St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-05-27

VA VI HiSl page U6-
voted to an Gin
terview'' with her. In it she was de
scribed as the Iii st beautiful and faScin-
at!ng creature that ever drew breath,
and there was chapter on her con-
quests which gave the reader to believe
that half the mOnarchS and miliiOnaireS
i'll Europe were at her feet. Next
day another paper devoted a
column to a minute descriD-
ton of her wardrobe, mostly
imaginary. And so it went on for
week. L have seen letter which she
wrote to the young FELLOW who gave her
the money, returning him his loans and
telling him the result of her specula-
| ton. y send you back" she wrote,
1.-The 100000 francs you loaned me, with
my thanks and love. | assure you |
have made good use of it. | spent the
whole of it OH the newspapers. Doubt
less you have observed III what manner.
Did you think the account Of me good
one? = Well, did [ get
the money back? L assure you
that in twenty-four hours after
the publication OF that first
Interview in lie - | was called on
by score of rich and titled suitors, and
| received letters and presents from
twice as many more. OF course | could
not see them all. \ But from the
few | selected have already got more
than 2,000.000 francs for my half mill
ion" And this is the woman now per-
hapS the best known woman of the town
Of Paris. Her jewels. her house and
her horses and carriages are the envy
of princeSSeS, and she sets the fashion
in dress for all society. She is reputed
to be worth more than S3,00G,000. All
this she has won by the yenality of the
press.
Not long ago l entered NJ. Carolus Du-
rams studio, and discovered him gazing
at an illustrated paper, in which there
was large portrait of the wife of a mill
ionaire banker and bourse speculator.
''What do you find in That TO interest
your [ asked. Il was wishing 'he re-
piled. that could get up to such an
exalted fine art as that" why" said
l, that is wretched thing" Eyes,
said the great portrait painter, ''but
see! l spend weeks on portrait. 1t is
finished. 1t is work of art And |
get how much for it? Say $1,000 or, per-
of Englishman. Well, here is my friend
of LIE -. He puts this picture in his
paper. 1t took his botch of an engraver
a few hours to make it. And he gets
$4,000 for it. That, my friend, is high
artr'
Still another example. related by NJ.
Claretie. Some years ago the father of
a leading member of the demi-monde
died. He was worthless old fellow,
who had lived on the earnings of his
daughters immortality and had spent
most of his time at the wine shops. But
his daughter determined to give him
grand funeral that would also serve as
an advertisement of herself. The then
minister of war was one of her most alb
ject wOrShiperS, so she easily persuaded
him to order out q magnificent military
funeral, with bands playing dirges, ban
nerS draped, and regiments marching
with musketS reversed. This was done
by the minister on the plea that the
dead man was "a Waterloo veteran"
He was no more veteran of Waterloo
than he was of Agincourt or Crecy. But
the papers next day devoted whole col
umnS to descriptions of the funeral and
eulOgieS of the deceased. All these no.
tees were paid for by the woman at so
much per line. But doubtless the adj
vertiSing they afforded her brought in a
handsome profit on the investment.
Such are the abuses which NJ. Millaud
bewails, and which he believes will re-
suit in the utter ruin of French journal
ism. But does not his own paper, LIE
Figaro, sin in this respect? Certainly.
1t is as great sinner as any of them.
You see, it has to be in order to compete
with its rivals. If it did not its circula-
ton would fall off and it would become
bankrupt instead of being the gold mine
1T is. l suppose that the bulk of the
earnings of nearly every Paris paper
comes from irregular and illegitimate
sources. know of papers with small
circulation and almost no advertising
patronage. apparently, that pay cent per
they do it? Why almost every line they
publish is paid for.