St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-09-04
WATTERsON ON JOURNALISTIC
The English, American and COnti-
mental schools Compared.

Courier-Journal.
The German is an essayist and the
Frenchman is perSifeur. Neither has the
nature or the knack to be journalist and,
consequently. the press of Germany and
France is an alternate adventure in disserta-
ton and senSatiOnaliSm. wholly personal
and circumscribed and of no news value
whatever. The English newspaper takes
more kindly to the American model, and
between it and the American newspaper
a not unfair measurement may be taken,
though somewhat to the disadvantage of
the BritiSher in the matter Of enterprise
and muscularity, albeit the newspapers OF
the United States have declined somewhat
in brain power and integrity the last two
decades, seeking to make up by the heels
certain conscious lack in the head, and run
ming over much to photographic seed.
The st. James Gazette and the Pail Mall
Gazette are neat and priggiSh, and may be
likened to dandified man about-toWn who,
hat well brushed and cane in hand, goes for
an afternoon stroll down Regent street or a
canter in ROttOn Row.
The Standard and the Morning Post
are altogether too respectable to entertain
any one but the grandmother of an extreme
i
duke.
The News, whose owners have opinions
and know thing or two, possesses consid
cradle intellectual vitality, whilst the Tele-
graph, once the most brilliant Of the Lon
don Journals, seems to have lost its grip.
somehow.
The Times has big advantage over its
penny rivals i'll the circumstance that it
still retains and maintains its three-fOld
charge; but the Times has been spurred up
considerably by competition the last few
years, and is now the most valuable, as it
has always been the most important and
influential newspaper in Europe. 1t made
itself great power against the government
in the last political battle. In the begin
ming it saw that Mr.. GladStone'S Vulnerable
side was his American side, and late and
early. knowing where the weak spot was
and how to reach it, it SmOte him there.
There was never meeting in the United
States in favor of home rule that the Times
did not report with fit and striking COM
ment. There was neve: a particularly
foolish speech OF editorial which it left I'M
noticed, or subscription to the Irish fund
which it failed to parade.
The Times is to be respected for its can
dor touching the United States. 1t does
not love a bone in the body OF the Ameri-
can union, and is not afraid or ashamed to
express it's ill opinion.
The art of leader writing is not wholly
lost to English journalism. 1t is by no
means as common as it was in days gone by.
The sledge hammer strokes of a CODbett,
however, like the brilliant flashes of Fon-
blanque, grow rarer and rarer in the Lon
don press, having almost wholly disap-
peared from the American press.
When it comes to news the London
newspaper is nowhere.
AS to the American news, the London
papers, for the most part, ignore it. They
report the American stock markets, with
line or two of mention If there happens to
be a confagration, an earthquake or
strike. This exclusion of the United States
as topic having any concern for Europeans
is done on system, which is shown con-
spicuously in cases of public disorder or
scandal, which are duly chronicled, with
all possible exaggeratiOn.