, 1886-11-19
TRADITIONS IN JOURNALISM.


The Tendency to Move Along in Boston
paths-Late Innovations.
There is, or at least there was a tradi-
ton that the features of n journal must
be c~astiron in their permanence. Anu n-
written law, supposed to be as unchang-
able as the Medo-Persian statues, has
forbidden the slightest departure from
established methods. 1t of course is not
surprising that the publisher of a
weekly story paper in New York should
cling to a name which, sufficiently de-
scriptive of the sheet when first issued,
by and by wholly lost its significance.
The title came to be a valuable trade
mark and an advertisement. Perhaps
Mr.. Bonner overestimated the risk of a
change which else he would have been
glad to make. Look, for example, at
the easy nominal transformation of one
of our most successful magazines. Serb
ner's had attained its full growth before
it was rechristened The Century. The
process proved to be in no respect inju-
rious. But publishers rave shrunk from
notifications far less important than
these. The proprietors of The Illus
tratcd London News could not be in
duced to make n slight transposition in
this laundering title and call their jour
nal The London Illustrated News.
\ similar conservatism-rather say SUI
pcrstition-induces The London Times
to make all of its leading articles just Il
little over "a column long and to SEM
them headless into II waiting world.
Apparently it is supposed that the Brit
ish empire would undergo a revolution
] II tl.. ,anI.t. urara alIAtr.I ia Eppxx xxIni
the essay was all about until he had read
The final line, or if the multitudinous
advertisements of the Thunderer should
be classified for the convenience of its
customers and the public. A tyrannical
tradition not only forbids the mention
in the columns of a iirst-class newspaper
of the name of anybody concerned in its
making; but when the editor of The
London Saturday Review in its most
brilliant days died, while he was the
subject Of more Of less extended mem
ton in every other journal in the city,
his own ignored him so completely rs to
take no notice of the purely personal
fact of his death. These are a few of
the examples, which might be indefi-
nitely multiplied, of h tendency OF
journalism to move along beaten paths
indeed in arbitratrary ruts.
OF late large inroads have been made
upon these rigid notions and supersti-
tons. Not the least striking have oc-
Cured in English journalism, where they
were for a long time most influential.
Right under the nose of the u%nchanging
Times have sprung up those social and
political publications, such rs The Lon
don Truth and The London World,
which nave most a~udaciously delied the
convcntionalities and most widely de-
parted from old-fashioned rules and Gus
toms Of the press. Note the substitution
in these prints of the frank and egotistic
Il" for the modest and i~mpersonal "we.
| remember when this mannerism was
first adopted in this country-by the late
f.. 4. G.. Judson, in New York, in his
Ned Buntline's Own. 1t was regarded
with contempt and horror by all the
editorial ives" of the town. Blu the
practice is readily tolerated in Mr.. Lab
ouchere and Mr.. Yates. In other ways,
here and abroad, the hard journalistic
lines have become lax, not to say loose.
The interview-an instrument so obvious
and so convenient that, as in the case of
other ingenious and useful inventions,
one wonders that it WAS not discovered
bcfore-has effected almost II revolution
Cor. BROOKLYN Eagle.