River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1890-02-27
NEWSPAPER CRITICISM.
The Modern Magazines Failing Before tn.
Modern Newspapers.

The Modern Magazines Failing Before the
Modern Newspapers.
The notion that a magazine critic is,
in the nature OF things, of superior au-
thority to newspaper critic had a
most respectable origin and develop
ment. Yet even at the height of the
magazine critics power and fame, in the
royal days of the Quarterly and Edin-
burgh Review, such men as Leigh
Hunt and Hazlitt were writing for news
papers, and to-day the situation bids
fair to De reversed. There are no
longer any Broughams, Macaulays and
Sidney Smiths leading the quarterlies
The successors of these men are for the
moment of less critical ability; but
where they are their equals they would
speak with greater force through the
newspapers, even though these only
took up and disseminated what the
speakers said in the magazines.
Again, the day of the magazine as a
controlling political force is over. Occa-
sional magazine articles, and magazine
articles that are in themselves occa-
siOns, still appear, which considerably
agitate public opinion, but they derive
their efficiency from the political rather
than the literary standing and reputa-
ton of their writes. Forty years ago an
article by Mr.. Gladstone, NJ. p, would
have counted for something. To-day il
is only Mr.. Gladstone, Prime Minister,
who can count Here, again, the news
paper and the interviewer have come to
the front, and the old idea that if man
wait for the Edinburgh Review to report
him is lost. And in America the work
of political criticism is almost entirely
carried on by the newspapers. Indeed,
it would be difficult, if not impossible,
to name an article appearing in an
American magazine or monthly review
which has controlled fifty votes either
way in any important campaign since
the war.
Our dramatic criticism is wholly
matter of newspaper province, all the
magazine articles dealing with the
drama being supplied either by news
papers or by actors, who, for the pur-
pose of the present comparison, are not
critics at all. AS for literary criticism,
there may be, perhaps, few men whose
observation on literature are printed
exclusively in magazines. Some OF
these are genuine critics, some are
hacks for the publishers who print the
magazine itself. But test is afforded
by the announcements of these very
publishers, who will generally be found
commencing their wares by appealing
to the opinion of newspapers and week
" reviews. And the critics of these
weekly reviews are pretty generally
newspaper men,"
The fact is, the great critics of to-day
are the critics of history. of philosophy,
of biology, of therapeutics. Thew are
the men to whom the world is really
listening, whether the world knows ii
or not The critics of literature and art
stand in the second place, and we hav,
scarcely any first-class critics of either.
We probably have not any.
On tie whole, the strength Of our
modern magazines is not in their criti-
cism, but in their illustrations, and it is
precisely for that reason that the news
papers are endeavoring to rival them
in that department. while preserving
their other departments entire.-Phila-
delphia Times.