The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-18
OUR YELLOW JOURNALS
AMAZING DOINGS OF TWO NEW YORK
PAPERS WELL DESCRIBED.
All Their Readers Know They Lie,
but Millions OF Copies Are Sold and
Must Have Some influence.
New York Corresnondence London News.

| New York Correspondence London News
My servant has just come in with my
morning paper in her arms, and has unload
ed it on the bed, where it makes a deep
dent in the bedding. look at the heap as
it lies covering third of the bed and 1 ask
if she is sure that is all of it.
| NO" she says, II did not think you'd
notice it, sir, but your wife has the ladies'
supplement- your daughter has the sheet of
music that came with it, and there's eight
pages of pictures that the children are look
ing at" 1 proceed to go through what has
been left for me, for there are seventy-six
pages in this days copy of the paper, so
that [ have my work cut out for a few
| hours, at any rate.
| l wonder if the readers of the Daily Mail
know what we mean by yellow journalism.
| 1t is exploited in the highest degree by the
World and Journal in New York. 1t is in it's
| fullest flower at the time of friction with
| Spain. the anticipation of war having given
| the editors the chance they needed to show
| what they could do. Supplement after sup
| plement of to-day's World and Journal are
! each printed in colors SO gaudy and indis-
4 eliminate that, at a distance, each page
looks like fried egg: The pictures are of
| soldiers and sailors, of exploding bombs,
| and ships in action. The articles are first
| cousins to the pictures-alcoholic, vitriolic,
electric and startling i - .t
/ One editor broke down under the strain
| and actually issued an edition declaring
war He has been taken from the office of
4 the World to a madhouse-a merciful
| change OF scene, because he will not notice
the difference and the public will. He was
| the editor of evening edition.
| 1t is the evening editions of the great
| morning papers that are Gaping the climax
| of sensationalsm and audacity They are
| coming money out of the war scare, which
| they themselves have manufactured, and
may yet see brought to a hideous reality.
| The yellowest of all these papers, the
Journal" actually printed thirty extra
| editions in a space of twelve or fourteen
| hours, and sold a million and half copies
| to the shop-girls, store-porters, errand boys,
! counter jumpers and barroom loungers, who
| get their daily education out of this sort
| of mental pabulum.
| | bought the twenty-fourth edition for
curiosity, as l went into a theater at
o'clock. After the second act l. went out
| and got the twenty-sixth edition, and at
| II o'clock, when | was on my way home
| l bought the twenty-ninth extra. Every
| day this is repeated in a greater or less
degree. The newscartss wnich race madly
about the town, clearing the streets like
| fire-engines, have huge placards on their
sides, announcing --latest War News!
| The newsboys now always yell: Extry!
| i'll the midst of hostilities-
| MAKING THE NEWS.
The recipe for making war extra is to
| get a line of fact or rumor and charge it
| with the carbonic acid gas of imagination
until it fills three columns half made up
| of headlines in poster type. Here are some
| actual titles of recent articles: 1.-The Pope
| is with America Bismarck says Germany
Favors our Side,' six New War Ships
Bought" "Spaniards Call Our Senators
Dirty Pigs" "A Journal Woman Rides on
| a Dynamite Torpedo United States Re
iects International Arbitration" "Britain's
| Minister Calls on the President to Make an
Ire minor articles and pictures deal with
the starving Cubans, contemptuous cartoons
| about Spain, accounts of cruel Spanish bull
fights, or pictures of Sullivan, Corbett,
fighters, dressed in soldier Clothes each
with a patriotic sentiment underneath, like,
you bet your bottom dollar I'll tight
| credited to the ex-champion of the bruiS-
| The proprietors of the World and Jour
nal are making energetic preparations for
| World, has &2UO,0OO a year to spend, and
| Mr.. Hearst, of the Journal is worth &4,OO0 :
| 900. Their evening papers have each a Staff
| of twenty men on duty day and night, ready
| at a moments notice to turn out complete
| edition filled with hair-raising war news
| and pictures, any one or which, II taken
| into a dairy, would sour all the milk.
| Another paper has arranged for a CORE
| spondent to accompany each American regi-
| ment that inVades Cuba and give vivid ac-
| counts of their respective victories over the
| Spanish forces. rival journal keeps three
| steam yachts at sea loaded to the gum
| wales with war correspondents, pencils
ready sharpened to puncture the Spanish
| cause.
The effect of exposing the public to daily
| electric shocks such as these papers give
! can scarcely be exaggerated. The people
| read that their President is II coward and
| that the assistant secretary of the navy de-
| clares I'VE should wipe the Spanish navy
from the high seas" The poets are said
| to be hard at work trying TO produce new
| national hymn, and the ballad writers are
I one that ! have just seen is entitled, 1t
| Takes a Man to be Il Soldier
ONE OF THE RESULTS.
A theater manager, trying to initiate pa
triotism for the sake of notoriety, spread
an immense Spanish flag in the foyer of his
| theater in a German and Jewish Deghbor-
hood, expecting his audience to walk over
it, Before the doors had been opened
many minutes the banner was torn in
shrcGs by an angry crowd and the pieces
! carried off as trophies of war This bit of
savagery Inundated millions of Americans.
who yet cannot deny that il shows what
/ yellow Journalism can do.
a young woman who essayed to sing the
delightful ballad. "In Old Madrid" was
/ hooted off the stage of one of our music
! halls and when IN another theater. the or
| chestra played lively Spanish fantasia
the people stormed the musicians with yells
/ and missiles until they retreated under the