of that pleasure. Then the supplicant is heard as to why. If it is a
first offence the city editor, following the Magistrate’s rule, in
all probability grants the prayer. This is the case of a man who has
substantial standing in the community. But all kinds turn up on the
same errand. A York street tough came in one day, and in a manner which
was a curious blending of promises and threats, asked to have his name
suppressed.
“You want your name kept out? Why it’s been in our paper a dozen times
for worse things than fighting. Go away boy, go away.”
“Say, nobsy, I’ve got a new girl and she’ll give me the shake if she sees
that.”
“Can’t do it sir.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account