The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-31
THE A NEWSPAPERS.
THINGS ABoUT THEN THAT ARE
ODD TO Ar RICdN EYES.
n I.eisureIy DEPOSITION In RcEnrd TO News
Makeup or French New spnpers - Their
Features - Their Editorial D"epnrtments-
Their Collection OF News and Their Readers.

NNaAN-h W
Features Their Editorial Departments
Their Collection OF News ana Their Headers.
PARIS, Oct, 14.-Late one afternoon last spring
an American newspaper mnn ran across tho
editor.in.chicf of ono of tho most prominent
Paris evening newspapers. lie was sitting on
tho terrdsse II the Cafe de Ia PAX, and upon the
diminutive table in front OF him was n glass OF
absinthc. Hardly an hour before had occurred
q calamity which had stirred Paris to its centre.
Moro than a hundred people, the flower OF
French fashion, had been burned to death in the
ruins Of the Bazaar dc Ia Charlie. The news had
boon brought to the boulcvards by word Of
mouth; hundreds of victims. was the report, and
among them all the great people OF the old
regime. 1t was the biggest piece of news in
twenty years; all Paris was aghast.
The oditor.in-chief beckoncd to the American
and pointed tor scat beside him. lie was greatly
excited, although he assumed calmnoss.
what q desolnting thing II isl" he cried. "Ah,
my friend, France has received a cruz. blowi
We'll, we must bear up; we must have fortitudc.
We French, whatever else we are, are brave"
He went on, waxing reminiscent, then %poetical.
Presently the Americans nose for news i'm.
PEELED him to remark that none Of the papers
seemed yet to have got out an extra.
The Frcnchman's glance was really reproach-
full always thinking OF the dollars!'
what a practical people, you Americans!
The American explained. rather strongly. that
trustworthy news regarding the calamity would
relieve public anxiety; as yet there was nothing
but dreadful rumors, and each was becoming
moro distressing.
Ar extra - echoed tho editor again. Then,
with an injured dir. ho pulled out his watch.
"why, my dear fellow, do you know that l
dine In half an hour!"
The American laughed, impolitefy.
"To-morrow, my friend, tomorrow" said the
Trcnchman gently. You will be able to read
It all tomorrow. 1t is too late this evening""
1t was then not @ o'clock. At z the PreSse, a
puny little sheet published late to give the re-.
suit of the races, had no information about the
fire. At 10 q religious paper, the CrOir, got
out an extra. Its printing office adjoincd the
scene of the disaster, and some of its compositors
had helped at the rescue; but it printed nothing
but the rumors of the street. Toward midnight
two or three of the evening papers, the reporters
OF which had finished their dinners and made
the usual rounds of the theatres on free tickets,
umbl over each other at the police station
nearest the scene Of the disaster. They got no
news. but some extras came out announcing in
big black type tho facts that everybody knew.
In the morning each of the papers had two or
three columns not more than two thousand
words, still mostly rumors. On the second day
they printed the police reports, which were
curious things to read. On the third day the
news began to be something like trustworthy,
and was of the character that an American
paper would have had in press within an hour;
there was a diagram of the scene of the fire.
and two or three hasty sketches OF the ruins
were given in one of the most enterprising
papers. But it was only when the weekly
illustrated papers came out, on the fourth day,
that the real story OF the calamity was told.
From that time until the expiration OF three
weeks the news came out in driblets. and at the
end of the month the French press. with many
Hepetitions, had told such a story of the burning
of the Bazaar de la Charlie as an ordinary
American paper in a town of $4,000 people
would have told upon the following morning.
This little incident, the American newspaper
man thought. struck the keynote of French
journalism. Roughly speaking, a German news
paper prints the day before yesterdays news,
and n French newspaper last weeks. Even then
it il done cautiously, because there seems to DO
nothing that q German or French journalist is
more afraid of than live news. He treats it as
he would treat the business end of a broken
electric wire. When he runs against anything
of any real Importance he is overwhelmed.
But If the press of Franco and Germany is chiefly
noted for the cheerful way in which it drags
you back into the forgotten past, it is
at least better than that of Italy and Spain.
The publication Of papers in those countries. as
many people have doubtless remarked, might be
deferred indefinitely so far as real news is con-
cerneQ. AOSC OF the leU,OUO Americans VINO
have been in Europe this year must have
reached the conclusion that il one wi shes to
know what is going on in Franco, in England, and
in Germany, as we'll as in tho rest OF the World.
the best place in which to learn it is America.
The foreign jou rnalists are not alone to blame
for this state Of affairs; the public demand-or
rather the lack of it's also responsible. A
Frenchman, for instance. doesn't care whether
there is any news in his paper or not, and he
isn't even particular what time he gets it,. That
is because his education has not been devised to
give him general interests, such AS the average
usually occupied viii his own affairs; outside
matters may only be considered at his leisure.
on sale at the kiosks until the evening and,
indeed, until the next day; and in Paris.
world where such a condition ' Exists, there ere
are always more morning papers sold
nm morning .he a pnncr encn ,n nom ,n tc sn Wit hho thc Gycn ime
paper in some quarters. But that is not espc-
clally significant, because The evening papers.
single paragraph that has not been copied out
Of the morning papers bodily, without credit,
any later Developments they may possibly get
into the morning paper Of the next day. but
never by any chance into the evening paper.
There are seventy-ninc daily papers in Paris,
and all Of them put together would hardly make
one of the first class. viewed with American
eyes. The greater number of these are morning
papers, and all of them are strongly political.
more than a million. From the French stand.
point the matter of most importance is uolitics,
much space with politics as is given 10 the other
features which go to make, up the paper.
These features are, IN the order of apparent
value, fiction, the drama, literature, art. sports.
music. finance, and, last. general news: With
the exception of the Figaro. which has six
pages. the papers are all OF four pages, usually
printed in very large type, with. wrotched,
emudgy ink, upon inConceivably tiimsy paper.
OF those most prominent. one Is sold al four
cents. five are sold at three cents. eight at two
cents, and the rest at one cent.
The French admit that they don't read papers
20 much FOR instruction as Tor amusement. and
tho sheets which treat matters with any degree
of seriousness are not much sought after. When
n French editor is really of the serious habit his
attitude IS something awful to contemplate
witness the Temps and the JOnrH0i DIS DfbntS-
he is almost rs grucSoinc as his prototype of the
London Times. The readers of these two papers
are confined almost wholly to sleepy gentlemen
of the old school. who nod over their pOlcmics in
cafes of honorable rcnOwn in the side streets or
the boulcvnrds; or another type-the frolhy.
smart, superficial, and flippant--ure the Ei0nrO,
the Echo de paris, the !GR Bias, and n host of