The Grenada gazette., 1888-01-07
FRENCH NEWSPAPERS.


! PHeVVV NeWSVACeU0s
The Contrast Existing Between the Pres
Of Paris and New York.
| One Of the most characteristic street
cries Of London and Of New York ID
never heard in Paris. nor is one Of the
most picturesque figures in the streets
Of London and OF New York ever seen
in the streets Of Paris. for in France
the noisy and pertinacious newsboy Is
unknown. The functions of this un.
stable disseminator Of intelligence are
filled in Paris by the staid old dame
who sits at the receipt of custom in a
kiosque. A Partisan kiosque has moth
ing Oriental but the name. 1t is lit
tie sentry-box Of glass. just large
enough to shelter the news-vender
from the changeable weather Of the
French capital. On little stand in
front Of tho kiosque are tiny heaps Of
the countless newspapers Of the city,
and on strings on each side are pendent
numbers Of the chief illustrated jour
mails, artistic and comic. These
Mosques are scattered along the boule-
wards, and from them the Partisan
buys his Figaro in the morning and
his Temps at five in the afternoon.
This difference of attitude between
the hurrying American, who is to have
his paper brought to him in hot haste
from the press. and the leisurely
Frenchman, 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 ir-
reconcilable difference between the
French journal and the English
or American newspaper For one
thing, the French journal is not a
newspaper in the American sense Of
the word-and of a truth it does not
pretend or desire to be. The Figaro
now and again makes ludicrous claim
to the ubiquitous omniscience Of the
London Times OF the New York Herald,
but this is not to be taken seriously.
The fact is, that while the primary
quality Of IA good English or American
daily paper is news, the primary quail
ity Of a good French paper is not news,
but criticism--critcism of politics in
the first place, of course, and, in the
second, criticism Of commerce, Of law,
Of finance. Of science, of art. of litera-
turc 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,
minute particulars Of scandals. crimes
and horrors, such as we here in America
have dumped upon our breakfast table
every morning, with all the accompany
ing repetition and accumulation Of un.
interesting fact-of all this the reader
of the Partisan Journal sees little
or nothing. The childish or unintelll-
gent thirst to know what has hap
pencd, regardless Of the Importance Of
the event, has not yet been developed
in France by the rivalry Of scrambling
editors; and it may be asserted with
out fear Of contradiction that even il
they could have it without cost and
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 Partisan papers
do not print trivial trash and trash
worse than trivial; the difference is
rather in aim; the French editor think
ing first Of criticism and the American
editor only too often thinking of mere
news-first, last and all the time. Yet
the leading principle which should gov
ern even in news-gathering is better
understood in Paris than in London or
New York. This is the principle which
has been aptly called the perspective
Of news" and by virtue of which q
tritling accident in the immediate
neighborhood is of more Importance
than great calamity thousand miles
away. As Villemessant concisely put
it, "A dog run over on the Boulevard
des Italicns is of more consequence to
the Figaro than an earthquake in
If we substitute for the
injured dog picture exhibited or
new play produced, we have just the
things about which the Partisan papers
give the most news. -Brdnder Matthews,
IN Century.