Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-03-07
SOUTH AMERICAN PAPERS.
PLENTY OF JOURNALISTIC ENTER
PRISE, BUT NO REPORTERS.
No Regular Hours of Professionalism
Current Events Are Written Up
Onices Cheaply Fitted Out
Advertising Patronage.

Except in Montevideo, Buenos Ayres, San
tiago, Valparaiso, Rio de Janeiro, and other
of the larger and more enterprising cities,
there are no regular hours Of publication;
but papers are issued at any time from
o'clock in the morning until 10 O'Clock at
night, whenever they happen to be ready to
go &c press. 1t seems funny to have yester-
days paper delivered to you in the afternoon
of to-day, but it often happens. As soon as
enough matter is in type to fll the forms the
edition goes to press.
In the cities mentioned and some others
there Is n good deal of Journalistic enterprise
and ability; news is gathered by the editors
there is not a reporter in all Spanish Amer
ica-teiegralIh dispatches are received and
published, Including cablegrans from Europe
furnished by the Havas news agency; news
correspondence regarding current events
CONES from the interior towns and cities;
meetings are reported, fights and frolics are
written ~ in graphic style, and even inter-
viewing has been introduced to limited ex-
tent The newspapers of Valparaiso and
BuonoS Ayres are the most entcrprising ard
ally conducted, FL Concrete, Of the former
city, and Ia Nacion, of the latter, ranking
well beside the provincial papers of Europe
The editors of papers in the tropics are
seldom called upon to report fires, they
DO not occur once year. The houses are
practically freproof, being built Of adobe,
or sundried bricks, and rooted with tiles.
No stoves are used, and as there are no
chinneys, such thing as defective fiue is
unknown An the cooking is done on an az
rangeinen: ike a blacksmith's forge, with no
fuel but charcoal
The delight Of the South American editor
is street fight, and although no account of
It may not appear for several days after the
occurrence, the writer gives his whole soul
10 il and it is always doae up in the most
elaborate and femboyant manner. 4 dog
fight or any other event of interest would be
treated in the same manner. Everything is
'-transcendent;" everything is isurpassing"
The grandiio9uent style of writing, which
appears everywhere, is not confined to news
papers, ncr TO ora:ions, but you find 1t in
TIE most unsupported places.
In the larger cities the papers are delivered
by carrier, and are sold by newsboys on the
streets, but in the smaller towns they are
sent to the .Correo," or postofiice, to be
called for like other mail by the subscribers.
The price Of subscription is Unfortunately
sdf Dciiig Sfltofu lcSo ti4dn IL usiu
often double that amount; and single copies
usually cost 10cents in native money, which
viii average about ~ cents in American
gold. The paper with the largest circula-
iation in South America is La Nacion Of
D,;enas Ayres. which is said to circulate 3d.
CSC copies. But ,2o0 or | 800 copies is con
sidered fair circulation for the ordinary
daily. Most of the Offices are very cheaply
fitted up A dress of type lasts many years
and stereotyping Is aluost unknown
The presses used are the old-fashioned
elbow joint kind such as were il
vogue in the United States forty years
ago In Chill and the Argentine
Republic there are some cylinder presses run
by steam, bat tie people generally through
cut the continent are very far behind the
times in the typographical art. Modern
equipments might be introduced very easily,
but the printers down there know nothing
about them; and when perfecting press
that folds and cuts is described to them they
are apt to accept the story as North Amer
lean exaggeration