Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-01-04

IN reading columns OF Items like the
following, which copy textually from
Philadelphia paper. "Samuel Il. Shlpley
Is lying awake o. nights studying plans
for the salvation OF the Reading road. y
"Arlstides welch still takes deep utter
est in thoroughbred horses.n Crank
Thompson is fond OF Yachting on the
ocean," Thomas Eekin believes In
painting without outlines" Aud thef
the extraordinary titles they invent for
their columns OF miscellaneous notes;
Nuggets and Nubbiua,n PRESSED
Bricks" "Pith and Point
"Police Plckiugs,p ''Drops OF
Ink "Microbes" Again, there "
the wonderful space work Of those
"smart' and "sparkling' reporters VINO
write elaborate interviews with har-keep-
ers, loafers, dealers In ctowing-gum, can
dy-makers and other eccentric Characters
such subjects, presume, are considered
TO be of "real interest to human beings
II quote the worls OF newspaper pro.
gramme-and douotless they are, but
within certain limits. charitable critic
might, perhaps, discern In this kind of
reporting a certain striving for impression
and effect Yes, there is vivacits OF
appreciation, rough hand that
might, perhaps, be strained TO
do good work, but at present what
coarse art II is II It can be called art at
all What triviality, doubly trivial, be-
ing as It is uurcdeemed by charm Of form
and stylel And what faint OF prorin-
cialism running throughout the whole
periodical literature OF the country, and
maulfesting itself, not merely In the news
papers, but even in those beautifully IL
Illustrated American magazines where the
text so often seems To be the work of as
pirsng New England schoolma'ams!
The sensahonalism and yulgarity of the
American press cannot, | am afraid, be
denied, however readily these elements
may be explained.
Regarding the much-abused Sunday
papers Mr.. Child says:
cannot see much TO admire in them
Like the weekday papers,, the Sunday
editions have grown up at haphazard, and
not with reasoned development The
aim in both cases has often been to get
out as big paper as possible, to give
more reading matter than the rival pa.
pers, and SO here we have once more O
manifestation OF that curious American
admiration OF mere size, bigncss, i'm
mensity. The vogue of Sunday editions
originated during the war Of seces
sion, when there was naturally
an eager demand for news every
day. After the war the Sunday edi
tions were gradually enlarged until from
simple news wrappers, they became col
lossal miscellanics of twelve, sixteen anC
twenty-four pages fllled with all kinds o
matter reprinted from all kinds OF sources
novelettes, tales and essays from the En-
glish magazines, columns OF verse, cor
racy gossip, scandal, hysterical oddities
outlandish provincialisms and contor
tions of language, and miscellaneou
appropriations and pillagings from
all quarters. The selection O
the contents Of Sunday papers
certainly made with some rude Kind 0
skill; IL is the quintessence of desultori
ness, masterpiece Of mixed entertain
ment prepared and set forth for thu
amusement OF minds filed with an aim
: less curiosity. These Sunday papers pre-
suppose a fidget1y and purposeless civil
cation, without dignity of repose, runuin
eagerly first after one toy and then afte
another, listening first to one story au
then to another and forgetting the begin
ming before The end has been reaches,
civiizat IN whore newspaper reading Is
: kind OF ocular DEMONSTRATING, a
occupation for the eyes alone, pastim
similar to that of Pope's rustic simple
ton who "whistled as he went for want q
thought 1t is no wonder that tn
J Americans are in such furious hurry {
Z get through their business when the
think how much time must be needed {
read these huge journals. 1t is a mys
terry, too, how, with so much newspape
reading on hand, they still find time t
t peruse their pirated editions Of Enghs
} books.
, The writer says the New York Sun, i
spite OF the large concessions which II
editor sees fit TO make TO popular an
+ trivial topics in order to secure wild
: circulation, remains the best written an
the best edited Journal in the Unite
States.