Getting London News

LSpecial Correspondence.] I London, Sept. 7.- There is probably ■jo post in journalism whksh American ■.■paper men desire so much as that I correspondent. The situation ■ .:..: only highlypaid but it involves no ■ saall degree of dignity and importance. Ifobe 3,000 miles from the grasp of your B(ity editor is n relief to even the most ■ eonscientious, hard working writers. Blhe London correspondent is as nearly I his own master as my man can be who I tached to a daily newspaper. It is I merstood that at so great a distance I froffl the home office his judgment must I fe relied upon, and no wise concern Bfaiiiks of assigning a man to London I without expecting to rely upon the corI mlent's discretion and faithfulness. I ight to follow, then, that the handI (nl of American reporters in this city I aoukl be the cream of the profession. ■ Wbether that is so in every instance the I writer cannot say, but he has found I tbem an interesting lot of fellows, faithI fal and industrious. I "Industrious" might seem to be a misI nomer to some of the rank and file in I America, if tliey should take a casual glsnce at the men as they appear in the corridors and smoking rooms of the great hotels. For just an instant the American reporter might think that these boys were having a good time and devoting themselves assiduously to good dress, luxurions apartments and dignified ease penerally. The judgment would be a mistaken one. That they have a good time is pretty certain, for they enjoy their work, and for the most of them the work takes them necessarily to places where men of wealth and position congrégate. While the correspondent is chatting with a group of men he is on the qui vive for an item of news, or a story for his Sunday letter. There is a fíate for him at important banquets, he is welcomed at many social functions, and in other respecta which reporters know all about he is an.established figure in English life. Not more thtffi three or fourof the correspondents are concerned in furnishing "routine" news; that is, stock quotations, market re)orts, parliamentary proceedings, ordinary calamities and the like. All this is relegated to the great news associations that have their offices here and their staffs of local reporters. In three instances Americans are at the head of the London offices of news associations, bnt their employees are, I think without exception, Englishmen. To them the London newspapers are an invaluable aid, and much of their news is sent directly from the printed columns after they have appeared on the Etreet. The six hours' difference in time between London and New York makes this a perfectly legitimate and feasible form of news gathering. For instance, some of the important evening papers appear at 1 o'clock; It is then but a few minutes after 7 in New York, an hour when the evening newspaper offices are deserted, unless some energetic office boy has come down unnsually early to clean up. By wiring the important news of the day at any time before 2 p. m. the American papers are supplied hours before they would think of issuing an edition. The same thing follows with the morning papers, although the results are not quite so satisfactory. It is quite possible, however, to send everything of importance in the London morning papers so as to reach New York by midnight, and every association takes a hand in this kind of operation. The cotrespondents of these individual papers do not concern themselves with thismanner of hustling. They devote their efforts, as I have indicated, to getüug inside information, working up 6pecial topics, that by the very reason of their American fiavor would not naturally be covered by the London prees. The dean of the correspondents here is, of conree, Mr. G. W. Smalley, of the New York Tribune. His appointment dates from the early seventies. He lives in a fashionable neighborhood and does not Itoingle much with his rivals, who are nearly all much younger than himself and naturally not the most congenial asWciates. Mr. Smalley is decidedly a future in British society, and it is there he is best known. -Wxt to him in seniority of appointment is Mr. Harold Frederic, the correspondent for the New York Times. His career has been a brilliant one on this side, where he has been stationed for about eight yeara. He, too, appeurs to teafixturein London, but be freqaent'j makes long trips to the Continent in fte pursuit of special topics. The result of one of these trips was a series of articles in The Times about the young Ger"tön eniperor. It was these articles, Piblished in book form B few weeks ft that made the greatest Hterary senMtion of the year. It is not necessary to 6Peak of Mr. Frederic's novéis, for everybody kuows about them. It might also Ko without saying that he is preparing aoother. He is never idle, and even a Dewgpaper man may wonder how he Mds time to do all his work. r. Arthur Warren represeuts the wstou Herald. He is about thirty-one 5wrs oíd, and a man whose enthusiasm 'w his profession I have seldom seen qualed. He lives in a beautiful apartjnt house in the district known as vuelsea, and from his wiudowa he comJMnda a fiue view of the Thames, Bat:'r-a park and a great stretch of the tterminable city. . By common consent the hardest workn? American newspaper man in London 's Mr. E. Tracy Greaves, correspondent for the New York World. He has offices Irafalgar square, where you may Ciive a reasonable chance of finding hiui J' any hour of the day or night. Not -ontent with pursuing the game of news hunting lndofatígably, he has recently secured au Am etican issistant in the person of Mr. John J. a Becket, the author of many chartmng short stories in the American magazines. Mr. a Becket was attached to The Erening World before his recent transfer to this city. The New York Sun's "bright young man" is Mr. Frank Marshall White, at one time the literary editor of Life. Mr. White has an office on the Strand, and he, like the others, is frtquently on the Continent on special missions. Every newspaper man, at least, knows his Sunday letter, which in many respecta is the brightest of all the correspondence sent from this side. He has no regular assistant, for the work demanded by The Sun is not of a character to require it; but on Saturdays, w-hen his letter is in preparation, he often has a half dozen men scouring the town under his direction in search of facts. The New York Herald, long famous for its foreign news, is represented here just now by two men, Messrs. James Creelman and T. B. Fielders. Mr. Fielders came here from the New York Times a little more than two years ago. Shortly afterward Mr. Creelman came over to take charge of the Herald's London edition. Since then, however, he has been flying about all over Europe and writing all manner of articles that have had great sensational interest by reason of the topics treated. It is worth recalling that it was he whosecured the famous interview with the pope, and more recently he has published a set controversy between himself and Count Tolstoi about the "The Kreutzer Sonata.'' A short time ago Mr. Creelman was detailed to London, and he and Fielders are co-operating in the work of sending news to America. There is another American newspaper man here connected with The Herald in the capacity of editor of the Sunday paper. This is Mr. Ralph B. Blumenfeld. He had been for a long time the city editor of The Telegram, The Herald's evening edition in New York. Under his management the London paper has becoine very prosperous, and appears to be still nioving on to that respectful recoguition which Engglish people are so slow to grant to American enterprises. Among other young American newspaper men now stationed here are Mr. H. J. W. Dam, correspondent for the New York Recorder; Mr. Louis Moore, representativo of the United Press; Mr. Walter Knieff, chief of the Associated Press office, and Mr. Horace Townsend, forinerly a New York Tribune reporter. Both Messrs. Dam. and Townsend are writing rather more for the English press than for the American, and Dam has brought himself sornewhat to the front by a play - "Diamond Deane"- which was produced at the Vaudeville last March. Nearly all these men appear to regard London as a permanent residence, foi the bacfielors among them have fitted up comfortable chambers (English for apartments) and the married men have taken long leases of houses or flats. Some of the bachelors, like Creelman, are babbling of marriage when the leaves have fallen. Nearly all are club men, the famous Savage claiming their first allegiance, of course, and the National Liberal coming perhaps second.