ports of interviews,” — a mild hope in view of the numerous illus trations he gives of the experiences of sufferers from interviews incorrectly reported.18 “ Interviewing by intuition ” is a happy phrase characterizing
interviews " which comprise nearly everything except what the commanders- in - chief said to the interviewer.” An interview of two columnswith a famous man may contain from him the single
phrase , “ Well, gentlemen , are you pleased with what you have seen ? ” and the interview thus become“ a matter of phrenological
and anatomical interpretation .” 17 The " reversible interview " has been facetiously described by G . J. Holyoake who, after many trying experiences with inter viewers who misunderstood him , says: “ Once I tried the experi
ment of saying the opposite of what I meant, and next day it came out all right.” 18 But he is silent on the point of recom mending it for general adoption , though it might have com mended itself to Hugo Münsterberg who complained bitterly of
his experiences with interviews distorted , manufactured , and patched together from disjointed sentences.19
The " wooden interview ," characterized by alternating ques tions and answers, has happily disappeared , but the impression of its artificiality has long remained and has unhappily been carried over to the modern interview to its undeserved prejudice.20 The stolen interview enters the domain of ethics, but on the side of history its value may be unimpeachable. The interviewer
is always specially desirous of securing information in regard to proceedings done in camera. At the Second Hague Conference a young English reporter who spoke French like a Frenchman was very anxious to learn what had been said by a prominent delegate
from Belgium . He therefore went to him and casually remarked , “ We hear you made a strong speech in the Congress yesterday against compulsory arbitration .” The Belgian delegate, taken unawares, replied in astonishment, “ I, against compulsory arbi 16 Correspondence of Goldwin Smith , pp. 418 -421. 17 New York Evening Post, May 27, 1916 . 18 Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life, II, 156– 157. 19 “ The Case of the Reporter,” McClure's Magazine, February, 1911,
36 : 435-439. 20 A characteristic illustration of this type is “ An Interviewer Inter viewed,” Lippincott's Magazine, November, 1891, 48: 630-638.
