Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-02-24
French and American Newspapers.


Brauder Matthews has in the Cen
E.y an illustrated article on "Pari-
ian Newspapers, which he begins a.
follows: Zone of the most character
istic street cries of London and New
York is never heard in Paris, nor is one
of the most picturesque figures IN the
streets Of London and New York ever
seen IN the streets of Paris, for in
France the noisy and pertnacious news
boy is unknown. The functions of this
unstable dissemination of intelligence
are filed in Paris by the staid old
dame, who sits at the receipt of custom
10 a kiosque. A Partisan kiosIus has
nothing oriental but the name. 1t is a
little sentry-box of glass, lust large
enough to shelter the neWsyender from
the changeable weather Of the French
capital On a little stand in front of
the kiosque are tiny heaps of countless
newspapers Of the city, and on strings
on each side are pendent numbers of
the chief illustrated journals, artistic
and comic. These kiOsques are scat
tered along the bouleyards, and from
them the Partisan buys his Figaro in
the morning and his Temps at five in
the afternoon.
"This difference of attitude between
D N-AH -A-A-4 A-A5 -4--4Es LE-L--H ~ No HAS ~
have his newspapers brought to him in
/ haste hot from the press, aud the
/ leisurely Erenchman, who is content to
| pick up his paper when he goes
| abrOad-this difference is far more
| than external; it is essentially typical
! of the French journal and the English
/ or American newspaper. For one
/ thing, the French journal is not q news
l paper in the American sense of the
/ word-and of a truth it does not pre-
| tend or desire to be. The Figaro now
| and again make q ludicrous claim to
/ the ubiquitous Omniscieuce OF the Lon
l don Times or the New York Herald.
| but this Is not to be taken seriously.
| The factis that while the primary quail
| ity of a good English or American
| daily paper is news, the primary quail
/ ity of good French paper is not news
/ but criticism-criticism of politics f.
/ the first place, of course, and, in tn
/ second criticism Of commerce, of law.
/ Of finance, of science, of art, of itera-
| tire, and of the drama. The aim and
| ideal Of the best French editors is to
! present not so much the minor details
/ Of fact, but the best possible opinion
[ on the fact OF mere brute news, mi
mute particulars of.scandals, crimes, and
/ horrors, such as we here in America
I have dumped upon our breakfast-table
l every morning, with AL the accom-
| panying repetition and accumulation
| OF embarrassing facts-Of all this tn
reader of the Partisan journal sees lit
tie or nothing. The childish or unin
| telhgent thirst to know what has hap
peneds regardless of the Importance o.
the event, has not yet been developed
IN France by the rivalry of scrambline
editors; and it may be asserted with
out fear Of contradiction that even ii
they could have it without cost aud
without trouble, French editors would
refuse to print most Of the trivial trash
which cumbers the columns of even the
foremost American papers.
1T Is not that some of Partisan pa
pers do not print trivial trash, and
trash worse than trivial the difference
Is rather IN aim, the French editor.
thinking first of criticism and the Amer
lean editor only too often thinking of
mere news-hrst, last, aud all the time.
Yet the leading principle which should
govern even in news-gatheriug is bet
ter understood in Paris than in London
or New York. This is the principle
which has aptly been called the per
spective Of news and by virtue of
which a trihing accident in the imme-
diate neighbOrhood is of more impor.
lance than a great calamity a thousand
niles away. As Villemessant concisely
put 1t. "A dog run over on the Boule.
! ward des Italiens' is of more conse-
! quence to the Figaro than an earth
quake in Australia. If We substitute
for the injured dog a picture exhibited
or a new play produced. We have lust
the things about which the Partisan
papers give the most news.