12 .
provincial papers.31 Justin McCarthy had more than one trying experience in attempting to report for a provincial paper.32 Wemyss Reid bartered his services to the Morning Star in ex
change for the coveted gallery ticket that enabled him to send
parliamentary news to the LeedsMercuryand he describes the" two wretched little cabins, ill-lit and ill-ventilated , which were used
for 'writing out,' ” one occupied exclusively by The Times staff, " and the other so small that it could not accommodate a quarter of the number of reporters.” 33 W . H . White gives a depressing picture of the work of a sketch writer for the provincial press in
the Reporters 'Gallery in the House of Commons.34 Since these days of disfavor, restraint, and multifarious obsta cles put in the path of the reporter , there has been developed an elaborate organization of reporters comprising the stenographic
or verbatim reporters, the sketch writers who describe the speakers and the effects of their speeches,35 and the lobbyists who gather up political gossip and official communications and write in brief paragraphs reports that appear as the “ London Letter” or as “ Political Notes." 36 All of this development is in itself an assurance of the authoritativeness of Parliamentary reporting as at present carried on . Yet even in the earlier days, when all note-taking in Parliament was absolutely prohibited visitors, an occasional prodigy like “ Memory Woodfall” was able to report
the debate so perfectly as to be “ popularly supposed to be en dowed as a reporter with powers somewhat akin to the super
natural,” 37 and to win recognition in fields outside of parliamen tary reporting. John Taylor writes that: 31 Forty Years' Recollections, chap. XV, " Provincial Journalism
and
Journalists."
32 Reminiscences, I, chap. II, " First Glimpses at Parliament.” 33 S . J . Reid , Memoirs of Sir Wemyss Reid , chap . VI, “ Life in London .” 34 Mark Rutherford's Deliverance, chap. I, “ Newspapers." 36 The delightful sketches of Parliament written by H . W . Lucy have been collected in three volumes, - Sixty Years in the Wilderness, Sixty Years
in the Wilderness - More Passages by the Way; Nearing Jordan ; the somewhat
satirical sketches of E . M . Whitty are entitled St. Stephen 's in the Fifties.
36 M . Macdonagh, The Reporters'Gallery, chapters on “ The Reporter and the Speech ," " The Sketch -writer ," and " Lobbying."
37 " Such was his fame that the first trembling question of the awestricken visitor from the country, on entering the House of Commons was: 'Which is Memory Woodfall and which is Mr. Speaker? ' " - M . Macdonagh , The
Reporters'Gallery, p. 269.
