The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1876-04-13
BRITISH JOURNALISM.
The way Newspapers are Edited In Eng.
land.


Sub-editors of Liberal London papers
are correspondents of Conservative
provincial papers. Sub-editors of Con
servative metropolitan papers are cores
pondents of Radical provincial papers.
There is no use in. your ever attempting
to point out to an English editor some
inconsistency between his new order and
the previous opinions of Tie paper on
the same subject. You are sure to have
the order repeated, or given to another
writer less scrupulous than yourself. I
once heard an editor of high-class pa
per say to an old contributor who was
seized by refractory fit: 81 don't ask
you to write this because it is right, but
because I want it in this way and if you
don't like it, will find some one else to
do the work" And, all things consid-
cred, he was impolite, but not wrong.
He is the only responsible person of the
anonymous newspaper, and, consequent
ly, full discretion must be left to him as
regards what is to be said on a given
subject. but how, on the other hand,
can you expect an article to show talent.
or to be sufficiently telling to influence
the reader, when written In that way, by
a man personally disagreeing with every
word he has to say In it?
On the continent of Europe the editor
and contributors do not work together,
unless they are quite sure that their po-
litical and philosophical views are In har-
mOny, and If disagreement upon
point of detail sometimes arises, it is
usually settled by friendly arbitration
before couple of old members of the
staff. The editor could not and would
not dare to exercise despotic power
over the productions of man of any
talent or knowledge, and one who signs
his name under his contribution.
The absolute power which the anony-
nous press gives to the despotic control
of editors over the works of the contrib
utors must naturally react upon their
personal relations. Familiarity between
the working staff becomes impossible.
Contributors to the same paper hardly
ed with each other they might attempt
to exercise pressure upon the foreman
of the shop. But when they are kept
apart they can be managed much more
conveniently, and if one of them begins
to think himself indispensable or gets at
all cenceited, he can be at once replaced
by another willing to make himself gen.
orally useful at q moderate price. The
total absence of anything like friendship,
or even common fellowship, on the staff
of English papers is perfectly puzzling.
The commonest navvies and mechanics
have more esprit de corps than the gen. .
lemen of the press, always Jealous of
each other and always ready to throw
cOmrade overheard In order to take his
place. It is all struggle for life, and
for bringing in ones copy.
The editors and proprietors, of course,
take full advantage of this, and an Eng
ish leader-writer, an adviser and teacher
of the nation, thinks nothing of waiting
an hour in the editors ante-room along
with the office-boys, while the great man
is taking his lunch or listening to the
suggestions" of some distinguished
Or influential visitor. Many of the
writer's on the English papers see less of
their editor than D. groom or cook does
of his master, and this is the case, not
only with the outside contributors, but
even with members of the staff. The
only persons having regular admission
to the presence of their chief are the
Underwriters. They come to the Office
from Chaplain, Camberweu or West
Brompton, at an appointed hour, like
chorus-singers to rehearsal, without
knowing what sort of human beings
they will have to personate, whether
they are to be converted into priests,
into warriors, into fishermen, or into
gypsies. After having waited in the
ante room as long as the comfort of the
editor requires, they receive their theme
and keynote, go 10 their club to see
whether anything toward the sscopy"
can be got there, and make up their
minds as to what sort Of encyclopedia,
dictionary, guide-book, law digest, or
old files of their own productions they
shall refer to. Then they have to write
couple of provincial pot-boilers to be
dispatched by the evening mail, and
after dinner proceed to the production of
those couple of hundred lines which the
great mogul is to revise and season at
midnight, and the all absorbing reader
has got to swallow on the next morning.
This sort of business is going on every
day in every London newspaper Office,
the only variations being that In some of
them the theme and keynote are given at
l p. M, In others at p. M, and that,
consequently, in some of them the wri
tiers have a little more time for the
consideration of what they have to.
say. True, they are handsomely paid.
For thousand pounds year, with six
weeks holiday, man can endure good
deal, but only peculiar and specially
trained brain can be made to work under
such circumstances, especially if we
keep in view that very few of these men
have even that primary satisfaction of a
writer of seeing their thoughts unmuti-
lated, ana their style not disfgured, in
print. Yet this is SO seldom the case
that 7 once heard one of the leader
| writer's of the Times frankly avow in
his club that, notwithstanding his serv-
ing on the staff of that paper for up