The times., 1899-10-29


bly, as its leading frst-page article its one
editorial, which is usually column and
half in length. It is political. often red
hot, sometimes poetic. Following this is
generally what are called Echoes. which
consist of column or so Of matter fire.
quently intended to be humorous, reprint
ed from English papers or from magazines.
In this department the French find their
American news. which consists for the
most part of highly ingenious theories re-
gardng the pursuits Of American
mlllIcnaires. or pTspOSterOUs yarns snow
ing on the supposed customs Of higher cir
clcs Of society among "the cOuntTymen
Of Clara Ward as the French refer to US.
After the Echoes come a few kilograms
from half a dozen provinces. usually about
fires. floods, or strikes. or the celebration
Of the unyeiling OF a statue. The unveiiing
of a staue is the reporters strong point;
he never thinks Of writing less than two
columns about it, and, if the matter is sent
by telegraph, it always exceeds in space
all the other telegraphic news. Unless the
President is on one of his junketing tours
through the country, these kilograms,
amounting in all to an average OF half
column, are all the telegraphic news the
paper receives, except the foreign tele-
grams from the agencies. II the President
is on his travels. the editor spares no eX-
pense; each Paris newspaper dogs his
steps. and the reporter teIegraphs hotly ev-
cry detail-eveTy time the President opens
his mouth. every word that he utters is tel
egraphed: his clothes are described in full
every time he changes them; the Partisan
newspaper prints in loaded type, the bill
OF fare of every meal he sits down to.
After the teIegrsphic news the French
paper presents a column entitled "InfOrma-
tion." This is made up of the routine re-
ports Of the government Offices, relating
principally TO the changes in clerkships.
Then comes the court news, and confined
to the smallest space, the reports of the
proceedings in the Senate and Chamber
Of Deputies, also presented as a matter of
routine. Following these is the local news
always concentrated under the heading
Fats Divers" or Paris au Jour le Jour. &"
All the news of Paris much of it exceed
ingly picturesque, is here boiled down to
paragraphs. 1t makes an American re-
porter heaTtsick to see the way in which
beautiful stories are smOthered. After
the "Faits Divers" comes a half column Of
similar matter relating 10 the suburbs
Then follows the theatrical news. which is
in TWO divisions. The first is the criticism
of new plays written By the critic. who is
a great man on French papers: the second
:
lar theatrical man. and minor notes Of the
theatres. The literary and the art criti-
cisms are not a regular feature. and appear
periodically after the dramatic article
Then comes a column or so devoted to the
Bourse. in which financial matters for
some reason not discernible to an Anglo
Saxon, are treated with certain degree of
facetiOusness. The lower third of this
page is devoted to stock and bond quota
.-hi oh hano,,-o
nearly all French people. no matter what
their station. are investors. Last, but by
no means least, come two columns or so
devoted 10 sports. This means principally
ho~se racing and bicycling.
There are several features of French pa
pers common to all. First is the running
OF continued stories. Each paper has at
least TWO of these in progress all the time
Generally speaking. these stories form the
ground fiOor Of three of the four pages.
and 50 occupy about one-fourth of the en-
tire space. Another peculiarity is that
each paper prints a second edition. in
which it reprints ali the news matter in
the first edition OF the others which it did
not have itself. In consequence, the sec
ond edition of a Paris paper is a hodge
Podge of all the papers. The third pecu-
liarity is that nearly all the important po-
liucal news. concerning France Itself, IS
received by the French paper from its
correspondent in London, who takes it
from the English papers. The London
Times" for instance, has sources of in
formation wholly inaccessible TO the most
prominent and influential French journal
Foreign correspondence, too, is a feature
comparatively unknown 10 French jour
nalism All the foreign news il receives
from ether than English papers is the ha f
column o. so Of meagTe notes sent out by
the news agencies. No French paper was
ever known TO receive a special despatch
from any country outside of Europe
Foreign news eXcites in the Franchman
very mild interest al best. Perhaps in no
other country is SO little known about
lands. Whenever the journalist. therefore,
ventures beyond the national boundary
there IS a mess. Hence, French readers
are more than likely 10 be furnished with
careful information about the city of Mis-
souri, ana the State Of San Francisco. The
politics and orthography entering into the
question are like the geography. The ordi-
nary editors knowledge of the United
States is easily summed up: II is a free
country; Washington was the father Of il,
and Lafayette thrashed the English for him.
Lincoln emancipated the negroes, who form
jhree-fOuTJhs Of the population; il is the
land of Barnum, the great humbug; all
Americans worship the dollar, and say, All
right" and Go ahead; wear boards under
their chins; chew tobacco while sitting III
rocking chairs and spit on the carpet. and
dress in black brOadcloth frock coats. the
girls are frighuully free in their ways and
want 10 marry French noblemen. and Clara
Ward is the national type; The married wO-
men are prudes; all Americans are rich.
and the miliionaires spend their spare time
either in killing pigs or driving railway
trains against time: the great men of the
land are Buffalo Bill, Edison. and Richard
Harding Davis-because Paul Bourget told
( them so. Opinions are divided as to the
( American government, according to the poll
+ itics of The paper the Republicans affirming
/ that ii is q model government and the mon
/ archist that it badly organized and short
/ lived but they all believe that Spain could
I whip Us ii she would half try
/ The editorial department of a French
I paper is peculiarly organized. While an
editorial staff of an American paper Of the
: first class VIII contain from fifty to one
hundred men. that Of a representative Paris
+ paper viii rarely exceed ten. First comes
/ the editor-in-chief who IS often the pTn-
Cipal owner and looks after the policy oi
the paper. and may sometimes write an
+ ediJorial-althOugh that is rare. except in
! the case of a man like Rochefort or Cas-
/ sagnac without whom the papers they edit
would have no excuse for being After
/ the editor T-in-chief come the colaborateurs
! who are not necessarily attached 10 the
/ journal who write political and literary
/ articles over their own signatures. for
which they are personally responsible al
/ though the articles, Of course, are in line
/ with the papers policy. These men come
nearer to the regular editorial writer's OF