The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-01
"THE NEW JOURNALISM"
The New York SUN Gives 1t a Home
Thrust.

In article entitled Notes on the New
Journalism" the New York Sun has the
following brown roast of the freak news
papers:
The intimate contest between the pro-
prietor Of the New York World and the
the primacy Of the sewers proceeds with
unabated energy on either side. One of
them is spending lavishly. in the attempt to
beat off it's inconvenient young rival the
money amassed during a long and happy
period Of absolute monopoly of shameless
ness. The other is pouring into the cam
wiser men in more honorable business in a
desperate effort, foredoomed to failure to
prove that a Harvard graduate with the
training OF a gentleman can out-pulitzer
the original Pulitzer himself. Foredoomed
to failure, because the newcomer is, after
all. only an amateur. If he succeeds in
buying away from the older shop every ar
list whose pen or whose pencil has been
educated to proficiency by the master of all
the arts which have made the World what
1t is. other artists will spring up like mush-
rooms under the brass dome Pulitzer has
only to raise his somewhat hooked foreinger
to summon to his aid special talent of an
order not at any other new journalists COM
mand. Besides, his nose Is longer than
young Mr.. Hearsts, and his scent keener by
far.
Meanwhile. what a contest it is, and what
a struggle young Mr.. Hearst is making
though hopelessly. for the fulfllment of his
astounding ambition! The hideous projec-
tiles are hurled back and forth every day in
the week. but particularly on Sundays. There
Is yet discernible sign that the ammuni-
ton is low in either arsenal AS two wrest-
lers change their grip shift their ground
from time to time, so the desperate compe-
tition passes through varying aspects of the
unspeakable At one time it Is porno-
grapic. Then 1t Is pustular, then it becomes
more Sociological than pustular porno-
graphic When the multifarious appeal to
pruriency seems to pail the two constituencies
the exploitation of the horrors of morbid
anatomy and disgusting pathology begins
Pictures of diseased tissue sprawl across
whole pages formerly occupied by the mag
innings Of righteousness. Crime is illustrated
in all it's phases, with charts and full work
ing directions for intending criminals. When
the Harvard graduate ransacks the shelves
Of the library hells for forgotten nastiness
OF erotic literature. the ex-kellner sends forth
his men and his women to collect from the
crooks of the anonyma Of today their mis-
tresses favorite recipes for Christmas plum
pudding. When the ex-kellner goes to the
hospitals with his camera to photograph for
the benefit of the World readers the latest
running ulcer, the Harvard graduate prompt
ly furnishes to readers of the Journal ex-
plicit instructions, with plates, teaching how
the fist upon the chin by driving a splinter
of the under jaw up into the brain. So 1t
goes on, Sunday after Sunday with the
bright sun shining In the heavens; and the
end is not in sight. There was never be-
fore anywhere on earth such rivalry, and,
God willing, there never will be again after
Mr.. Pulitzer Is dead or has gone mad, or
after Mr.. Hearst Is tired out or has re-
luctantly come TO his senses.