Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-10-24
FRENCH JOURNALISM.
The Successful French Journalist Be-
comes a Social Lion.
Every Article Signed by Hts Author
The Opportunity Of Individual
ity--EditOrs Who Are
Demi- Gods.
TEL Bddle in American Journalist

paper and one in English-Speaklng lands IS Lot
more marked than the effect upon the per-
sonal reputation and renown Of the writer.
There are men in this country who become
known, as did Horace Greeley, but it is safe
to say that the average intelligent American
could not give the names of half q dozen
newspaper men outside his own city, and not
more than those of three or four Englishmen
connected with the press.
They know Labouchere because his capital
stT' is un-English. They know delightful,
polished George Augustus Sala because,
while breakfasting in bed, journeying due
north, or sllimming the world with his dia-
mond-pointed stylus he always tells US be
belongs to the fraternity, and Sc he does, but
IS about as like the average as the unharnesS
able zebra is to the Flemish draught horse.
How many know what Jove hurls the thun-
derbolts Of The Times. In France all this is
different. A paper is read for its editorial
alone. Every article is signed. even the tele-
grams must bear the name of the agent, and
he is promptly pros 4cuted if the news is false.
He must not have heard so-and-so. HearSay
evidence will not do. The news must be true,
or not even limited at. The articles all bear
the na : of the writers. Sometimes tbesa
are ass, ed; but their bearer must rs known
to the %. 'r and to the public.
For dra .ings there is the same rule. In
deed, tla-.. mons lie plume ara transparent
masks. ID in France did not know that
Cham. tn great contributor 70 The Chart
vari, and whose d.. was mourned by the
world a year or two ago, was the Count de
Noe, who took LIS name Cham. or as we
would say Ham, from jeing the son Of Noe
OF Noah. Andree Gil, the bitter draughts-
man of La Lune RouSsc is u. de GuineS, and
so with all. IS a rule, ho-zever. il Is only
the great man who wishes u speak TO the
public through the press, VINO does not sign
his own name, and lie IS so well known, tie
paper 81 well understood TO be MS organ that
all feel from whence the Inspiration
flows. a successful newspaper man
is at once known. To be known
is to be courted. and instead Of the man
losing his identity in the power welded by
the paper, he himself, in his own person, is
sought after, caressed, . leader in the world
of fashion as veil as Of letters. No people on
earth have 50 pronounced views on political
questions. and nowhere are shades OF s-nti-
1nput 50 finely drawn as in France. The editor
who champions the views taken is fairly wor-
shipped-exalted to deIni-god, and his each
line and phrase becomes sacred 20 his political
IeilOW-LelieNeIS.
With such rewards SO promptly won. 1t IS
not to he wondered at that great ability is
shown, and gradually the traveller finds that,
If not a newspaper, the French journal is q
very clever piece Of work. When one says
French, one means Partisan. In the pro
vinces, the newspaper-which name l shall
use, because I know no better translation Of
journal, and which name, as the thing con-
tains no news, must be taken in the Pick
wickIan sense-the newspaper in either our
or the Partisan sense may be said
not to exist, so wretched and
forceless are even those of the great cities
of Marsailles, Bordeaux or Lyons. They
have TO influence Of any kind. Paris IS
France in many senses, in none more 50 than
in her press. Go into any coffee-house, from
- the sea to the Alps, it is the Paris paper the
traveller sees, the Paris paper which the
native reads. England has her ably edited
Manchester Guardians, her Scotchman, and
her Mercuries to supplement the later re-
ceived dai}v from the metropolis. France
has nothing out her capital 70 look to.
The advertisement business of the
Partisan newspaper press is entirely man.
aged by one company, and each paper
is paid by this company, in proportion to cir
small advertisements, more or less of the per
sonal kind, received at the office of the paper
itself, and for it alone, but these are OF little
value, and it is the subscriber, not the adver-
tiser. who is the man looked to To bring
money into the strong box
The papers are sold, not by flying, bare
footed urchins-indead a bare soot or rent
garment Is not allowed by the police to
appear in tie straet-5ut pretty little kiosls.
like fanciful santry-boxls, line the principal
streets and the trade Of selling the papers
from these is largely in the hands of elderly
women. All of the newspaper Offices are mora
places of resort than in America, but The
Figaro has a gorgeous dweuing-place, with
reading-roOnls and 4 museum, where all are
welcome, and where thousands scent to like IL
go daily.
It will be remarked that the Paris news
papers contain anecdotes and stories which
could not be printed in eny English or Aneri-
can publication. 1t must, however, be re-
menbared that while these are certainly no
worse than the shocking advertisements pub
lished IN America, that in France no boy, no
young girl nor moderately young married
woman is allowed to read the newspaper.
Here they are everywhere in the hands of the
girl changing to wOmanho0d, with their
personals and the vile notices of the qua cl1s
doing thus more harm than the more anus
ing, more plainly told anecdote which, in
France, is only read by those old enough t.
be used 20 self-government.
In review it may be said
that in France journalism is the
field of personal renown and the journalist
the brilliant social lion. In England, and
much more in America, the journalistic
writer is a man who merges his Individual iden-
tity il the force and power of the paper. In
France it is Mr. So-and-So whom you read.
admire or condemn. Here it is The Herald
or The Times. The American Mr. So-and-So
may die. and you, who have read his articles
for quarter of century, do not know his
name. Perhaps Gambetta might be possible
here, or even a swash-buckling De Cassagnac,
with his singing pen and twenty duels, but
faulteSs adherence to his political faith A
Henri Rocbefort, Vicomte de Lucay, the
well-born, weIl-dTessed, MISUNDERSTANDING
leader of the canaille, would be an impossi-
bility, because his only claim to personal dis
rnction las been his pen.
TeEerifTe's Cccaineai Trade.