Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-24
LONDON NEWSPAPERS.
REV. GEORGE HODGES GIVES HIS I'M.
PREsSloNs OF THEM

The Points on Which They Differ From
the Popular American Journals-Some
of the Special characteristics to be
Noted.
THERE are some 400 newspapers published in
London. They are filed chiefly with ad-
vertisements. Among these papers there are
three which no visitor can miss seeing. There
is also fourth great paper which the visitor
may see II he Is willing to take some trouble.
The three popular papers, which lie in great
piles on every news stand, are the Telegraph,
the Standard and the Daily Ne1Us. There is
also a paper published in London, and with a
reputation extending outside of London, which
Is called the Times. But you never see it IN
the Streets and no newsboy ever asks you to
buy copy. You can get It at a railway station,
at one of that system of universal news count
els which Mr.. W. H. Smith manages in ad-
dition to his cares as head of Her Maiesty's
Government. II You subscribe for it, it
will be laid upon your table. But q
stranger might live a year in London and never
Is not far to seek. The price of the Times is
three-pence. The other papers are to be had
for "tuppence." And the other papers are
much more interesting than the Times which
is rather slow and heavy.
The first thing which you see when you take
up London newspaper is great broadside of
advertisements. These advertisements are not
is none OF that variety of type and arrangement
which one finds in an American newspaper. A
'cut" Is the rarest sight, except those very
old-fashoned stage coaches and steamboats,
which are set against the notices of convey
ances by land and water. The boldest thing
which London advertiser ventures upon in a
ment into 20 pieces, and have each
piece begin with a word in big capitals,
and run line across the column between each
division, SO that the unsuspecting reader who
m nah na1r Of a6un ficfa
graphs thinking he is going to find variety,
discovers that all this IS one mans business.
The Most Interesting Feature.
A GOOD many people read the advertisements
- in the London papers, partly because they
are SO queer and partly because there is SO
little else to read. If you buy a newspaper on
railroad tram you are compelled to read the
advertisements to get your moneys worth and
to spend the time. The Telegraph is a fair
sample. 1t contains "a columns of prodlgious
length, eight on a page. like the country news
paper on this side half-a-dozen years ago,
blanket" sheet. OF these Ga columns, 40 are
hlled exclusively with advertisements. And SIX
columns more are given up to markets, ship
ping and financial reports, which are interest
ing only to special classes of readers.
At the head of the advertising columns, and
thus the very first thing on the very first page
of a London newspaper, are notices of births,
SO that the paper begins with the initial fact in
human life, and in the course of its columns
gets in pretty much everything else of good and
bad which happens in the uncertain career Of
man. After the births follow marriages and
deaths. And then come the advertisements of
the undertakers, who commend their services
by promising reformed funerals" whatever
they may be.
And then we are persuaded into every sort
and condition of scheme, want or purchase,
which the mind of man has thus far invented.
What revelation of the life of a great city Is
open in its advertisements! What an eDitome
of civ1lizationl What a graphic account we
might send to the people of the planet Mars
and will send after we get electricity in better
training-by expressing over to that distant sub
urb bundle Of the advertising columns of a
daily paper.
Messrs. Merryweather & Sons have reason
to believe-or say they have-that fire engine
with their name upon it, but not of their make,
has been supplied to town in Spain. They
will pay something to be put in the way of an
interview with the author Of this felonious
business.