The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-15

shall he Press Abdicate its Functions and
Become q Merry-Andrew.

Snall the fFeBS ADubcat0 It's FUNCTIONS ana
Become q Merry-Andrew.
New York Star.
Most of the New York Sunday papers gave
illustrated descriptions of the great explosion
last Saturday at He'll Gate. Some of the pic
lures were absurd, but others gave the reader a
better idea than he could otherwise have Oh.
tanned of the sudden leap of the water into the
air. This. perhaps, would justify illustrated ar
ticles in a daily newspaper as an extraordinary
event, for the blasting of Flood Rock was an
event of great interest, and In some respects nm
precedented.
But the illustration of daily newspapers is no
longer confined to extraordinary occasions. Here
in New York il has become almost universal.
There are, in fact. now but two or three daily
newspapers that do not regularly print pictures.
Is this a good thing2 1t certainly is not due
to q growing artistic sense in our people, for the
pictures are usually so bad that any artist would
denounce them as corruptors of the public taste.
Furthermore. the subjects illustrated are gen
orally local in character. and the space and
prominence given them lend force to the criti-
csm so frequently made in the West and South
that our New York papers, instead of being
metropolitan, are really the most provincial pa
pers issued in any large city. The pictures do
not serve the purpose Of familiarizing the public
with the appearance of the men most talked
about. for the portraits printed are so atrociously
bad that a mans nearest and dearest friends
would not recognize the pretended picture OF
him.
u ctio tucSC COUSlucTdttOUSt tn6TO 10
a deeper and stronger objection to the growth of
the custom of printing pictures in daily papers.
All who have carefully watched the development
OF Journalism of late have noticed a growing
tendency to make the newspaper a source of
amusement rather than a means of information
and instruction. Every department of the mod
ern newspaper illustrates this tendency. Writers
who can say bright. audacious things just
grazing the edge of improperly are welcomed
and paid as never before. The tendency is
equally marked on the editorial page of many
papers. Comment is %fippapt. and skins the
surface of affairs. Solid reading is thought to
be dull even to drearIness.
The theory seems to be that human affairs are
a great circus, for which the newspaper is the
explanatory play bill. and that human existence
is a joke, the point of which it is the editors
function to show his readers. The iilustra-
ton of newspapers is simply another step to
ward adapting them to this conception of their
uses.
The Star does not accept this view of human
affairs, nor does it, as a public journal. propose
TO play such a part. 1t believes there are mill
ions of intelligent people in this country who
deprecate the tendency of newspapers to aban-
don their old and honorable place as public in
structors and don the cap and bells of the
merry-andrew. The Star prints the news
which intelligent people want to read. 1t dis
cusses events ami men with candor and moder-
alton, from the standpoint OF fixed convictions.
1t ministers to the literary enjoyment of the
people and to a wholesome sense of humor in it's
readers. 1t has to do this within limits adapted
to the post-diluvian man. span of life, and it has
no room for pictures and no inclination to be-
come an illustrated daily journal.