Evening star., 1897-02-20

| ence''-and the new
| e. space is largely given
| over to lie grand reportage. The Gaulois
| has enlarged its page-'le plus grand Jour
nal du matin!'-to the advantage of a real
! estate department" so excrucia atingly
| American In enterprise as to be unknown
| In America as yet, unless 1 err. The Temps.
| or Times, has made its Petit TEMPS or
Little Times, permanent instead of an oc-
casional latest-telegraphic-news supple
| ment delivered from house to house be-
tween and 10 pm. And the Debats-the
| French London Times-a paper which, IN
| 1888, rose to the height of progress in at
tanning two complete and separate editions
| daily-night and morning-has, although
obliged to amalgamate them, settled down
into twenty-four very American looking
columns. with their full dispatches. This
tendency, however, reaches its full strength
only in the Matin, the most American of
all the Paris dailies
The Yankee Matfn.
The Matin is frankly Yankee" as they
persist in saying over here. 1t is tireless
In declaring that its founders borrowed
their principal qualities from la presse
Americaine. conciliating them with the spe-
cial taste of the French public, always
amoureux de beau style ct de methode."
reporting is Its great affair-reportng with
a literary smirk, bit didactic also-it is
In the atmosphere and cannot be avoided
ana Its other glory is the telegraphic ser
vice. The Matin was the first Paris daily
to use special wires; one of its first beats
was the assassination of Stambouloff at
Sofia; and, more recently. it was the only
morning paper to record the sudden death
OF Prince Lebanon, taking place, as it did
the night before at late hour. in an OBJ
scure railway station on the Austrian-Rus-
sian frontier.
To Furnish the News.
The Eclair is another morning paper
along these lines. For too long a time in
France" its thesis runs, 1.-The newspaper
has given its readers ready-made opinions
1t sought to relieve them of the task of
thinking; it thought for them. But the
practice of universal suffrage and the inde-
pendence OF action which distinguishes
modern life call on each one of us to use
his own free judgment. The fortune of the
Ecla1r-born OF study of American ideals
is founded in this new conception of the
duty of modern journalism; it imposes only
facts upon Its readers. In the program of
such Journal everything must De sacri-
feed to Tinformation;' that is to say, re-
porting. Who is better able to inform the
reader than the actors in affairs them
selves? The Eclair seeks only to put the
personages and their circumstances in view
and allow them to speak for their own ac-
count In this way all the world becomes
the editor Of the Eclair, and it becomes
tribute accessible to all the world. Brave
words!
Opinion Makers.
The revolutionary character Of such
! manifesto is best realized by a glance at
one of the opinion makers, one of the good
shepherds. the reliable and solemn Temps,
an evening paper for Parisians but the
great morning monitor of republican
France As
ceives exactly the right governmental tint
before submitted to the world, it's title to
reliability must have rather a technical
than universal meaning. 1t is the boast of
the Temps-in recent summing up of the
| past year-that Il change mott" Semper
| similis sui! AS political journal it has
struggled against all anti-patriotic mani
| festations; against the understanding of
revolutionary socialism with the radical
party, in power during the few early
months OF the year; against the attacks on
| the senate; and against the progressive
income tax project of the Minister Bour-
geoise.''
Its very antithesis, the Intransigeant Of
Henri Rochefort, is actuated by the very
same spirit, the only difference being In d
different understanding of the true the
good and the beautiful. THE Intransi-
geant is the organ of the weak, the disin-
herited the oppressed and the humble
1t is thus that at the moment when
| the Carmaux strike seemed to be termi-
mating because Of the discouragement of
| the glass workers, Rochefort, by handing
| over to them 100000 francs in a lump. put
| into his hands by generous sympa thizer
Nine. Dembour, assured them victory and
| the founding of the Workingmens Glass
Works of Albi." And
"Often an article by Henri Rochefort has
exercised a decisive influence of the most
| important events; and more than once the
attitude of the Intransigeant has COM
pletely modified the political situation"
Undoubtedly, this is still the French-and
European-ideal of daily paper; and the
tentatives Of the Eclair and the Matin
however brilliant and successful are only
emerging from the category of experiments
| into that of settled practice. 1t Is in the
| fact that the old-fashioned journals have
been forced in competition to take on this
| or that special feature of Matin and Eclair
| journalism that the promise of the future
| lies for news" Today the theatrical
| critic finds it as much his duty to describe
| the costumes of the actresses, even to the
point of interviewing Doucet, earlier or
Felix as to estimate the wit of the dia-
| logue and the novelty of the plot and sit
uations.
Perhaps it is in this grand reportage that
| the tendency is most marked.
According to the French mania for class
| ification, all the diverse features of a
| morning paper are given their proper
| names and Importance. There is, first the
| directeur. oftenest the owner or represen-