Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-08-02
NEW YORK NEWSPAPERS.
journalism In the Metropolis as Seen Through the
Glasses Of . Csustic Correspondent.


Glasses Of Csustic Correspondent.
see the Century magazine has re-
Gently added NJ Z. v. Smalley to its
list of regular contributors. Mr.. Small |
ley is an old newspaper man. He has /
been as long in journalism, and knows
as little about it as anybody ever met.
When man drifts out of daily news |
paper life into the magazines it is safe |
to make up your mind that he has |
abandoned all hope of ever earning
more than decent living with his pen.
Junius Henri Browne, who was once
very industrious writer, and fairly sue
cessful, as magazine hacks 60, once told |
me be could not possibly make more |
than 81, 900 a year in that sortof work. |
He went further, and declared that not
more than one or two men in the en-
tire country who depended on magazines
for living managed to earn more than
this. Junius, may here stop to point
out. is now, writing aonpareil sub-edi-
torials for New York daily, at so a
column. He writes with his encyclo-
pedia. If there is an attempt to deci-
mate the Russian royal family, Junius
goes for the back statistics and tells
about all the past undertakings in this
direction. If the nihilists really have
got il in for the car, they just ought to
send him file of Brownies editorials.
never but once knew mule to die.
suppose mules do die sometimes, but
| never heard of more than this one
authentic case. A man had one wi ich
m n f.,.ti
after the war. This mule had kicked
bear and two panthers to death, had
walked right through whole colony
of bee-hives, smashing them to splin-
tiers. had been slugged by the brawny
fist of Samuel j, Tilden, and had eaten
seven-five yards of two-ply barbed-wme
fence. His owner had long ago given
up the task of killing him. One day
the man picked up copy of n news
paper out of a heap the mule was eat
ing. 1t contained one of Browne edi-
torials about floods, written appropos
of the Mississippi rampage. Well, he
began to read that editorial out loud.
The mule stopped eating. shifted the
air, snorted a couple of times, rolled
over on his back, and was deader than
a red herring in ten seconds. Another
editorial writer told me this story, and
know it is true. As pointed out in
the beginning, f. V. Smalley has left
journalism for magazineism. lie is
brother of G. W. Smalley, who writes
Londonletter to the New York Tribune
No steamship company will contract to
carry the Tribune across the ocean, be-
cause those letters are so heavy they
are afraid they will sink the ship.
Whitelaw Reid congratulates himself
on paying Smalley by the week. If he
paid him by the ton. one letter would
put a mortgage mile high on the
Tribune building.
f. V. Smalley used to be on the Tri-
bune, too. But he removed himself,
and the paper got well. While it was
convalescing, he went out and became
the managing editor of the Cleveland
Herald. The boys in the office say he
gave them some new ideas. He laugh.
them some strange things about the
duties of a managing editor. Before
he came there, they thought man
holding this position was sometimes
guilty OF work. Smalley undeceived
them. He used to come stroling into
the Office somewhere near o'clock in
the afternoon, take off his coat, light
cigar, brush his hair, put his heels on
the table and look thoughtfully up at
the ceiling. About once an hour he
would run his hands through his hair and
groan with the ecstacy of genius. The
boys thought it sounded more like the
wind collie. But they accepted the
Smalley hypothesis, and let it 90 for
genius. Along toward 5 o'clock he
would get up and brush his hair again
Then he would gaze in a sort of deirium
of delight into the mirror for ten min
utes or so, pass his hands caressingly
over his brow and murmur, absently,
my God! what head!' After that he
would put on his coat and go home.
Strange to relate, the Cleveland Herald
did not rapidly increase in power under
this system of management, and Mr..
Smailey, out of Difference to his delicate
and sensitive nature, was ultimately
allowed to resign. Since then he has
been moving languidly but impressive
~ from pillar to post, and from post
back to pillar again, until, somewhere
between the two the editorial arm of
the Century reached out and lifted him
in. If it raised him by his most pro-
minent point, Mr.. Smalley's trousers
must be made of very strongly woven
material.
THE NEW WORLD.
Journalism in New York is one of the
most beautiful and remarkable things
to watch that you ever saw. Here are
the two Pulitzer brothers. one on the
World and the other on the journal.
doing their best to cut each other out,
and both of them getting left by pretty
near all the 'old fogy" papers in New
York. Joe" Pulitzer came here from
st. Louis, where he runs the Post-Dis-
patch, and juggled the World with the |
aid of Jay Gould. He gave it out that
he paid $4,000 for the property. My
personal impression is, that "Joe" Pull |
tier never saw S350,000, though that |
sum is possibly what he would have
paid foi the World if he had really
bought it. AS it is, there is still a |
strong holding in the paper, and George |
Gould is one of the company's board of |
directors. This was sent out as sort |
of p; rthian arrow by Hurlburt, the for |
mer editor, when he was sailing for Etl- |
rope the other day. After all Puitzer's |
noise about purchasing the paper, and |
his make-believe at going for Gould,
this must make him feel rather tired. |
He slammed at his owner a few times
editorially, but any body who could read
between the lines could see he was
mighty careful not to say anything that
would really hurt The fact of the mat
ter is that Pulitzer himself is not so |
very much of a newspaper man. He is
built upon the architectural design of /
his .exiled compatriot, Carl Schurz-
which is something between a saw-buck
and derrick. Pulitzer's maker in the |
newspaper line is Col. John Cockerill, !
who is probably one of the ablest young |
journalists alive. The Post Dispatch |
wasn't worth much above the price of /
old paper until CockeriIl became the |
managing editor. Cockerill is now here /
in New York, try ing to make something
out of the World, and if there is such a
result among the possibilities he will
pull it through. But it is pretty big
contract. The journal, run by the |
other Pulitzer, is likely to be a good |
property. 1t has worked up hig cir
culation, and is almost exclusively a |
local paper. There are some bright |
things in it, but the impression it leaves
when you have read it through is one |
of fiippancy and thinness Everything
is sacrificed to what is no doubt in