The Washington critic., 1889-02-26
THE EVENING PAPER.

The tendency of journalism is toward
the evening paper. In 1870 there We're
in the United States 514 dailies. OF
these there were, according to an csti.
mate recently made by Mr. Gardner of
the EtoHijg Wisconsin, 29S morning
and 27G evening papers. In ten years
the number of evening journals had in
creased to 533 and the morning to 43S.
In 1883 there w,rc S5l evening and $50
morning Thus the percentage of even
ing papers to the total number of dailies
published had grown from AZ in 1870
10 81 in 1888 There were, in 1888,
375 evening and 219 morning papers re-
ceiying United Press dispatches, 286
morning and 1873 evening papers re-
ceiving Associated Press dispatches, and
81 evening and II morning papers re-
ceiving Press News Association dis
patches.
In 1880 the Associated Press occupied
the-tield alone and sent dispatches to
22S morning and 1877 evening papers.
With the extension of telegraph facili
lies the evening papers have increased
within the eight years over fouraud-a-
half fold, the morning papers but little
over two-fold
These figures demonstrate. First,
that the tendency of the mass is toward
The evening journal; and second, that
many of the obstacles in the way of
ltg,, h,x lao
AS regards the relative difficulty Of
publishing morning and an evening
paper there can be no question, Even
ing journalism has by far the greater
is no time for exhaustive elaboration Of
details. The utmost pains must be
taken to have an article correct when it
is written There can bc no transcript.
A report goes rcd hot from the scene of
action to the printers case. Even be-
fore the end of an occurrence the de
scription of part of il may be in type.
During the past eight years the inn
pfosement in the methods of transmits
sion of reports has been remarkable.
The wire, the telephone, carrier pigeons,
signal flags placed at intervals along the
route, all have been brought into such
general use that Che evening paper has
been enabled to perform feats that
justly excite the wonder of the multi.
tude. Every year witnesses the i'm
proyement of an old method or
the invention Of u new. The
morning papers have shared in
these advantages, but from the much
greater increase in number of the even
ing papers it can be seen that with the
removal of the difficulties in the way of
prompt printing of the news the
preference of the people naturally turns
toward the evening journal. 1t is nat
urally the paper of the people. 1t is
only an insignificant minority that can
read the morning paper Most of us
must spend the day in work. When
work is over then we can read about
what our friends, neighbors and fel-
lows have done during the day. This
is too impatient an age for one to wait
Until the following morning for the
news. The "extras" incident to the
civil war educated the people into q
more proper appreciation of the value
Of a paper printed the same day on
which the events described have taken
place. When newspapers can show, rs
The CRITIC has done, that description
of Chicago convention, a Gran
funeral, an Americas cup race, an
Anarchists hanging, can be put in typ
within few minutes of the time
occurrence, the time has come when
the people will not be content to wait
twenty7fouu hours for their daily paper
but must have it damp from the press
almost before the ink has dried upon
the manuscript which has epitomized
the story of the day.