FLUBDUB NEWS STORIES 



[to accompany one to have or to buy what isn't sold in 

 the Press room. 



On big days we were accustomed to see an influx of 

 men of various ages who were switched on, to call 

 a race-horse "it," and who generally " botched " the 

 story of a good day. As a rule they hadn't the 

 slightest idea of what they were writing about, but 

 so long as they got hold of a few " names," and could 

 juggle with some " think " story, they escaped dis- 

 missal. It is such absurd folly to send young men 

 down to do an " Ascot " story or a " Derby " story 

 who know nothing at all about it. I was always glad 

 to do what I could for them, as the majority were so 

 perfectly hopeless. Even the late Fletcher Robinson, 

 intimate friend of C. Arthur Pearson, and on his 

 staff at the Express at a big salary, had a crass 

 ignorance of racing and what he had come to see. He 

 wrote good stories in the magazines, and had a certain 

 capacity, but it was absurd to depute even he to 

 write the " word picture " of a Derby. Various 

 young men in turn have their expenses paid to do 

 these articles, but dismal failure is the usual result. 

 The precedent of the usual flub-dub of a news story 

 dies hard, and will exist, I suppose, for a long time yet. 

 It is the same when the English Cup Final at the 

 Crystal Palace comes round. It is a time-worn idea 

 that the public wishes to know how much bread, how 

 much in " cwts." of pork pies, and how many hard- 

 boiled eggs are sold. It's all hog-wash. Some of them 

 have manners on Derby Day, some haven't and want 

 to take the front chairs on the Press stand. Can 

 you beat it ? 



One thing many of us could never make out — who 

 has done the articles in Truth for the past few years ? 

 There must be merit in them, because they are so 



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