INTERVIEWS THAT HAVE COST FORTUNES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 87, 25 March 1911, Page 4 (Supplement)

INTERVIEWS THAT HAVE COST FORTUNES.

WHAT REPORTERS HAVE BEEN PAID FOR SPECIAL “COPY.”

There is, perhaps, no man more widely discussed than Mr. John D. Rbckefd'er, “the world’s richest millionaire,” and no celebrity is more difficult to interview. Only recently an American journalist was offered the sum of 200 dollars could manage to secure tho O 1 King’s opinion cn a question r.Jlafcins to the Standard 'Oil Company, and failed to earn the money because Mr. Rockefeller refused eveivX to speak to him, ■ j

FINANCIERS DIFFICULT TO GET AT.

A year or two ago, when the famous millionaire was in Paris, a reporter on the French journal "Lo Matin” endeavoured to interview him. The PnessLis note,b<x >k a cheque for ±2OO, and lie was willing to hand this oyer if Air. Rockefeller would grant him a quarter of an hour’s conversation. The request was refused. As a rule, the money kings of the world are far more difficult to get at from a journalist’s point of view than the crowned heads of Europa. More than one American President has been familiarly interviewed, and submitted to it as quite, in. the ordinary course Of events. President Lincoln in tne strcct « by representatives cf newspapers and asked if such and such was true, and' what was- his opinion on this and that subject. It is snid that he was never known to refuse u journalist <t chut. L*incoln so freely ?'? w , awa F eeerets that during the great S IV! L, ” a .’’ General Grant declined to let the President' know any of his plans. LARGEST SUM EVER GIVEN. Just, before the Treaty of Peace between Russia and Japan vas signed a prominent American journal paid a wellknown Washington official £2OO for a short conversation respecting the doings of President Roosevelt at'Portsmouth, N.Y. The professional interviewer re ceived £5O.

It is alleged that one of the largest sums ever given for an interview wa» that paid by the “Pall Mall Gazette’* some years ago to a journalist who succeeded in interviewing the Khedive of Egypt. The amount was £1,200, ana the interview filled about two columns of the “P. M. G.”

Kings and queens have often been interviewed by newspaper men. -Mr. Stead (has ‘'chatted” with quite a number of European potentates, including the Czar and the German Emperor ; while the late Mr. AshmeadBartlett one? secured a certified interview with the dethroned Sultan of Turkey and published it in his paper. The editor of a Berlin paper drew a cheque for £l,OOO. in favour of a journalist who secured a lengthy interview with Prince Bismarck whejj the estrangement between him and the Kaiser took place. DISGUISED AS A BANDSMAN. A representative of a German paper desired to obtain a detailed description of the Radziwill Palace, which wan Prince Bismarck’s residence, and, learning that a certain band of Guards was to perform at the palace on tire Chancellor’s birthday, he made friends with the conductor, and finally got himself rigged up as a bandsman. In this disguise he entered the palace, and managed to masquerade suer e-.-sfu lly by bolding up parts for one of the musicians who had been let into the secret. After the band had played to the satisfaction of Bismarck and his guests, the former invited the members to partake of refreshments, and then personally conducted them over his palace. Tne journalist’s opportunity had come, and Ire took such advantage of it that he was able to fill columns of the paper he represented with an account of the historical building. Recently a German pressman, who wished to learn from the Kaiser’s own lipshis opinion on a certain ouestion of State, donned the Imperial livery and entered the sains train in which tliei Emperor was travelling. When his presence was discovered, however, His Majesty immediately gave orders for the disguised reporter to be quietly dropped out of the train ten miles from anywhere.