St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-11-05
THE SPECIAL ARTICLE.

THE SPECIAL ARTICLE.
The professional religionist seems to
he growing weary of opposing the mod
ern Sunday newspaper. Spasmodic
sermon are still delivered against
them from the pulpit, and care
fully ~epitomized usually without
criticism - in the Monday morning
edition of the same sheet. Occa-
sionally some Rip Van Wrinkle of the
clerical profession will awake from a
long sleep to recommence the screed he
prepared twenty years ago before some
gathering of the faithful. Some few
faint echoes will startle the bats and
owls from the ''amen corner Of a
church that was excellent and possibly
progressive a generation or two ago. but
has become petriied by long worship of
the letter of the divine law, while clos
ing fast the eyes to 1.-THE spirit thai CIV
eth life."
All OF these r%esounding phrases about
the wickedness of Sunday newspapers
are crystalized and preserved for future
generations to look upon in the columns
OF these Self-same unrighteous journals.
And the ne wpapers that print them con-
tlnuet to Increase the size of their Sun
day editions, and to print and publish a
constantly charging multitude of num-
bers. In the Sunday newspapers the in
telllgent advertiser seeks forever for
more space. In the Sunday newspaper
the sublime poet of the future-so often
talked of, so seldom born-unfolds the
wings of his squad Pegasus and trains
MIN In the methods of reaching the blue
%empyrean. In the Sunday newspaper
the potent. grave and reverend" edi-
torlal essayist philosophers on life and
death, time and eternity; taunts his
hated rivals; makes and unmakes sena-
tors and cabinets; dethrones vice and
crowns virtue; besides doing many
things for which he receives no credit.
In the Sunday newspaper the transitory
wit and ephemeral humorlst perpetrates
more quipS and %quidditieS than would
serve to make a good round dozen Sir
Jack Falstatfs green with envy. In the
Sunday newspaper the quacks OF all
professions doctors. lawyers, states
men, inventors-eXploit their fads, and
strive to persuade the innocent and I'M
offending public either to fatten their
lean purses or crown them with the
bays of the immortals.
&Thus the Sunday newspaper grows
and spreads its delightful shade like the
bauyan tree, while the guileless manipu-
lator OF the counting room below rests
in its seductive GOODNESS, and adds adj
pose to his ribs. while gurgling up from
his contented throat comes the trite but
pertinent apothegm of pranky Puck:
lord! What fools these mortals be ~
But the design of this screed was not,
primarily, to render homage to the Sun
day newspaper per Sc. That has become,
for good or evil, according to Gods
grace or the Divine anger, a fixed and
permanent power in modern social
evolution. What was intended was
to attract a wider public notice
to a feature. purely modern, that
adds value, grace and dignity to jour-
nalism generally. and is rapidly m
ing d high educational function in its
~mission-the special article. Less than
a generation ago the daily newspaper
was given over to news, politics, edi-
torials and advertisements. 1t is only
of late years that the feature of special
articles has become a definite quantity
and fixed quality in the building of
great journals. Now il has assumed
the aspect of a moving panorama that
chains the Intelligence, delights the ey @
and the ear and trains the mental
powers. Every avenue of letters is
travelled by the corps of special writer's
for the great Sunday newspapers.
Every circle, from the prize ring to the
funeral cortege, is made to pay it's trib-
ute to the popular demand for knowl-
edge. The special writer of the daily
press today often indites better history
than Macaulay or GuiZot. In romance
he is frequently more witty or compass
sionate than Dickens; more sweet and
fanciful than Goldsmith; a stronger
painter of contemporaneous character
than Fielding. In the sciences many
modern special writers approach Won
humboldt; in art subjects they may
claim kinship with Goethe. As travel
ers they put Marco Polo TO shame, and
laugh alike at the equatorial miasma of
Darkest Africa and the solar SHOWS OF
the Arctic circle.
The modern special writer is ubiqui-
tous. He goes everywhere, sees every
thing-describeS with equal felicity the
tricks and the of the four
footed denizens Of the jungle and the
social courtly amenities of prin ces and
kings, popeS and potentateS. The spe-
cial writer is the finished product of
reportorial industry and news-gather-
ing energy,of which Explorer Stanley is
the greatest living type. Coupled with
this neWS-gathering instinct there is
often exhibited the highest native talent,
the largest literary skill, powers of de-
scriptiOn which charm while they
amaze, and a fancy SO seductive, virile
and piquant that the writer might Justly
claim a seat beside the creators of the
classics of all the centuries.
The American writer's of special arti-
cles in the Sunday newspapers are
the lineal descendants of Grub street.
Their ancestors from their retreats in
cellars and garrets became the teachers
of the children of wealth and power in
London and Paris; where, feeding upon
a crust and a cup of cold water, these
children of poverty yet gave to just
criticism all the form and color it pos
sessed. This Bohemian ancestry has
left to the world of letters a priceless
legacy; and their children of today,
under happier auspices and better con-
ditions, are maintaining the traditions
while they perform the work handed
down to them by the fathers. All The
wealth they possess is in the splendid