New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-13
.IOURNnJSu IN NEW- YORK.


the usual spirit of rivalry has been displayed
by the principal metropolitan newspapers III
collecting and arranging intelligence OF the
successive sensations of the day. The public
has consequently had an excellent opportunity
of comparing the different theories OF journal
ism which prevail in different offices, and which
are hardly less distinct than the opposite schools
of political opinion. Tho system upon which The
TRIBUNE is uniformly conducted our readers
understand and we have the best possible
proof that they also approve it. That
system is to spare neither money
nor pains in obtaining news; to tell
our story plainly and frankly; and when
we have told it to stop. Embellishing reports
with ambitious rhetoric, setting them off with
startling headlines, and mixing romance and
conjecture with narratives of fact, so that the
true and the false become undistinguishable,
like the incidents of historical novel, are
devices which belong to the infancy of journal
ism, not to its vigorous maturity. rude OF
q fast-liying community may crave to be
shocked every day by new sensation an
il-infOrmed public may be content to take Its
record of events diluted with the fine writing
of cheap scribes, or adulterated with the fan
cies of INSCRIPTIONS editors but newspapers
in a city like New-YOrk are read by great
sensible and educated majority, who cannot be
deceived with a mere show Of news or an
appearance of enterprise. Whoever tells the
truth in the most direct and unaffected man
Der will best please lis readers
1t is rather surprising that, quick as
Americans are in finding out the best way to
do things, there are still certain classes Of
papers which have not discovered the true
road to reputation ard success. The Mounte
bank of the press, for instance, with whom
journalism is purely commercial speculation,
trades upon the curiosity of the mob, and trusts
to making money by the daily manufacture of
lively sensation. Like any other mounte-
bank, he cares for nothing but a quick SALE
The business of telling the truth never pre-
seuts itself to his mind as a part of his pro-
fession. The good or bad effect Of what he
sells is n matter about which he is supremacy
careless If he attract customers his ambition
is satisfied. he slaps Lis pocket with unctu0us
Complacency, aud for the ultimate reputation
of his paper leaves another generation to care
One needs but vulgar sort of smartness
to make newspaper of this KIND. 1t
is always easy to collect mob by
loud shouting. People listen TO the As
founding Developments" to tie converse
tons of Special Interviews" to the "Roye-
Cations" and Disclosures" and Mysteries"
for the same reason that n crowd always
gathers about the man in the square who yaunts
the virtues of his patent backing and incom-
parable pain-killcr; and when they turn away,
half angry with themselves for being so easily
cheated, there are others in plenty TO take
their places. What matter if the Develop
ments prove mares nests, the Disclosures pure
SANDER the Mysteries all nonsense 7 Before
they are exposed another series Of sensations
drives them out of mind, and the editor neither
rctracts nor apologies
A business speculation of this sort is not
journalism but there is another theory of edit
ing winch is still worse. That theory makes no
venture that will cost money, and throws over
the poverty of its pages the thin vail of pre-
tense and parade. Dummies and DilutiOn are the
sole stock in trade of the journals of this class.
When Mr. Wrinkle wanted hot water with his
brandy, Mr.. Bob Sawyer took the fuel ont of
practical window-seat, labeled soda water"
and this little bit Of humbug was a
sample Of the whole shop. Dummies my
" dear boy" said Bob "half the drawers have
nothing in 'em, and the other half do MT
" open. Hardly anything real in the shop but
" the leeches, and they are secondhand" These
empty drawers with flaming labels, these bot
ties of nothing marked with sounding names,
these snowy cupboards which won't open,
do MT we see them at the news-shops every day
of our livcsP Do you see that four-column story
about some exciting topic of the dayH well,
that is a drawer that won't open. Are you
attracted by an array of big type and excla-
nation points we II, that bottle has nothing
in it. Is a sprightly-looking introduction af-
fixed to something that looks like an honest
and interesting narratiyef Nothing but Goals,
my dear Sir; the introduction is merely one Of
the Dummies. Then you have the Diluters.
In the Offices Of the Dummy and Diluton papers
there are always two or three young
men who hold the same relation TO
the genuine dispenser of news that
the pump holds to the COW. 1t is their work
to take tiny vial of facts and water it till it
fills big jar. If the editor lights upon
mOrsel of ncws-enOugh, say, TO occupy a
single squarc-the Diluters spread it over two
or three columns. If another paper gets be-
fore him, he steals the news from his rival,
DISCUSSES it with a few buckets Of nonsense,
and prints it next day as his private property.
If he misses an expected dispatch altogether,
or the Associated Press brings him intelligence
of startling occurrence, such as a great steam
boat disaster, he bids the DuterS imagine
themselves far away and make him letter or
so "frOm our own correspondent" With the
aid of those neronuial rumne he can MANN
facture kilograms from the Thames
or the Mississippi as long as his
columns will hold them. The car