420 .
unknown in the community are passed over by the reporter , “ Who cares ?” is the somewhat contemptuous question of the reporter.
The reporter is sometimes compelled to be forehanded and he may send in a provisional account with a later confirmation or alteration and thus occasional errors arise. But an over elaborate forehandedness may give rise to a class of errors that may cause the future historian the greatest perplexity. It is often necessary for the descriptions of important events to be
written long in advance of the events themselves, yet it not infrequently happens that the events do not take place either at the time or in the manner described . The coronation of Edward VII of England was arranged to take place June 26 , 1901, and a
London weekly not only wrote but also printed an elaborate account of the ceremony, and included in it an adverse criticism of an opera at Covent Garden that was never given . The illness of the King made it necessary at the last moment to defer the ceremony until August 9 but the paper giving the account of the ceremony that did not take place is retained and prized by its owners “ as probably the most stupendous and artistic fake
in history .” It is, however, not just to label as " fakes ” all accounts thus written in advance, - the very fact that they are so written , if revised in the light of the events themselves , is often
a guarantee of the accuracy and faithfulness of the description , and to that extent the custom is to be commended rather than
condemned . The difficulty of the historian in using such accounts arises from the frequent failure of the reporter to check up his
account with the event itself and he thereby falls into error. In 1907, November 5 -9 , the Association of Collegiate Alumnae leading weekly in New York City published in its issue, dated November 2, a long and complimentary account of the celebra
tion. It was written by a special correspondent and evidently was intended for the issue of a date two weeks later than the one in which it appeared .
The weather is the cause ofmany variationsbetween the events and published accounts of them . Public lectures, concerts, enter tainments, sermons, social engagements, ice carniva
