THE INTERVIEWER'S VADE MECUM.
Question. What is the object of an interviewer?
Answer. To show the merit of his work at the expense of the interviewed.
Q. Is there any choice in selecting a subject?
A. Very little, all that is necessary is that the name at the head of the article shall be fairly familiar to the general reader.
Q. Need the interviewer record the history of the interviewed?
A. No; unless matter grows short and the exploits of the hero are required for padding.
Q. But have not those exploits made the hero famous?
A. Yes, and consequently they have become "old matter." To be interesting, details, if frivolous, must be up to date.
Q. Which would be the better copy—an account of the subject's most successful campaign, or a description of his wardrobe?
A. Undoubtedly the latter. The exploits will certainly have been described a score of times, but a list of coats, hats and neckties will probably have the charm of novelty.
Q. Then you would not value your subject's diary?
A. Not if it merely recorded his public life. In such a case it would be distinctly less interesting than his butcher's book.
Q. Are the surroundings of a hero of moment?
A. Certainly, if they are little known. The back yard of the greatest poet becomes a spot full of interest if it has hitherto escaped description.
Q. Then a poet's staircase is more memorable than his stanzas?
A. Certainly; and the warrior's umbrella-stand than the record of his battles—a philosopher's overcoat than the tale of his scientific discoveries.
Q. If the interviewed has a dog or a cat, is it advisable to refer to the fact?
A. Assuredly, and such a reference should run to the length of half a dozen pages, and possibly a couple of illustrations.
Q. But surely the interviewed must sacrifice a fair amount of time to the interviewer?
A. Quite so; but the obligation is mutual.
Q. And yet it is only the interviewer gets a reward?
A. In money. But then the interviewed has his advertisement.
Q. Is such an advertisement very valuable?
A. If the account is published at the commencement of the season it may convert the subject into a Society lion.
Q. And what are the advantages enjoyed by such a creature?
A. Invitations to dinners, dances, and at homes, from all-but-perfect strangers—for a while.
Q. And what follow?
A. Reaction and forgetfulness.
Q. It seems that to be interviewed is not permanently beneficial to the subject?
A. Of course not; but that is a matter of small importance to the interviewer.
Q. Then what advantage does the latter obtain at the cost of the former?
A. That is a question that can best be answered by reference to the ledgers of the publishers.
Q. Why should not the interviewed turn the tables upon their visitors and become the interviewers?
A. Because an interviewer is seldom of sufficient importance to undergo the operation.
Q. Is there any other reason?
A. Certainly; and a most important one. If the interviewer became the interviewed, from the latter's point of view it wouldn't pay.