, 1874-01-23
LOCAL MISCELLANY.


newspaper which wants to publish d fair
sized sheet, and which labors under the d:sad-
vantage Of having no advertising. is driven
sometimes to curious expeulents in order to fill
its columns. This ia especially true Of tile
Times, which mover had much advertising, aad,
owing to Its lessenin. circulation, has lost most
Of what it once had. There il prejudice there
against publishing reprint matter, unless it be ac-
counts Of seduction and rape cases, aud the work
of getting up the padding is thrown on the re-
porters, half Of whose time is already employed
III running ar ound town soliciting merchants fot
advertising. In other days, when these young
men were hard up for subjects. it was custom
ary to fabricale an account OF child eaten up
by dog in some remote part Of the city. But
finally the public became weary OF TINT dog,
and some other theme had to be select
ed. Then, for a tune, the fashion was
to writo up an imaginary adultery case OF late,
how ever, the tactics have been changed When
short of matter, report er ii either directed 10
write up spiritual beauce or to look Ill the files
Of THE TRIBUNE for the preceding rear, find
something which was written up tLen, dress it
up q little, fabrcate few bogus interviews, and
pass it eli on the unsuspectns countlymen as
something fresh and pew.
A few days ago We had the spiritual seance
yesterday IN article borrowed IL good part
LU1t H. AIl LuhL ~ lIu5 III th-4AoM LIE 4A1NbAG
lor last January. 1his production Was headcd
"Colvin'a Collapse" and stated that petitions
we're circulating to secura 1000 names in order
to have all election iu April for the pu1-
pose of organizing Chicago under- the
sss s1ss' hs s" ecs ae 'ef ef HSR sseo Of
if it resulted in favor OF adopting the law, would
be, it was claimed. TO oust the present incu.n-
beuts Of city offices and probably the Mayor As
was stated in TuE TRIBUNE lust July, such q
a,,,,,1n. .irt
the dissatisfaction felt with Mayor Medils, and
such petitions were circulated on the Moth Side
and received a few signatures. but the pan
was given up as imp1acticable, since too many
people who we're dissatisfied with the
mayor could not stomach the changes which tile
new form OF government would lave brought
with it.
: But since then, whenever an Alderman be-
comes dissatisfied with the powers that be lie
talks about getting up petition aud upse.ting
ceal the chances OF his lc-election would be
small, be confines himself to tald- But the
Times reporter followed too closely the
TRIBUNE article written early IN 1873,
Gus cnapzea ~ that uu year s' would make. Tie lat
election for Mayor under the new form Of gov
erument would uot be until lo75.-a wear iron
April,-and consequently Mayor Colvin. would
hold until that time the prospect Of an lume-
diate collapse. on Lis part is therefore rather re-
tnote. 1t Ii uuWlBe to copy last years papers
bliudly.
In order to fill out the article-to pad
itr-a lot Of bogus interviews we're got
ten up, the Gully result Of them
being tnat the writer was husr led out OF the
City Hall yesterday BY soma Of tue people he
had falssed- There was No interview with Mr.
O'Hara, and none With Mark Sheridan. Th.re
was no interview with Mayor Colsi1-in fact,
there was no interview with anybody but al
Alderman, and that consisted in suggestion On
tile part OF the reporter that he should like 4
glass OF beer. No snch petitions are in
ci ca]aton OF existence. IN ess come
OF those started last year have been preserved.
and no Alderman is going to get up ore. It is a
dep1ofable attempt at making that which was
news last January do duty in that capacity now.