The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-31

ltlCElhllli il'"' NiN hl'' w Us, tNCfDII the
foreign kilograms from the agencies. III. ON The
contrary, the President is ON his travels, the
editor spares no expense; each Paris neysuaper
dogs his steps, and the reporter tclegraphs hotly
every minute ~detail-cvcry time the President
opens his mouth. every word that he pttcrs Y
every time he changes them; the Partisan news.
paper invariably prints In loaded type tho bill.
Uf.farc OF every meal he sits down to.
After The Geographic news tho French pnper
presents a column entitled "lntormation.'
This Is made up merely of the routine reports OF
the various Government offices, relating prin.
cipully 10 the changes In clcrkships. Then
come the court news, c%olorlcss, and confined to
the smallest POSSIBLE space, and the reports OF
the proceedings in the Senate and Chamber OF
Deputies. nlsu presented as, a matter of routine.
Csntrated under the heading -" Fats Divers, or
Paris az lodr lie Jour. Al The news of Paris,
boiled down to paragraphs. II makes an Amer.
lean reporter hCartsick TO SEQ the way In which
" beautiful stories are st90tnGred and sent
q half column OF similar matter, but relating TO
the suburbs. Then follows the theatrical news,
Cism OF new plays written by the critic, who il
a very great man on French papers; the second
another criticism. but don, by the regular the
The literary and the art criticism are not n
regular feature. ana appear periodically after
SO devoted to the Dourse, in which financial
matters, for some reason not disccrniblc TO AN
OF iacctiousncss. The lower third of this page
il devoted to stock and. bond quotations,
which are very complete because nearly all
French people, no matter what their station, are
investors. Last, but By no means least, come
two columns or 50, devoted to sports. This
means, principally, horscracing and bicycling.
The latter is a craze, increasing rather than
diminishing. and the former has developed
within 1--WE or six Years to ir be IN " ,S very ne; serious
hood of Paris throughout the year. and there
are probably more punters who make IA slim
living at 1T than in any other country.
There are several features of French papers
common to all. First Is the running of con:
,i hnls $ stories STnsrcs sS All pa, PAPER iim has and az i sSmo tT SoT OF
four; generally speaking, these stories form the
ground floor OF three of the four pages, and so
occupy about one.fourth of the entire space.
Another popularity is that each paper prints a
second edition. in which 1t reprints all the news
matter in the first edition OF the others which
edition of n PARIS paper isa hodge.podgc of all
the papers. The third peculiarly is that
concerning France itself, is received by the
French paper from its correspondent
papers. The London Times, for instance, has
sources OF informativa wholly inaccessible to the
most prominent and influential French journal.
! aratlvoly unknown TO French journalism. All
the foreign news il receives from other than
English papers is the half column or. so of
meagre notes sent out by the news agencies. No
French paper was ever known TO receive a spe.
ciul despatch from any country outside of
Europe, no matter how important the news.
Foreign news. however,, CNcites in the French
man very mild interest AT best. Perhaps in no
lands and other peoples. Whenever the Jour.
nalist. therefore. ventures beyond the national
readers arc more than likely to be furnished
with careful information about the city OF Mis-.
souri, and the state Of San francisco The pol
ton are like the geography. The ordinary
EDITORS knowledge of the United States is easily
was the father of it, and Lafayette thrashcd the
English for him; Lincoln emancipated the
negroes, who form three-fourths Of the pop.
tlaflnp. IT is the land of Barnnm- the
great humbug; all Americans worship the
dollar, and FAY "M ,Ia.I right shdir land and hGo
tobacco while sitting in rocking chairs and spit
on the carpet, and. dress in black broadcloth
irock coats; inc girls are irightdully Tree IN
noblemen, and Clara Ward is the national
type; the married, women are %prudes; all Amer
leans are rich, and the millionaires spend their
spare time either in killing pigs or driving rail-
way trains against time; the great men of the
lana are Buffalo Bill. Edison, and RICHARD Hard
ing Davis-because Paul Bourget told them so.
Opinions are divided as TO the american Gov
eminent according TO the politics of the paper,
tho Republicans affirming that it is q model
Government and the Monarchists that it is badly
organized and shortIiyed; but they all believe
that Spain could whip us IL she would half try.
very peculiarly organized. While the editorial
the first class will contain from 80 to 100 men.
that of a representative Paris paper will rarely
is often the principal owner. and looks after the
policy of the paper, and, may sometimes write
an Observation-Disclosures that is rare. except in the
case of a man like ltochefort or Cassagnac,
without whom the papers they edit would have
no excuse for being. After the cditor-in- chief
come the collaborateurs, who are not necessarily
attached to the journal. and write political and
literary articles over their own signatures. for
which they are personally responsible. although
the articles. of course, are in line with the papers
policy. These men come nearer to the regular
editorial writer's of American papers than
write for a dozen papers. Next in Importance
are the critics of the drama, music. art. and
litGraturei they also are not attnGhed to the
Ali these men. the aristocracy OF French jour
nalism, are very light workers; it is seldom that
they write more than two articles a week, each
in. The Sun, and they consider that very
fair production. The work, moreover, Is
can newspaper; it is done leiSurcly, never
at night. and without any pressure regarding
Thickness. AZ the utter absence of any curl.
osity TO know. at the earliest possible moment
what is happening in the world. is a character.
unnecessary for the French editorial writer to
hurry with his comment. II is given to no news
from the moon, to divert either from his pleas.
ures. 1t will read as well tomorrow as to-day.
Thus a French editorial often appears after the
event which calls 1t forth has been forgotten.
Perhaps the most important man of the Paris
paper is the Secrttairc de reduction. lie Hills
The shoes of the American. managing editor,
night editor, city editor, suburban editor, and
Paris paper ha-. He reads every paper pub
lished in Paris; he has charge of the reporters
and gives out assignments; he reads all the
copy. local. Geographic, and special, and all the
proofs; lastly, he makes up the paper and goes
home only when the first copy comes OIL the
press. He is hard. worked. but these many
duties are possible because u French paper, de-
ducting the continued stories. prints in its four
pages only the equivalent of about one page OF
THE Sun.
1t is when the reporters are considered that
one finds tho greatest lack of q French paper,
However. They are Of three classes1the
divcrsiers.' The specials" include the sport
ing men, the theatrical man. and the interview
ers; the" ordinarics." the legislative and court
reporters, and those charged with looking after
the various Government oiiices-all routine
men; the fat diversiers.' the local men oil
police and other criminal cases ana happenings
Of the street. All thcse reporters are cut out OF
the same block. They have a dress which is
nearly II uniform silk hats with wide. fiat brims,
very long frock coats, and flowing ncckties:
They all wear the hair long, sport sticks. and
carry flowers in their buttonholc, have boards
fashioned to II point, and wear yellow kid gloves
throughout the year, Their great dream is 10
be mistaken for a bOuiCrGrdicr.
Tho method of work of these gentlemen is odd.
IL they receive an assignment say n scnsa-
tional murder or suicide case-thcy all go to n
cheap cato On the Boulevard and draw lots 10
see which shall he the man 10 20 to the police
station Of he quarter in which the event oc-
M